How do people become obese?

[Truetoself]

Before someone is obese, they are overweight. Their clothes sizes also change. Why do they wait until they are obese to try and lose weight? Do the majority of obese people have mental health issues?weigh

Menopause
HRT
Chemotherapy
Steroids for side effects of chemo

Re clothes sizing, if there were standard sizes or if you only ever bought clothes in one style from one shop that might make sense. And even then, I find the same item in different colours can fit differently. With jeans especially, they can be tight when first bought (or first washed) and then loosen until they’re falling down by the end of the day. So I always end up buying bigger ones than I need and regretting it! With other clothes I like loose and stretchy things as I have sensory issues, so I wouldn’t notice if I put on weight with an elasticated waist etc.

If you’re only wearing tailored suits I can see why it might be confusing, but anyone who wears t shirts knows they sometimes shrink in the wash, you may fluctuate throughout the month, you might have had a big dinner, or not had a poo for a while, so the waist fits differently etc!

I weigh about 5 stone more than I did on my wedding day 25 years ago, and yet I can still fit into my wedding dress, as they way it’s made had some ‘give’ in it. Obviously I don’t look the same in it, but I could wear it today without it looking too tight.

I was overweight, but not hugely so…then I had a life changing car accident (not my fault), ended up unable to walk for 18 months, over 15 surgeries, months in hospital, unable to work or really do anything…understandably my mental health plummeted so I was put on antidepressants. The benefit was my suicidal thoughts were back under control, but the downside was that the combined effect of the side effect of the medication (weight gain was a well known side effect of the medication I was on), the complete lack of activity and the only joy I got was from food, I gained about 35kg in that 18 month period.
I’ve since lost about 20kg of this and the final 15 I fluctuate with, as my mobility is still limited and I also have other health complications that contribute.

Are you bored OP ,just a bit thick or just attempting to piss people off on Easter Sunday morning? I am not overweight but it doesn't take a lot of critical thinking to work out why some people are!

OP is also obese herself so it’s an odd thread to make.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. 💖

Obesity is a chronic relapsing disease.

Because junk food and sweet stuff is bloody delicious. I’m not obese but the way or even overweight, but The can really see how it can happen. The last few days I’ve had a bad cold so I haven’t done my usual morning exercise and I’ve been less active generally because I’ve felt so rough. Yesterday I wasn’t working so had a lazy day, I ate more cause just felt as if I needed the energy, I normally do IF. I also bought a massive Easter egg which I ate lots of and ordered a Dominoes for dinner cause I was so tired. This morning I’ve breakfasted on Easter egg (no IF again) and my Son is cooking us some Jamaican food. Planning on getting back to normal tomorrow cause I am back at work. But, as you can tell from my post, I find it incredibly easy to eat too much and to eat badly so I can really see how obesity happens

This exactly. With every single diet I’ve done I’ve ended up fatter. And now even thinking of dieting sends me to chocolate.

Life gets in the way. Other pressures come along and people enter “survival mode” where meal planning and tracking simply aren’t possible because there’s no mental energy left for it. Sometimes people gain weight due to medication and then have the battle of regaining their health while losing weight.

I have PCOS which makes my body want to gain weight all the time with insulin resistance.

It's a slippery slope that takes a lot of time with lots of small incremental weight increases that are barely noticeable.

At first, you just notice clothes getting a bit tighter. You find yourself buying the next size up when you come to buy new clothes. The ones that were tight eventually get too tight to wear, or they naturally deteriorate due to time and get thrown out anyway.

It's not easy to lose weight. Only people who've never had a weight problem think it's easy. There are usually reasons for weight gain, often lack of time or inconvenient to exercise, often lack of options for healthier food, sometimes lack of funds to pay for better food options. There is also mental and behaviour issues in play that usually need professional help to resolve. Telling someone with a food behaviour problem to eat less is just like glibly telling a drug user to stop taking drugs or a smoker to stop smoking.

I was obese, mostly due to unhealthy relationship with food stemming from early childhood. I spent all my teen years obese. I lost a shed load of weight when I was around 20 because I started working, got more control over my life (less parental influence), got new hobbies, started voluntary work, etc. I lost around 6 stones! A few years later, I changed jobs, to one with a much longer commute, very stressful, long hours, etc - I had to give up some hobbies and voluntary work and returned to my teen year habits of comfort eating. Put on 10 stones over around 8 years! Incrementally, didn't really notice at first, because I'd just buy a size bigger every time I needed new replacement clothes. It took me 20 years to lose it all, that was due to a heathier more active life, changing jobs, marrying, having a child, reducing to part time working, taking new hobbies again. Now I've been at a healthy weight for a few years, mostly because I'm not stressed with work anymore, have time to exercise daily, have time/money to cook healthy meals etc.

You eat loads of simple carbs and high calorie density foods (even if ‘healthy’)
in your situation, as long as your porridge is maximum of 2 tablespoons of dried oats before making, I would then leave out the bread and the naan later on in the day, and have a snack that was things like apples, carrots, grapes, and not Greek yoghurt. I think with your diet you can make some very simple changes and you would lose weight.

Same reason some people drink too much or smoke too much. Because it gives them a temporary boost.

There was an 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke, who said, “Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition men have at all times called in some physical aid to their moral consolations.”

In the 18th century there was the gin craze which caused huge problems

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Craze

The victorians took lots of drugs

wellcomecollection.org/articles/W87wthIAACQizfap

When I was a kid in the 70s there were less overweight people but far more smoking.

Now we use food as a crutch instead

I always stayed healthy weight and fit in a size 8-10 for the whole of my 20s. Since turning 30 a few years ago I’ve gained weight, now size 16 and BMI is obese, despite everything else being exactly the same.

Why do they wait until they are obese to try and lose weight?
Do they?

I piled on the pounds when our DC was very young and didn’t sleep much, was sick often, we feel retrospectively that we didn’t prioritise ourselves, poor diet, no exercise. I was never mega skinny, large 10 / small 12, but had previously been a runner / swimmer. It’s taken me just under 2 years but I’ve lost 3 stone in this period and am back in size 12’s. I kept a pair of jeans I wore before I was pregnant with DD, which fit again. I swim 2km, 4 times a week, and try to be structured in my eating. I think perimenopause makes losing weight harder.

I was technically obese (size 16/18) by my mid-teens so I was probably done for. I’d say a mixture of genetic, social, economic and cultural factors were at play there. No trauma, in fact lots of love, I just grew up with a pretty distorted view of what sensible, controlled eating looked like. Portions were large, bread and butter was served alongside every meal (this seems mad to me now), the biscuit tin was always full and food was used to comfort and reward. I was put on my first diet at age 10.

There were bouts of dieting since, some more successful than others, and some desultory attempts to go to the gym. With 5-6 stone to lose the mountain always felt too big to climb and it was easier not to think about, to tell myself everything was fine and it didn’t really matter anyway. But I avoided mirrors, cameras, doctors.

I piled on about 18kg over my 30s. I loved food and ate what I wanted. My husband has a big appetite and I matched him bite for bite. Together, we lost the extra weight by doing the 5:2 and taking up running (was still obese), fell off the wagon, put it all back and went back into ignore mode for a few years. It’s so so easy to do.

Was toying with the idea of a gastric sleeve about 3 years ago, then lost my job which knocked that plan on the head. Last year, with WLIs everywhere and my life on much more of an even keel, I thought I’d give Mounjaro a go. The trigger was something really tiny: I was finding it increasingly difficult to put my socks on and cut my toenails. Six months on I’ve lost over 50lbs and am the lowest weight I’ve been since a brief period in my 20s. I’m still technically obese but if I keep up my progress I shouldn’t be for too much longer (only another 4-6 weeks hopefully). Looking forward to being only overweight 🤣. It’s completely transformed my eating and my attitude to food. I feel like I’ve been reprogrammed.

I was on steroids as a child for uncontrolled asthma, this meant I was morbidly obese by age 8/9. This coincided with benign neglect from parents so I was cooking my own meals from 8 years old.
I am also autistic which meant there were significant mental health issues as a teen, and bullying, difficulties with exercising due to asthma.

Past a certain BMI (not an exact rule for everyone) the physiology of bodies changes so losing weight and maintaining it is unlikely.

I know many morbidly obese people, all are obese from medical reasons - PCOS, psychological issues, result of medication (mirtazapine is a common one), result of cancer treatment. I don’t know one obese person who is there because they’re stupid and lazy, as we’re constantly told.

Obesity has been classified as a complex disease for around 30 years, with evidence of that going back to the 1940s. I have no idea why we’re still in a place where the pseudoscientific “eat less, move more” is still trotted out. Humans are not a perfect system with predictable outcomes, we are all different, our bodies react to stress in ways that change how our hormones work. If someone is lucky enough to have a metabolism and physiology that allows them to regulate their weight effectively they should perhaps be grateful for that and hold themselves back from ignorant opinions that bear no relation to real life for many people.

People become addicted to eating too many calories: the reasons are many.

After being raped at 17 I figured if I was fat and ugly nobody would want to rape me. Obesity is my security blanket an it's taken years and years to overcome this. Approaching 60 and for the first time I am losing weight (6 stone so far).

I’ve often wondered this, how do people get to the point they’re morbidly obese surely when they start getting big they realise and start eating less? I guess for some it’s depression and apathy but pre ozempic I think a third or maybe half the population were obese so idk how so many let it happen.

I heard someone say they couldn’t afford vegetables (carrots are like 50p) but this person is a regular domino’s eater and a pizza is like £20. In actually a lot poorer than this person and never eat domino’s for that reason.

Another one said she had big bones? But honey bones are hard, fat is soft! We can see you haven’t got big bones.

Anyway you don’t hear these excuses now practically everyone is on ozempic or monjaro etc. how did the ozempic shrink your bones 🤣🤣

Hahaha…. So easily. Depression, anxiety, comfort eating, unhappiness, self punishment, low self worth, childhood neglect, lack of exercise, disability, ill health… the list goes on, be thankful you can’t imagine why.

What is missing in your life that you are so horrible about other people in order to feel better about yourself? Fat is not a moral issue, you really aren’t a better person because of what the scales show.

I put on weight because I eat too much. The reasons for eating too much are the problem not the actual eating.

I have insulin resistance, diagnosed years ago so eating high carb foods makes me hungry ( very basic explanation) so I then eat more. I now have the discipline and the time not to reach for the carbs when I’m hungry.

I take aromatase inhibitors that block my hormones ( breast cancer) so it is a struggle to maintain my weight. I have accepted that I can no longer eat the recommended calorie intake for a normal human being so currently I eat about 75% of the recommended and it works.

I love bread, it doesn’t love me so I no longer eat it. Temporary treat at the moment, one hot cross bun a day. I now focus on how the calories fit in my daily allowance and adjust accordingly.

I don’t struggle to lose weight or maintain it as long as I stay off the carbs. But that’s me. I’ve learned what causes my weight gain. It’s my bodies inability to process glucose properly. In an ancient world before carbs ( bread is not a hunter gatherer food) I would have been fine. But modern processed foods are my nemesis.

Im lucky because I understand the science, but I’m stupid because I often ignore it.

The reason that many people don’t notice weight gain is the inclusion of Lycra in fabrics. It is abundantly obvious, looking at some overweight individuals that they bought their clothes when they were several sizes smaller.

Stretchy clothing didn’t exist 50yrs ago so if something was becoming a bit tight you were either pregnant, growing ( child) or putting on weight. Clothing wasn’t cheap, you couldn’t afford a wardrobe with duplicates in several sizes so you cut back.

I used to be obese, after years of playing sport professionally I was a big eater for nutrition and energy purposes, I was a size 8/10, I then quit my sport and had babies. I quite simply didn’t consider myself at all. I had expected my clothes size to go up so I just accepted it without thinking about it. It’s not like one day you say ‘hmm, size 14 in the bin, let’s go to a 16’, it’s gradual, you just find that you’re buying 14s and 16s together depending on where you are, that you slip into just buying 16s without really noticing.
I don’t have mental health issues, bit insulting that you automatically assume that, very telling on your own issues probably.