Why are you overweight?

[Fantina]

I was slim and fit and active all through childhood and adolescence and went from 10 stones to 17 stones in about four years after the birth of my third child who didn’t sleep. I packed on the lbs through inhaling sugar and convenience food as I was exhausted and taking short cuts to save time and for an instant hit.

My third DC is now 8 so I can’t claim to still be in the new child fug of exhaustion. I now eat for emotional comfort but I’m interested in where others feel their weight gain came from.

Basic food/sugar addition. I love chewing and swallowing delicious food, love feeling full and thinking about my next meal, planning cooking for next special occasion. I have a much higher capacity then DH, could happily eat like it's Christmas day everyday.

I'm a foodie and can be a bit snobby with food which has helped as I don't like much ready made food but there are enough exceptions, especially sweet things that it's a problem.

It's not comfort/emotional eating. It's a physical addition. When I diet I get withdrawal symptoms. Exactly the same every time.

The only thing that helps is super strict keto to remove cravings and appetite. I'm on day 5. By day 10 I'll be feeling better and will lose interest in food. I'm looking forward to feeling normal again.

Unfortunately unlike most drug addicts, my addiction is paraded in front of me, family members bring me boxes of it, we celebrate with it. I see adverts for it on TV. It's hard to stick to even though I know I will feel awful. Even though I feel tons better without it all.

I've always been up and down with my weight. The most recent weight gain was caused by not thinking about cutting down on what I ate when I stopped breastfeeding. I couldn't understand why I was putting weight on all of a sudden when my diet and exercise stayed the same. Took me months to realise stopping breastfeeding was the cause.

Mine was during the terminal illness of an in law. I'd lost the weight after my 3rd child and then our lives changed. DH was never at home as was helping care for his parent so I couldn't get out to my exercise classes. With less activity I became lazy and lazy with food as well. Took around a year to pile on 1.5stones. I'm now struggling to lose it.

i eat my feelings, find it hard to resist chocolate and ice cream. I’m learning to live with “discomfort” ie, I’m a bit hungry, or a bit stressed and just sit in it instead of scrabbling around filling it with food. If I’m really tired tho’ it’s game over and I eat anything high sugar and high fat in sight.

Too much crap food, too much wine, lack of exercise and stress.. going on holiday 12 weeks on Monday so starting the 1-1 diet in earnest to get as much off as possible before I go!

You know when you're watching a new show and it's late and you're tired but you can't resist watching one more episode? That's me, with food.

I really like eating tasty food, so I do. If I have a biscuit and it's nice then I might have another 3.

Multiply that at every mealtime and you end up weighing 17 stone.

A lot of what I eat isn't actually that bad in itself, but I keep eating when I'm not hungry because I enjoy the taste.

Because food is tasty, pleasurable and takes up time.
No other bad habits
Food is better than being thin to me.
Nothing more to it

I used to avoid all fats, hated mayonnaise, rarely had chips, was a vegetarian. Drank like a fish, especially after work and would therefore skip dinner.

Met my husband, realised how nice butter was and proper mayo on chips (not helmann’s weird white rubbish), started eating meat again, rare drinks after work and would get home earlier and have any leftover dinner. Weight started slowly creeping on. Then had a baby, stayed the same weight all throughout pregnancy so lost a bit in effect. Piled it on when breastfeeding, child is nearly 3 and I weight the same as I did 8m pregnant!!!

Eating too much and moving too little. The reason for both of those being time. I don't have as much time to exercise as I should have and I don't have time to watch what I eat. I have disordered eating from childhood thrown in the mix, a good dose of genetics, and I'm diabetes waiting to happen.
Up until 18 months ago I mostly managed to keep my weight under control but stress and I'm fairly certain perimenopause have got involved. As such the 16lbs I've gained will be sticking around for a bit because I cannot mentally sort myself out to lose it.
So a myriad of reasons, I'm sure just like everyone else.

Being brought up to think that the feeling of being really full was desirable. Now I have no concept of what normal portion sizes are.

I was always slim until I had DS1 and then I wasn't! Put on 3 stone 18 years ago which I have never been able to shift permanently

Menopause. I eat better food than I've ever eaten in my life, cook from scratch and don't snack. I'm the biggest I've ever been in my life (outside pregnancy).

My stomach is solid and protruding. Nothing I do will shift it. I guess I'd have to stop eating altogether if I wanted it to go?! Not sure what else I can do?

For me it was complex...
Not understanding my poor relationship with food.
Eating too much and the wrong things.
And the biggy- no knowledge of my sugar spikes which made me shake and reach for rubbish.
I now low carb, high protein. If I'm fancying something that I know will affect me I'll put off having it then if the want is still there I'll have it later. More often than not I don't want the chocolate/biscuits/crisps then.

I am year 3 into parenting with less than 2 hrs sleep a night and working full time. I have replaced sleep with food.

I used to weigh 1.5 stone less but I was miserable, adding all my food to nutracheck and exercising all the time.

I'm not a naturally skinny person. I'd probably be fine if I lived in the olden days but my job is sedentary and I don't prioritise going to the gym in my free time.

Me too. Half the time l'm not hungry.

Binge eating after my brother’s suicide in 2010. I was diagnosed with cancer in September, 2023 and the lbs are falling off at an alarming rate.

Boredom: lack of direction. I have no desire to snack or overeat if my life is full of interesting things (or even full of action that is not all that interesting). Unfortunately, I am unemployed, my kid are grown up, and I have moved to a new area so don't have many connections. I snack too much and drink too much wine to fill the time. Then I loathe myself for being so pathetic and not taking charge of my life.

Age I think. I've always been greedy and I've always loved junk food and wine but when I was younger I seemed to be able to exercise it off quicker when I put my mind to it. Now it just goes on and on and on...

Damn those slow metabolisms.

I do also eat and drink way above my recommended calories some days (pretty much every single weekend and often days in the week too) so I can't claim to be too shocked. I also view food and wine as a comfort and a treat and because there's not much else going on in my life I turn to them a bit too often.

I'm making an effort this week to cut back as I've massively over eaten lately and feel dreadful for it. I also hate feeling uncomfortable and fat in my clothes. But we'll see what happens at the weekend...

Menopause, heart condition, meds, greed, sedentary hobbies. 😕

I’m less active as I get older.

in my 20’s we weren’t so reliant on computers. I cycled to work. I worked on the top floor, most of the day was up and down to other offices, the library, canteen, it, to speak to people.

i went to the pub and danced for 6 hours most weekends in a club. Saturdays or days off were often taken up with several hours walking round the shops or supermarket. I had a gym on site at work which did classes at 5 so fit in straight after my working day.

i’ve gradually got less and less active. Not exercise, but NEAT. I drive now as I’m picking kids up from here and there. My working day I don’t need to move from my seat. Colleagues are on teams, the library is on my desktop, cuts have meant no canteen so I eat in the little kitchen next door. Gym classes don’t fit round kids and work and their hobbies, and housework. Shopping all delivered to my door.

takeaway delivery was less of a thing, we usually had to walk to pick it up. In my rural hometown takeaway choice was limited to fish and chips with no delivery. In my 20’s we usually went out to eat as going out to pick up a takeaway seemed a bit daft when you could eat there.

life is so convenient now my activity levels have dropped to nearly zero. I am starting to make a deliberate attempt to walk the 20 mins to the shop rather than driving, ditch the car, and get back into some of my old habits.

i think a lot of people blame she and menopause but if they took a good look at their lifestyles it’s just as likely to be gradually decreasing activity levels.

I have to be honest though, until I had my son I weighed everything I ate. I am only 5ft1 so the smallest calorie surplus can make a huge difference to my weight. If anyone really truly wants to lose weight I really recommend weighing everything. It's not much of a life, but it works!

Went from heavy manual work on a self employed basis to employed WFH office roles just as lockdown arrived. Bang, 30kgs on. No time, constant exhaustion from fitting in school and other activities, zero desire in other family members to eat healthily so im swimming against the tide. I love to cook from scratch when i can but its cancelled out by too much shit and no activity.

Probably same as most here - insulin resistance.

Less active, gave up smoking, I'm an emotional eater. Long-term abusive relationship. My DM and DGM were constantly on diets when I was a kid and this also had a huge impact on me and my relationship with food.