Have you always been overweight? If not what do you think triggered your weight gain?

Pickle87

Full Member
Hiya,

When I was younger my family always used to tell me I was overweight and needed to lose weight, but looking back at photos I wasn't overweight, I have attached a photo of me when my family told me I was fat so you can see what I mean. I didn't start putting weight on until they kept telling me how fat I was and then it kept going and then I moved in with my ex and went through a contentment phase where I ate cos I was happy and then when we split I comfort ate and now I am the size that I am now.

What do you think triggered your weight gain? Children? Comfort eating?
 

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I know what triggered my weight gain and I don't feel I am able to disclose that on the internet but I gained weight as a barrier, as i thought to myself big people were unattractive and if I was big then it wouldn't happen again.
 
Ah hunni that's fine, I understand what you mean, my quick overview was a bit brief there were very hard times in there that I don't talk about. Huge huggles xxx
 
I blame my parents also. All my teenage and early adult life I was told to lose weight and compared with my friends and family members. I comfort ate. It certainly had the adverse effect!
Then I left home and the world was my oyster cooking wise so I have myself to blame for a lot of it too.
I make sure never to use the words "bad food" around my daughter and prefer to explain moderation and healthy eating to her and I go made if anyone says "that will make you fat".
So, I blame my family and myself but I took it in hand 3 years ago and am okay with my weight now.
 
I was always really really skinny, so much so I was always trying to put weight ON. Then in 97 I started studying for my degree, and working and studying I found very stressfull and ended up on Seroxat (anxiety med). That and the combination of finding red wine another relaxent had me soaring up to 13.7stone. Since then I suppose a combination of age, and still enjoying red wine and discovering how much I actually like food has kept me yo yoing.
 
Ah hunni that's fine, I understand what you mean, my quick overview was a bit brief there were very hard times in there that I don't talk about. Huge huggles xxx

Ta its ok I don't mind talking about it but if it can be googled i dont think i wanna mention it! and you only asked a simple question dont worry:)

:hug99::hug99:
 
I have always been big. My family love their food and I remember when I was younger as money was very limited for a family if 4, mum would cook the stodgy cheap stuff to keep us going.
 
I blame my parents too. They constantly told my sister and I that we were overweight throughout our childhood and looking back at pictures I don't think we were at all. It got so bad that at one point I wanted to meet my Mum from work (must have been about 15 and she said that I couldn't because she would be embarassed for her colleagues to see me because of my size (I was a size 14!!). That hurt dreadfully and I moved out when I was 16.
My Mum's always had an unhealthy relationship with food and went through long phases of just eating a yoghurt all day as she was on a diet. I even remember her fainting at work because she hadn't eaten enough and yet at the weekend she would binge on loads of unhealthy things. I think she passed all her insecurities on to me and the weight gain began.
Luckily my son plays lots of sport so although he has a healthy appetite he is very slim. Occasionally i will hear my Mum say to him that he can't have something to eat because he 'doesn't want to get fat like his Mum'!! When this happens I come down on her like a ton of bricks as I don't want him to have a bad relationship with food or problems with his weight.
 
I was never taught about food. Not properly anyway. It tasted great so how could it be bad for me? I remember going to my gran's after school and having dinner, then going home to my mum's and having another dinner. My gran overfed me a lot too, with biscuits, crisps even sugar sandwiches (honestly)! The only picture of me at a healthy weight is one of me when I'm about 4 years old. Not even exagerating that btw, if I had a scanner I'd show you the pics of me at 5/6yrs compared to 4yrs lol

My mum started me on WW when I was about 10 or 11, can't remember. Anyway, the doctor told her off for doing it, said I would end up being anorexic, and she sent me off to a nutrionalist person and gave me a weekly diet plan to follow - which I didn't, probably because my mum didn't want to cook one different meal for me and something else for the rest of them - so I got the same as everyone else.

I also comfort ate through primary school + high school, got bullied because of my weight so I ate to feel better about it. I only realised recently that I've been trying to solve the problem with food, but food is the problem. I don't see the point in comfort eating now, I only end up feeling worse about myself.

Sorry I kind of just rambled on there but yeah my trigger is emotion, if I feel down I'll eat, but then I'll feel worse for doing it + eat some more.. then I've put on 2lbs and I'm even more depressed.. so yeah you see what happens!
 
This is a really good thread.... think it can open up alot of heartache though!
I find it quite intriuging (sorry can't spell!) reading people saying there parents gave them weight issues because my niece is overweight (only 7) and her parents are struggling with keeping her weight down. I must admit it's something I worry about for the future with my kids as I have no idea how I would approach it because you'd have to be so carefull not to form bad associations with food!

As for me.... I deffinately know when my weight gain started. I was skinny when I was a little kid, normal during school and then when I went to uni I was skinny from all the walking I did. Think about this alot because we didn't eat healthily, we used to have all you can eat chinese, and mc d's and biscuits etc. But back then I must have stopped eating when I was full without even thinking about it because I couldn't finish a big mac meal (now I think where's the rest of it?) and occasionally I'd buy a chocolate cheese cake from sainsburys and have to throw half of it away because it had gone past it's date (now I'd have to stop myself from gobbling one in one sitting...).
But then my bf of the time dumped me, and I got very depressed (still thin) and I got more and more ill untill eventually it culminated in me having a fight with someone I lived with. I lost all my friends. I crawled home and spent the next 6 months recovering and gaining weight. I have had a problem ever since.

God that was hard to admit too. Why can something that happened years ago still hurt and still affect me so much? It's bad.
 
My Mum and Great Aunt were always obsessed with 'dieting' and commenting on other people's weight as well as their own and mine!! Although the strange thing is when I was a child I remember as a family we were all big eaters- she didn't scrimp on portion sizes, and I was always a skinny child- until puberty really, but until 16,never had a weight problem! When I was 16 I was going out with a boy for a couple of years and I'd have my meal at home, then go to his house (he was a student sharing with 4 other boys) and we'd all get takeaways- so I'd actually be eating 2 dinners!!! I got into a junk food 'rut', eating healthily at home (at this point my Mum started getting obsessive about my weight and started scrimping on my portions) and then going for it later in the evenings and at weekends- I think I was also rebelling against studying for my A-levels which I really didn't take seriously at all!! Since then I've yoyoed over the past 15 years, have lost a lot of weight a couple of times, but never saw it as a long-term lifestyle change (which this time I am!!)and have piled it all back on, resulting in me being the biggest I've ever been when I started SW 16 weeks ago! I've been with my husband nearly 11 years and he's a big boy (21 stone) and can eat a lot of food!! He rarely shows signs of wanting to do anything about his own weight- I believe he's got to want to do it himself so I don't nag him too much!! He also completely loves me for who I am and doesn't give a monkeys how big I am!! Whilst it's great to be in this position, it has always made it a lot harder to have the motivation to get slim, as well as the takeaways and meals out we used to have a lot of! But now I really want this and I'm doing it completely for myself, which I know is the right reason to do it!!
 
wow this is a very emotive thread. It has really made me think about my battle with weight - in reality I have only had a problem since university but I was on my first diet at 8 years old!

Its amazing the clarity you get when you grow up, now, having discussed it with my Dad and brother it has become clear that my Mum suffered from anorexia. She only ever ate with us at the weekend, breakfast was a black coffee and a cigarette, lunch was non existent. I asked to go on a diet when I was 8 even though now I realise I wasn't over weight. Mum put me on meal replacement bars which is something I could never imagine doing now to (in her mind for) a child.

I have bounced between 9stone and 15stone over the last 12 years - my last was a result of living with a stick thin man who constantly told me I was fat!

So, now I am just over 12 and a half stone, which is the lightest I have been in 7 years. I am confident I can get down to a healthy weight and this time maintain it. I am now so much more aware of my over eating triggers: boredom, alcohol and sometimes emotional eating. Is it a bit like being an alcoholic? admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery?

And in that vein, thanks to everyone who participates - its so supportive, informative and comforting!
 
This is a really good thread - but your right it is very emotional!! I have nearly always been over weight and i blame myself.

I was always upset that from the age of 6 i was over weight, but my mum told me it was puppy fat (she still does sometimes)lol

I started gaining weight when i was picked on at school, i lived in a pub and use to pinch money from the till buy lots of sausage rolls and things for people to try and make friends, then when i got really bullied i started going to the shops across the road and buy 100s of sweets for myself, we didnt get much attention as my parents were both busy running the pub and became alcoholics. So by the age of 9 i was cooking dinner for me and my sister which always consisted of deepfried chips, with pan fried meat in lots of fat. It just esculated from there really i was physically abused by my dad, then my mum had cancer and i just got on with it, i didnt really have any concept of healthy eating and so i never really knew i was doing anything wrong! My turning point was when my mum divorced my dad and we moved away, i knew then i was big but didnt know what to do about it! I tried fad diets, starvation, pills, being sick, everything i could, it took until i was 19 when a collegue of mine took me to SW that i actually started losing healthily and properly, i fell of the wagon and now here i am again :)

xxxx
 
I've always been big i think. I remeber in school i was wearing size 18 clothes, over the years i've been on a few diets, but piled the weight back on again. I've lived with my boyfriend for just under a year now and have piled the weight on since. I'm heavier than i have ever been. I think it's because you feel comfortable with them, know you don't have to impress and he'll love you no matter what. he has put on some weight too, so at end of jan we both decided to do something about it and started the diet together :)
 
aww that's sweet, id love to have done this with my OH but if he lost anymore weight he'd be non-exsistant!! lol unfortunately the thing that makes it difficult is that he would like to put on weight whilst i am really trying to lose it! We have agreed to have pasta and sauces on saturdays tho :)
 
I was always a chubby child and got tortured at school because of it, being overweight runs in my fathers side of my family and I certainly followed his side.

Once I got to my teens and I started working etc my weight went down and I had quite a reasonably good figure.

Then I got married and had my first baby at 25, and that was when the weight started piling on again, then I had another baby 5 years later and that was that, I was on the treadmill of yo-yo dieting and never really getting anywhere.

In my later years it is illness and medication plus lack of mobility that has helped to pile on more weight - but since I found SW last year, I am at last slowly beginning to lose weight and keep it off.
 
my weight has fluxoratied as a result of meds - steriods (kindney problems), anxiety & depression and hormonial ones to stop periods but now on no meds and losing weight :) although I usefood as a coping menchaism which I am getting better at managing with more self control!!!
 
my weight gain was triggered by my love of food, because like many others its what made me happy when alot of other horrible things where happening around me!



i love food, its my comfort. even now. xxx
 
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