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.

Portion sizes, inactivity and wine.

I eat when I am tired or upset. I have been making some progress after reading Unwinding Anxiety by Dr Brewer book (Anxiety takes many forms. Until recently I haven't been able to go to sleep on an empty stomach as irrational as it seems. Now I say to myself "Lean into discomfort " and it helps). Change Your Life Today by Lewis David also helped.

I'm greedy and lazy. Love eating till I'm stuffed and can't be bothered exercising. This is about to change though, I can't go through life like this.

Mainly comfort eating.

Because food helped me cope with the shitstorm 2020/21 threw at me. I'm lighter than I was at the end of 2021 but I've still got a bit more to lose yet.

Have you been tested for this?

I hear it a lot but is it like diabetes where you do your sugars and can tell if your insulin isn’t working properly?

Lack of willpower I think. I don't want to be overweight but I just really love Cake, Chocolate, Biscuits.

Illness.

An illness that impacted my blood sugar control through high cortisol.

Very frustrating to see yourself piling on weight each time you have a relapse that you can’t do annything about.

I eat crap without thinking about it.
My meal portions are too big.
I don't eat enough fruit/veg but fill up on carbs.

Not all calories are equal. I eat the bad ones.

Laziness fundamentally. I rarely cook and live off student type food; toast, cereal, soup. I WFH and love it.

I do aqua fit twice a week now which has made an improvement.

Genetics (come from a family of little barrel shaped women)
Like my food
Dislike sport since school
Sedentary job
Never been thin but lockdown and menopause slammed me with two stone I can't shift.
Live with family of thin boys/men who don't need to watch what they eat

Had other priorities in life too, but even now I'm giving weight loss some focus and effort I'm getting nowhere, so I'm probably doomed.

My grandma once said "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips", well she was right as it turns out.

Alcohol
Carbs (white bread and pasta)
Butter
Rich sauces
Pastries, pies and cake
Cream
Cheese
Delicious, rich and tasty food

I had a healthscare last summer when my BMI was 31.5. I decided not to go on a diet but to stop eating some things:

Wheat
Sugar
Bad fats

That means no: booze, bread, pasta, cake, pies, quiche, white sauces, cheese, cream., butter, processed food.

I can eat as much as I like. Lean meat, fish, beans, brown rice, fruit, veg, an occasional potato.

I have lost 31lb and feel so much better.

Mostly tiredness and stress - I end up turning to biscuits/chocolate and/or takeaway because it's easy and quick.

@Berlinlover

Pandemic on my own whilst working fulltime with two primary aged children and ex who refused to see his DC for months....so stress and then peri-menopause

I have a mental health condition that means I am deeply depressed for one year out of every three. I am so depressed I don’t believe I will be alive to care what I weigh in the future. I eat tonnes and gain weight during this time. I do lose weight when not depressed but generally not as much as I gain.
Add to this medication well know to affect blood sugars. I also have a dodgy thyroid (side effect of a medication I tried once for 6 months) that the doctor will only give me a starting dose of medication for and I too am doomed.
At the moment I am fasting 20 hours a day, counting calories and doing a decent wedge of exercise. I am losing about 0.5 lbs a week which is sole destroying.

Absolutely no portion control. I don't even have a sweet tooth, so rarely eat anything sweet, but I struggle to know when I'm full. I could just eat and eat and eat.

The only reason my BMI is 25 and not 35 is that I'm very active.

Pregnancy
Not weighing myself so not noticing
Not knowing how many calories were in foods
Not knowing my BMR
Not knowing that I wasn't doing enough exercise
Liking all the high sugar/fat/calorie foods
Not liking vegetables
Having a rigid diet due to autism
Hypersensitivity to strong flavours etc
Normalisation of obesity in peer group/at work
Sedentary lifestyle esp with commuting and sitting job
Physical and mental ill health
Children preventing exercise eg lack of childcare
Car driving
Genetics (had great great grandparents die of obesity)
Live near lots of fast food outlets
Culture of unhealthy food eg at events
Alcohol
Hangover cravings
Lifelong habits difficult to break
Addictive qualities of some foods
Impulsively
Speed & convenience of unhealthy food

Another thing that I have remembered - even when I was in the healthy weight range I tended to sit in the very top part of it, just a few lb from 'overweight' but I'd get people saying things like 'oh, you don't want to lose any more weight. You'd look terrible if you get any skinnier' which would dent my confidence in myself then.
For info: I definitely wasn't 'skinny' at all. I was probably about age 6 the last time I was actually skinny.

Wine and nuts at 6pm.

And no 'off button' when I eat something nice.

Had a baby and can't be bothered to worry about losing weight. I haven't lost a single pound and just don't give a toss! Life's too short.

Yeah- I agree that as a population we’re much less “incidentally” active now. People just go out less. I exercise a lot and will happily run 20k for fun but weirdly I am also a massive lazy biatch who will drive 1 mile to the shops.

Me three. Eat when I’m watching something good on tv, when I’m tired, when I’m happy, want a treat and so it goes on.

Over eating and under exercising.

Its pretty simple for me I like biscuits and bread and i hate exercise
Add in being early 40's and metabolism going to shit
Thank god I'm tall