Why did you get fat?

[Judy1234]

I was just looking at photos of two women in today's Sunday Telegraph magazine both about 14 stone and around my height, 5 foot 5 ish and wondering what causes people to put on 4 or 5 stone.

ermm I put on 5 stone when I was pg with DS1 !! (not sure how - didn't put on anything close to that with the other 2, but ate MUCH more crap with my 2nd and 3rd pg )

Gosh. I can't think.

Well - obviously eating/drinking too much and not doing any exercise!

But seriously, I suspect that it's a gradual thing, and that increasing weight is gradually accommodated.

For me there is a point at which I have to say 'enough is enough' and therefore do something about it - what I don't understand is why very overweight women don't seem to do this. Or maybe they do but the amount of weight that they then have to lose becomes overwelming.

With me it was too much eating, too much drinking and not enough exercise. Very simple. Although I did 10 months of exercising seriously hard 6 days a week and watching my diet and only lost 10 kilos. Then I got PG. Had DS and weighed less than when I started. Am at my heaviest now. Hate it.

Because I ate too much?
Seriously though it is very complicated. Food has become a comfort, a reward, a punishment and so much else in my head. I just try not to pass that on to my dcs.

I was ill for a long time and still am to some extent so excersise is really hard combine tha with being a chef and esting alot of what i make and that lands me 3 stone overwieght that i am now!

Although it has been on the last 4yrs (since having ds) that it has gone on, before having him i was underwieght.

Consistantly eating more than I needed to, because I was bored/miserable/was particularly enjoying what I was eating!

Weight gain is very symptomatic of depression for me, when the stress and depression lifts I lose weight.

what about you Xenia. Why did you get fat?

Xenia
I am 5ft 5 ins and never weigh more than 10 stone at my max but for my frame that is when i feel 'fat'. I am probably classic in terms of what makes me put on weight though in that it is any combination of extreme tiredness and extreme stress.

When I am very tired and /or very stressed I stop thinking about myself and start eating processed shit on a kind of disenagaged brain basis. When in that frame of mind I can easily put on a stone in a matter of weeks - even though mty natutral body type is far more slender than that. I am fortunate that when i eat well I loose it quickly.

I think stress/ depression/ tiredness is an easy trigger for many and once you put on weight then being fat becomes its own stressor and it becomes a vicious cycle

I strongly suspect Xenia isn't fat. For some reason

I got fat (lost it then put on a stone over the last year which I am currently losing) when I got pregnant with ds - now 13. I got comfortable and didnt bother weight watching. Over time it built up. I love eating food.

well yes - me too pagwatch.

a very gradual (extra slice of toast a day) over last 5 years. It really doesn't take much.

My family are all terribly overweight so I am very predisposed to it - if I eat anything over about 1200 calories (which is very low and it is very easy to eat over that) then I put on weight. Hence the gain - my weight is something I actively have to manage if I want to stay in a normal weight range.

Some people (like me) actively have to eat less than normal people - perhaps for a few factors, there have been a few explanations I've read over the years (a virus , syndrome X etc)

What I do know is that it is not possible for me to eat only 1200 calories a day for the rest of my life - so I have to be happy/come to terms with my natural weight - 14st, size 18.

Or, I enter into a battle with my body where I prioritise monitoring what I eat for a long time.

What I have chosen now may not be a choice I make in a while.

boredom, eating too much, exercising too little
It's not exactly rocket science is it

eating too much i'd reckon

And also personal food tastes can have a huge effect on the calories you consuume,

I don't like salad, and I don't like fruit(bar berries, which are expensive), I don't like lean meat, I am not keen on 'chewy' veg either. I like battered food, crisps, meat, cheese, eggs, pasta and bread etc.

So the battle for me is to find filling, low calorie, healthy foods that I actually like to eat, because if I can't find them, I am bound to either over eat or feel hungry.

My current life savers (nd these stop me gaining, the battle to lose begins in earnest tomorrow) are potatoes, fish, soups, carrots and brocolli, mushrooms and tinned tomatoes. These are all warming comforty foods which happen to be relatively low calorie. It would be easier if I looked at a menu and though "Mmmm, yum yum, rocket salad with tuna and red wine vineger" but I don't, I think "Leaves. Cold, chewy leaves. Yuk. I want something cheesy."

People are always SHOCKED to find out that I don't like chocolate, but I honestly think chocolate is appealing to thin people, because they have a calorie deficit I rarely have.

I was 8 stone when I got married.

10 stone 4lb about 8 months later... 7 stone 2lb the year after that.

I'm now married 11 years & have had 2 children, I weigh over 11 stone.

I am ashamed of myself. I am greedy & eat too much, have no respect for myself nor my husband probably.

I have tried to lose weight but have not enough will power.

Wednesday evening will change all that though

Being overweight should not be a source of shame.

how do people get thin and morally superior

if i answer seriously i would say that it was because when i was single although i did not partake in any classic excercise regime i went clubbing pretty much every night and would dance for 6 hours at a time.

When i met my ex i fell pregnant almosty immediatly and stopped going out. i was sat at home all day bored and not burning the calories i was stuffing.

i didn't go back to my pre baby weight after i had Ds but i am so tall i was able to carry off the extra few pounds i had put on.

when i was pregnant with DD i had polyhydramnia and my skin stretched beyond all recognition. I cannot look at mysefl naked without feeling sick. it just looks like jelly hanging below my boobs. it is vile.
i deliberalty ate to try and "fill up" the skin.
it is stupid and made no sense at all but i was in a very weird place after leaving the ex when she was 10 weeks old.

i am now a good 8 stone overweight and am still sick at teh thought of my naked body. all i've done is make it worse. and teh most deoressing fact is that there is nothing i can do to get my body back to how it should be.

well done Xenia - you have managed to get a whle load of MNers go into depth about how they dislike themselves and feel like failures . Nice one.

when I was 9 stone I used to eat salad for lunch or Boots shapers sandwiches, drank water not coffee and not as much alochol and hardly snacked. I also walked for about an hour altogther to get to and from the train station
Now I am 11stone I snack, often have carbs at lunchtime and no longer walk as much as I did

I hardly ate anything until I met my DH (would regularly fall over with lack of food)
started eating 3 proper meals a day and put on 1.5 stone. then changed to working from home and barely moved each day just kitchen/study/sofa/bed repeat. put on another stone.

panicked lost 2 stone on atkins, put it all back on again when I stopped atkins,
lost 3 stone when pg with DS1 - put it all back on again within 9 months of his birth
lost 2 stone when pg with ds2 - put it all back on again.

The key for me is basic - I consume more than I burn - I need to eat less or do more exercise or both.
I also have a husband who cuddles my wobbly bits and still tells me he loves me.. even though I don't.

Am starting powerwalking tomorrow morning though so will try to shift the 2.5 stone again.

i was 8st12 b4 dd1 in between her and ds1 never managed to get below 10 and half, eating crap not exercising mild depression but not overly overly concerned, was 14st 2lb the day i went in for c/s almost 1 year ago have been at 12 stone 9 for ages, eating vast quantites of shite, bought on the sly so i dont have to hear dp going on about my weight (yawn) and also bought by dp despite going on about my weight (go figure!) weve had serious r/ship problems i shovel food in my mouth as quick as i can whatever it is to stop me crying a lot.

however am currently 17weeks pg, have managed so far to not put any weight on yet dp still wants to comment daily on my weight and why im not the nubile 23 year old he met, my response is fuck off youre boring me im pregnant i have to eat so staring at me while i eat a bowl of bran flakes in the morning only makes me hate you all the more. yes im overweight, i will deal with it my way in my own time and NO its not about you (dp) or how i cant fancy you and all that bollocks its actually about me to be dealt with by me when i feel able so get knotted

god, glad i got that off my chest

in answert o op... eating too much, over a long period of time, and not excersicing enough. assuming no other health problems.