What made you gain the weight?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2006
What made you gain the weight?
15
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 6:01am
We're all trying hard to lose the weight.. but I've been asking myself lately why have I packed it on on the first place? I think it helps to know the reason(s) to help us now and to

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 10:35am

1.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-03-2006
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 10:36am
Well, I noticed that I really started gaining (almost 70 lbs in 6-ish months) after I started taking Birth Control pills. The doc told me they react that way with some people and the hormones cause your metabloism to slow down. So before when I could eat a supersized meal and large coke and not gain anything, it now makes me gain! Lol, I am sure that if I ate healthier then I wouldn't have gained it all but fast food was so quick, easy, and YUMMY!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 11:18am

Mine has come in dribs and drabs over many years. First I truly have a larger frame and spent my teens and twenties between 140 and 160--I see now it was a healthy weight range for my body type, but I always felt enormous. When I got a desk job in my later twenties I gained a few more and by the time I married DH at 30 I was 182. He was in grad school and I worked long days. Our only time together was after 9 or 10 when we would eat a big dinner together and go straight to bed. (We were newlyweds afterall!) I was up around 200 in a year and we started trying to conceive with no luck. I got back down to my wedding weight by exercising like a fiend and eating next to nothing. I thought my weight was our problem, only to find that we were dealing with a male factor issue. We spent several years pumping fertility meds into my system which was like perpetual PMS. That coupled with disappointment after disappointment sent me on a steady gain. We adopted our kids four years ago when I went from a busy career to staying at home full-time with then pretty troubled kids and I've yo-yoed ever since between 225 and 255.

Now I'm seeing all the little bad habits that are contributing to my weight: A bite here and there while I'm cooking; a taste of the kids' mac and cheese when we eat out; a couple of chips or teddy grahams when I give them a snack. I started tracking my calories before I started seriously trying to lose and know that left on my own I average between 1800 and 2000 calories/day and unless I schedule exercise house work and slow walking are my only exercise. Too much food and not enough movement for my body! Now the question is whether this self-awareness is going to help me lose for good. Hmm. Annie

A
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-21-2006
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 1:03pm
I have a hypothyroid condition that contributed to my weight gain. When I gained 60+ lbs within a couple months my doctor told me to stop eating so much! I told him I wasn't doing anything different. I was very active then. When I moved to LA I went to a doctor who suggested that I get my thyroid tested. Sure enough I have an underactive thyroid glad which helps control my metabolism! I moved here at 260 and am now down to 227.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-27-2004
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 2:07pm

I was one of five kids.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2006
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 4:49pm

I spent the first 17 years of my life seriously underweight. I ate like a fiend but never gained an ounce. When I got pg with DD12 at 17 I gained from 115 to 178 lost back to 140 where I was at a healthy weight for the FIRST time in my life. (mind you everyone at school called me fat at 5'6-5'8 and less than 115 lbs) BCP & steroids (as I had my first real bad asthma attack when dd was a few days old) led me to balloon back to 170 in just a couple months. I was working out everyday so it wasn't a big deal I was a healthy and fit 170-180 when I met DH in 1999. I had my hours cut more than in half and lost just about everything I had, fell into a depression and wouldn't get out of bed for days at a time, til I met Dh. Then I moved here away from everyone I knew, my family, and the only life I had known and went to being a stay at home mom and had dd6. I went from a fairly healthy, active and muscular 180 to 220 with DD6 and never lost an ounce after she was born. Back on BCP I stayed gained another 10-15 lbs til we TTC # 3 and when I had an ectopic and lost the baby, I spiraled into yet another depression only this time I became so obsessed with getting pg again I lost down to 230 and got DS. Here is the kicker, I lost back down the the 220's while pg with ds as I went back to school then found I was pg the next day I was very active during my whole pg. I maintained that at first, til I started having a lot of trouble with my breathing and they put me on steroids left and right and I went straight up to 258. That is when I said enough is enough. NO MORE STEROIDS. I can't breathe and if I keep gaining it will get worse not better.

 

Angela

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2006
Mon, 09-04-2006 - 6:10pm
I have hypothyroidism. But ALOT of its love & hate. Ilove food . I hate to exercise. I guess i know what I need to work on.lol
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2006
Tue, 09-05-2006 - 5:48am

I was never a skinny child.. but I was never really overweight either.. of course back then I thought I was really fat..


My first real weight gain was the last 2 years in high school.. I was so focused on getting a high score for a college internship and my activity levels went to sub zero.. I had the internship, and had about 40lbs of added weight.. I got rid of it during the summer vacation and was back to normal at college... and maintained that over 5 years.


Then after we got married I started letting go.. I ate like crazy.. everyday was a celebration.. then soon enough it was the normal way I ate.. dh has a fast metabolism and is taller than I am.. and suddenly we were both eating the same portions.. and the weight creeped in very slowly.. it wasn't much at first and I decided to lose the weight..


Then I discovered it was pregnant and I remember my first thought was: YAY I don't need to focus on losing weight now.. and it was down the hill from there. The pregnancy was a big excuse to just eat. It was a very healthy pregnancy (no preservatives, no processed foods).. but it was a LOT of food. And I gave myself the excuse not to move at all.. you know I was pregnant and I didn't want to lose the baby.. yeah right!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2006
Tue, 09-05-2006 - 11:15am
Why did I gain weight? That's an easy one. Beer, bud and food. I gave up the herb, cut back on the beer (a friend died of cerrosis this summer, that was a big cue that one cannot have a strictly liquid diet) but when it comes to the food, if you are what you eat I'm fast cheap and easy. Life is really laid back down here I didn't really notice until the weight was already there. People tend to get comfortable with mediocraty around here, and I'm tired of being one of them. That's what I'm hoping to get out of this board is some people that aren't happy just doing the minimum to get by but actually want to improve themselves. Maybe some of it will rub off on me.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Tue, 09-05-2006 - 1:47pm
I am 1 of those who had a horrible child hood growing up.
But I as an adult should have taken control along time ago.
My biggest issue now is controlling the emotional eating.
I am learning to do other things such as write in my journals
take a walk do some hard core exersicing intead of eating like
20 cookies or ordering a midnight pizza!Tammy

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