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.

hmm, I'll just think about this question while I finish the plateful of macaroons that's on the table near me.

I am going to eat a slice of the very low carb chocolate log I made with cream...

[greedy bastard yet still smug emoticon]

Yes, potatoes not prozac is a good book to get.

i remember last year skiing there as a nutella stand on the slopes, free samples etc, sugar pushed on to people again and again like someone slipping you heroin free so that you get hooked.

The Big Sugar videos are worth watching may be on youtube 1 about the power of the sugar industry in the days of the slave trade and 2 about the power of big sugar in the corporate sense today.

In Canada where my daughter is working the bread is so sweet. Even in the UK we have bread fruits so that today they have a much higher sugar content than they did 50 years ago. And all these very very high sugar health bars that are sold are a complete travesty.

We used to have bacon for breakfast at home as children, not cereals. For occasional treats we'd have those little packets of cereals.

Someone asked about my weight. At my heaviest I was 12 stone just before I gave birth to the twins at 40 weeks. I feel better at under 9 stone. When I was 10 and a half stone I felt fat but you do get people my height (5/5) who are 18 stone which is double my weight so I suppose never having been that weight I cannot comment on it.

I read a book called Thin by Candida Crew this year and she is just so obssessed with food and diet. It reads like a sugar addicts book, her life completely bound up with food and diet so it's always on the mind, whereas if you follow a healthy diet like those suggested on this thread then you just don't think about food at all time. It's as if the types of foods yuou eat - the sugar hot chocolate then sweet muffin compared with a breakfast of protein good carbs, is going to make you think about food all day whereas the protein based breakfast doesn't. yet you rarely see in the press anything written about any connection between mental health, ability to control impulses and the kind of food you eat.

Atkings (and other low carb plans) focus on this issue - trouble is, the media have so misrepresented what this way of eating is all about that everyone thinks it's about eating lots of meat and fat and nothing else.

But a diet based on protein and fat, with carbs coming only from vegetables (and some fruits) has got to be better for you that one which is full of sugar and processed carbohydrates.

The whole focus on low fat/fat-free foods is also responsible for an increase in the consumption of sugar. Fat is removed and sugar is added instead.

I think sometimes it just kind of sneaks up on you.

I weighed just 7 and a half stone after I had dd1 and stayed that weight until dd2, after whom i weighed 8 stone, still fine.
After ds i weighed 8 and a half stone which I was fine as I had previously been that weight a few years before.

Since then i have become lazy, and just eat the wrong things and too much of them. I am a carb addict and currently weigh 9 stone 7.

It pisses me off to think that I could still be 8 and a half stone if only I had more willpower.

Came off ADs this time and it happened.

Before that it was when I was on the pill and it snuck up on me, plus depression again

I think depression is the most common factor, and most of the posts confirm this.

Second one, in my opinion, is dieting! Our culture is so obsessed with stupid diets and as a result we are getting fatter.

My friend-who is constantly on diet-cought me eating dark chocolate the other day and she freaked out. She eats diet bars. Few people know that a piece of good quality dark chocolate is far helthier than one diet bar full of sugar and crap.

Am I the only one who has ALWAYS been fat? fat baby, fat child, fat teen, fat adult. In 2003/4 after having dc1, I went for a laugh with a friend to a SW meeting, never for one second thought I'd do it but after class the first week I thought I'd give it ago. I was 15st 1lb. I lost 5lb the first week and never looked back. In 14 mths I was down to 9st 12. Made the final 30 women of 2500 for the 2004 women of the year contest. I loved it, the way I felt, the way I looked, the way everyone complemented me, the new found confidence, what I could now do, like have more water in my bath, sit comfortably in the car or on a plane, play for hours with my son etc.... That is the only time in my life I have EVER been slim.

Since then I've moved abroard, had 2 girls and most recently given up smoking. In the 4 yrs pilled back on 3.5 of the 5 stone lost.

For me it is a bad life style and most definately genetics. The difference having acheived it once is that I know I can change.

Wow MMeJ! Huge congrats on your achievement. If you could do it then you can do it now!

I was skinny skinny skinny as a child/teen. Left school at 17 and once I started working and socialising and drinking the weight started to go on. Was a size 14 moving to London in 1987. Am a 22/24 now.

My Mum always served 'normal' sized portions but of very processed food. Findus crispy pancakes were a standby in our house. Deep fat fryer in use daily. But even then I remember having dinner and then tucking into 2 or 3 slices of bread and jam afterwards. And my Dad would always tell me off.

I was an only child for 5 years. Then in the space of 2 years I had two sisters and my Mum's time was spent on them. I had to grown up quickly. I remember sneaking downstairs on a Sat morning and raiding the biscuit tin which would have just been filled after the weekly shop the day before. I think I felt the huge change and used food as comfort even then. But I was an active child (although never sporty) and tall and stayed skinny till I was about 18. Food - esp bread - has been a huge comfort to me all my life really.

There can be chocolate in the house for months on end and I am not tempted. Carbs and wine are my downfall.

Xenia - I love threads like this so thank you for making me think about why I am the way I am.

Sympathy/comfort eating because of my sons diagnose at 2 of classic autism - felt like i didn't care about the workld anymore and how i was viewed by everyone - a very black place. Have put on 4 stone in 2 years.

Want to try and kick start myself - starting tomoro!

Thanks Buda. Just need to find the power somewhere.

Yes, also I don't like the language and club-yness of the radiant recovery web site although the information is entirely free and you don't need to pay anything and the science relating to depression, mind set, mood, and raising seratonin through diet (which is what you get in prozac) and beta endorphins is worth reading particularly as a lot of people on here posting are eating other than through hunger.

In a sense the world's obesity issue might for some people simply be the effect on mental health of addictive junk foods. By saying a little of what you fancy even if it's the small glass of whisky for the recovering alcoholic or tiny bits of cocaine for the drug addict or few square of chocolate for the sugar addict for some people you're keeping them in the thrawl of their addictive substance.

Jaffa not sure anyone is fat. I don't think breastfed babies can be fat but may be you were bottle fed? A baby was just born weighing 14 pounds so I suppose there are a few exceptions.

the great thing about weight loss is that small changes really do add up over time - it's just snapping out of the all or nothing/I-want-to-be-a-size-6 now mentality (for me anyway) that is key

all the tired old advice such as parking further away from things, reaching for a glass of water and/or an apple throughout the day, taking every opportunity to build more activity into your life, having a decent breakfast - it does all help

have heard that it should be 60% diet, 40% exercise for best results but I'm always happier to add exercise and continue to be guided by my appetite rather than mess around with good v bad foods too much

Maybe not as a newborn Xenia, but certainly by toddlerhood. I was not bottle fed, I was exclusively bf until a year. I must be an exception, believe me I am not making excuses, just explaining that I "got" fat so early on it was not something that I could ever have been aware of. On my history board for the finals we had to have before and after photos, there is a before shot of me aged 8 as a bridesmade, somewhere on my face I had two eyes.

When I lost the weight I remember saying, geee, it took me 26yrs to get fat and only 14 mths to get thin.

I got ill and spent a year barely able to leave my bed, exp wouldn't cook so we lived on takeaway. I was used to going out clubbing and dancing the nights away, without that I piled on about 4 stone in a matter of months.

I added a few more when I met dh and had 5dcs in 6yrs. I have lost a couple of stone from my heaviest (when carrying dts). Now living in the countryside which has so far put paid to last years 2hr walks with the dcs as there's no pavements around here and I have yet to find a park or somewhere else safe.

I've always been the chubby kid and after being on a diet practically since birth!, i fell pregnant and it was happy days! I ate everything in sight and gained about 4 stone. I lost a little of it and then got pregnant again. I was better this time and my gain wasnt too bad, and 5 years later, i had my son and was about 12 and a half stone.

I'm only a shortass, around 5ft3 so i hated it.

I lost 3 and a half stone over the last 2 years and it was simply because i found an evening job. My evenings before consisted of watching tv picking at chocs, snacks, crisps, loads of buttery toast and cakes.

I now work 3 evenings a week and all day sundays, and sometimes its quite hefty work, lugging boxes of stock around, running up and down stairs and the weight just fell off.

I still get very embarassed when i meet people i havent seen for years and they comment on my weight loss, and try to change the subject. When i got shopping, i automatically go for the size 18-20. I hate my saggy body , and even tho i'm the lightest i have ever been, i still wouldnt wear a bikini.

I seriously need to go on that make over show and get a few nips and tucks and get my boobs back

I didn't.

But I'm still skint.

Xenia, why do you read this tosh?

FWIW, I am 5ft., 3in., but at the height of my fitness I was still over 10st. because I had a lot of muscle mass.

I have no idea what I weigh now, having never owned a scale or been on a diet in my life.

But I fit in my old clothes and I work out and I am getting back to feeling that fit.

I don't think I'd ever 'get fat' because I can't really eat and eat and I feel sick after eating a relatively small amount.

But, like, who cares?

You know, it's like if someone came up to me and asked, 'Why didn't you get rich?'

I think you are right about the dangers of sugar.

When I worked in Hong Kong, I was stunned by the amount of sugar people ate. On the whole, the southern Chinese body shape is short and very slight, and I think it was precisely because they didn't tend to get fat that many of my colleagues and friends had a truly shocking diet.

I worked in a very large open-plan office and it was standard for people to have a whole packet of biscuits or box of chocolates on their desk and work their way through them by lunchtime every day. At least being of highland peasant stock, the waistbands of my clothes would start shrieking very loudly very quickly if I were to start looking upon a packet of biscuits and a box of Celebrations as Elevenses.

Even the bread tastes sweet. The classic comfort food invented in Hong Kong in the 50s is a deep-fried condensed milk sandwich and [boak]

A timely thread since it is New Year's resolution time and I need to lose a fair bit.

I agree with the sugar addiction - I read something on it a while ago and it is probably me although I love carbs too so a double whammy for the waistline.

The rot set in for me when I got pregnant with DS1. I was within the normal range for BMI then. I ate what I liked when pregnant and only put on 16lb. Back to pre-pregnancy weight within 10 days. Bf for a year which stopped me putting any weight on whilst I continued to eat what I liked. And then I stopped bf but carried on eating as I had been and the weight began to creep up.

And then I got pregnant with DS2, a stone heavier than when I had DS1 but still OKish.
Same again, put on only 18lb even though DS2 was 2.5lbs heavier than DS1, back to pre-pregnancy weight withing 4 days (), bf for 16 mths ate what I liked no weight change but again, it crept up when I stopped bfing but didn't stop eating.

And in that time my palate had changed. Before I used to save chocolate for the weekends, ate loads of fruit. Now I have no taste for fruit and I eat chocolate most days. I don't binge - I would never eat a whole packet of biscuits for example, but I eat often.

And I have never been sporty so lack of physical activity is definitely a factor.

Another thing that I have been reading about recently is that lack of sleep. Having children completely messed up my sleep pattern - look at the time I writing this! There seems to be lots of research about how lack of sleep leads to obesity, not just because you are awake more to eat but because it messes with your hormones and leads to the body storing fat. Great.

Of course I could blame having children but I think the 24/7 society we live in now doesn't help. I can go and buy a book or a new coat on line now, I can watch anything on TV. 30 yrs ago that wasn't an option and I would probably have gone to bed!

Not that I am handing over responsibility to anybody or anything but it all adds up to being too big.

When I was at school all I ate was my lunch and dinner. I lost my baby weight within 5 days (see photo of me with 5 week old ds in tankini on profile) Then I was at home all day with DS couldn't be arsed to cook so used snack all day but never really eat a proper meal. Put on about a stone in 2 years. Am now casually trying to lose weight again and have lost about half of it. Am maintaining it quite easily by eating 1-2 meals a day and no snacks inbetween except for fruit/veg/juice/water. Then if I have a day where I want a takeaway or whatever it doesn't really do any damage.

There's also the Food and Mood website which is being taken over by Mind. And I just read about Food Matters which sounds interesting, if a bit tangential to this discussion.

When low-fat was all the rage, companies started adding much more sugar to foods to compensate. This didn't help. I believe that sugar is addicting (in the same way alcohol can be - not everyone who eats it will be an addict) which makes some people more susceptible to eating too much of it. (Oh, that's a stupid sentence but hey ho)

I gained shitloads of weight over a decade or so for various reasons. Am taking it off by eating sensibly and exercising more. It has taken some relearning of what appropriate portion sizes are and what is good to eat. I used Nutrition Data a lot!

Niecie...I think I could have written something very similar myself.I too don't sleep well now.I didn't put much weight on when I was pregnant...in fact, in my first one, I actually lost weight! However,3 kids later-and i'm not blaming them at all-I am now very big. Alot to do with the fact that I eat the leftovers and I can sometimes find myself eating "a meal" whilst i'm cooking it!!!