No I dont want to hear its that you eat too much...Most people have a point in their life when they became overweight...Why didnt you stop it then why did you let it go till you were in the TDC club range?I want to hear your reasons why and how you got to being Fat...Hopefully it might help us all see some things or patterns that might help us all understand ourselves better
At 53 I have thought about this alot....how in the hell did I get to be 400lbs
Safety...This might sound weird but being fat meant being safe to me in certain situations...Growing up my Father was a Womanizer...Cheated on my Mom all the time...Finaly after 38 years they were Divorced...I should have known he was cheating probably did...but thought no not my Dad....Made a vow to myself I would never be like this...noway...I have been Married twice...10 years and 14years...never cheated once while I was married...but here is my deal...Iam not a Brad Pitt or Mel Gibson but I had women hitting on me in my first Marriage...I didnt want to be like my dad ,So i didnt cheat,but Iam human and sometimes it was hard to say no...So I found the Safety of getting fat....Once I was fat the problem was gone...didnt have to say no cause no one was interested...In between marriages lost weight than gained it back...to be safe again...When I finaly realized how absurd this was at the end of my second marriage it was to late
Emotions took over...my life was ruled by food...300-400lbs...I would eat because I was Angry....because I was lonely....because I didnt give a crap anymore....My life was food...Iam a great cook...so in my mind I would have a weekly line up of all the good foods I was going to make and eat...Food was my Solice and Comfort....Man I love to eat...it tastes so good....became the only thing in life I enjoyed...EATING GOOD FOOD
Well you probably guessed the rest of this story after a couple years of this 400+ lbs a body totaly wrecked diabetes and other complications...As I sit here thinking about this I realize how totaly STUPID this was and thank God I found this place and LC...Even thou I am divorced I still have three sons..21...15...4...I work at nights so I get to keep my 4 year old most of the week while my X works and I realize how much I missed with my first two sons being gone all the time driving Big Trucks....He is my soul and Inspiration....Unconditional love...For the last few years I have been hoping to live at least long enough for him to remember me...To Hell with that with you folks and LC Iam gonna see him graduate from UGA....Peace Out...Big John

Why am I fat? What a question to face on Monday morning! LOL

I was a normal sized kid but as the teen years rolled around, I found myself endowed with a big bottom. I was never 'fat' with a belly or heavy arms but with that bottom and thighs I was also far from skinny. In my late teen and early twentys I was active and fought to keep my weight/size acceptable to myself. I had my first child and lost all of that weight. I had my second child and lost all of that weight.

This is where I got lost, I have been a cancer patient under treatment on and off since 1989. Alot of the meds given are steroids and cause weight gain. It also makes you feel really crappy. I am probably guilty of using food to feel better and as comfort. So, that is how I 'got fat' but I never really tried to do anything about it.

So, while I am not an over eater, I love the taste of rich and creamy foods. I am also a carb-a-holic

But LCing is really working well for me, so that tells me that I am fat because I eat too many calories and too many carbs. I am fat because i didn't want to pay attention to what I ate. I just didn't have the personal discipline to tell myself to eat healthy and avoid stuff like french fries and ice cream.

I did not hide behind my weight, as a matter of fact, you could even say I was in denial. I never actually saw myself (in my head) as heavy as the mirror revealed. I still have all of my 'skinny' clothes beleiving that some day I will be able to wear them. (good thing I do too!) I am the queen of denial.
I'd be like "Wow, non of my clothes fit, guess I need to go buy more" It was a shock to me to discover I weighed so much!

No excuses for me, I am fat cuz I like to eat and I like to drink beer. Alot!

BTW; great question Big John, I just love to read your posts!

I'm fat because... well, because I eat too much. No, that's not the answer you wanted to hear, but there are reasons behind it.

In Grade 7, I was a normal sized kid, with a fairly normal life. Then I met a teacher who was abusive to me, and caused me nearly two years of grief and pain. That's when the eating disorders started. At first I was anorexic for four years, and always thought I looked fat (I was rail thin at the time, looking back at the pictures.) After a suicide attempt, I started eating to soothe the pain. That started a whole cycle of bingeing and purging, leaving me a good 50 pounds overweight.
Then, just in time (ha!) the depression really started up. I ate to quell every single thing I felt. Happiness, sadness, anger--I just packed in the food. My parents didn't help--they did (and still do) commetn on my weight every chance they get. They mean well, but it just doesn't work.
Then I met my husband. After abusing myself with food and other nasties, I thought I was entirely unlovable and no one in their right mind would ever want anything to do with me. My husband proved me wrong. He had his own set of problems, and I somehow found myself capable of helping him through them. At the same time, while helping him, he was helping me. I finally felt worthy of love, and we got married. Unfortunately, I still had the behavior of overeating anytime anything happened. My dear husband supports me in anything I choose to do, so if I want to eat, he lets me eat. Not too handy when I was already over 100 pounds overweight.
My husband knew something I didn't: I would lose the weight when I was ready to. So, here I am--29 yearsd old, married 7 1/2 years, two kids aged 7 and 5, and I am finally giving myself what I never thought I deserved. A good healthy body, and the beginnings of being able to cope without food. There are still lots of struggles, but I am gettting there.

Gosh--this is personal. Forgive me for not posting my name.

I'm a food addict, and we tend to get fat as a result of our addiction.

For real, food was my God for a very long time. My life revolved around getting my fix and planning for my next fix, really no time for a life. I got fat due to my addiction like an alcoholic or drug abuser gets thin due to disinterest in anything other than the high.

I gave up alcohol and cigarettes (5 packs a day) and found food addiction to replace the compuslive and obsessive behavior I had shared with those 2 vices. Plus around the same time (43?) my bad leg started to act up and my aerobic exercises went to almost nil. Too much food in...too little exercise...too blind to see until it was so far past time for corrective action that my health and life was in jeopardy.

Fortunately, I have seen the error of my ways and the bane of my existance. Her name is sugar. Woof!

I'm with Paris.

Though I'm not addicted to just any old food--I'm addicted to sugar.

Why?

For the same reason most people are addicted to drugs. It makes me feel good. It gives me a high. It's pleasurable. It's addictive.

And it's probably done more damage to me than alcohol and smoking combined.

There are many reasons I probably became a sugar addict--poor childhood, abusive relationships, chemical inbalances... but even after I got my emotions pretty well under control, I continued to self-medicate with sugar.

Stopping has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

Hmm, why am I fat?? I have never been skinny. I have pictures of myself at 4 years old. I was the heaviest kid on the T-Ball team, what an awful picture. I used to go to my grandmas house and get anything I wanted to eat. The pounds just kept adding up. I was overweight my whole life. I am a food addict. Sweets especially, and I never knew that untiil this plan, LOL Anyway, I will never be "skinny", just a lot smaller.

I was never thin as a child. Looking back, I looked pretty darn good.

When I graduated high school, I was a 16/18. In college, I lost until I was about a 12/14 and was perfectly content being that size. I went on the birth control pill (Ortho tricyclen) and gained 80 lbs in less than a year and a half. During that time, I was exercising excessively and was consuming 1000-1200 calories per day. This pill was NOT the right one for me. My doc wouldn't listen to me. (Darn male doc. That's like going to a mechanic who has never owned a car.)

In by 1999, I was off the pill and my weight had stabilized. I wasn't losing, but I wasn't gaining. In January 2000, I was date raped. Looking back, I think I really was trying to distance myself from men. I didn't want anyone to look at me, touch me, or be near me. I quit exercising. I sat down with my tub of Ben & Jerry's, ate until I was nauseous...and ate some more. I managed to gain about 60 more pounds on top of the hormonally driven 80 that I'd gained a few years before.

I was thin until the third grade when I started to develop breasts. Then the fat packed on with no noticeable changes in anything I was doing. It did not help that I did not know how to cook, and my mom's idea of a gourmet dinner was what came out of the microwave. At about age 15, when I got my driver's license, I started driving myself to the National Military Park and walking the three mile loop at least once a week. The new activity sped up my metabolism and I got down to about a size 14. Since I tend to wear my weight well, I was actually starting to look good. Then my stepfather hit on me. I completely freaked out. I went suicidal for a while and stayed out of the house unless I could not help it, or I was sure he would not be there. When I got to college, the suicidal and cutting behaviors continued, so my GP put me on Paxil. My body responded to it almost immediately, and I was functional for the first time in many years. Unfortunately, instead of having the side effect of an appetite suppressant, the medication along with the college lifestyle ended with me packing on about 75 pounds.
Fast forward to graduate school in washington DC. I was doing well, and beginning to take public transportation and walking rather than driving everywhere. I still was eating unhealthily, but things were getting better. Then, as I was crossing the street one evening after night class, I was hit by a car. It is one of those beautiful and rare times where being fat saved my life. It kept my hip from being shattered and significantly cushioned my fall. After that accident, I could not walk distances or up stairs for several months. All the time, however, I continued to eat the same types of convenience food (I was living in someone's basement and really did not have a kitchen--it was a microwave and a hotplate). Now there are no excuses. This is my life; I've made it what it is, and I can change what I need to.
Thanks for asking and giving me this opportunity to remind myself of where I've been and where I'm going

Why am I Fat? Other than the fact that I ate too much.

I believe my heavyness was due to emotional eating. I was thin growing up, had a moment of chubbyness when I was 15 but that quickly went away and it was only really about 10 pounds that I was over. But doctors back then you know, just 10 pounds was enough to make them put you on calorie restricted diets.

Anyways, at 19 I got preggo and being a single Mom really was the hardest thing I had to ever go through in my life. Not having done things the right way and realizing that the Father would never marry me really put me on an emotional roller coaster. When we fought, I ate, when I cried I ate, when the baby cried, I'd get upset and I ate. When the baby smiled and looked just like his Father, I ate. It was really hard.

It came to a point where even after life got better for me as a single mom, anything stress related being at home, work, or motherhood, always led me to eating in order to comfort myself.

I thank God for Atkins. I've learned to control my emotional eating and actually I exercise now when I get emotional, much better habit to have if you ask me.

Plus having the support of my DH makes life so much easier and worth living now.

Hugs to all, may you all be successful in this weight loss journey.

I eat to deaden the pain. When I eat I become numb to my feelings. I also feel safe wrapped in my fat armour. I am trying to change all this. I know where the pain comes from but how do you undo 40 years of swallowing pain?

Wow--on the surface, a simple answer but delving deeper the question certainly deserves more thought and answers I have not yet found.

I've been somewhat chunky all my life some years moreso than others. But I remember the roots of my food addiction took place some time around 4th or 5th grade. I used to come home from school and just eat, eat, eat. I've no trauma to tie it to at least on a surface level.

Just this weekend, I was feeling drawn to eat outside of being hungry and when trying to figure out why, I just kept having a feeling of fear and restlessness. Didn't understand it, ate anyway.......But this is the stuff I need to work through.

So, I'm fat because I eat too much. I eat too much for reasons I haven't quite found the answers to yet. But I'm working on it, darn it!

Laura

I was overweight as a kid but managed to thin down in college because my dorm room HAD NO FOOD, I only had money enough for one meal a day, and I got exercise walking all over campus.

Then I got married and a refigerator came into my life... and well... I became the refrigerator! I always loved food, and just having it available was too much for me, especially the carbs and surgars!

It took years, but slowly I gained weight until a lot of things became difficult to do. But it was such a slow process that you just don't see it. Even looking at myself in the mirror, I somehow wouldn't feel that overweight!

Anyway, I knew I had to do something or I was going to get in serious health trouble, and then I heard of Suzzane Sommers plan... ahhh! It was like a gift from heaven. Not her mind you. Her plan!

And it's worked for me! Down 130 pounds today in fact! And I'm so glad I've overcome that curse of food sitting in the refrigerator. It NO LONGER tempts me!!

what a great question- for me- its all my kids fault. ha. i've struggled with weight my whole life- blessed with the slow metabolism gene- and have ALWAYS had to watch what i eat. once i got pregnant, it was like GREAT! an excuse to be fat. then after i had him, it was like- i just had a baby, im allowed to still be fat- and then i had another one- more all you can eat- cant deny those cravings. after my 2nd one- 100 pounds gained in 3 years, it was like one day i looked in the mirror and was like who the hell is that woman?!?! trying to care for 2 kids with no energy and just overall feeling like crap ALL the time. i just made a decision to jump on the LC bandwagon and here i am

I have no clue honestly. I was always the "active" fat kid. The one who played all the sports, was always out playing basketball in the neighborhood etc. sure I had a healthy appetite, but even when we "watched" what I ate it never seemed to help. Then in late high school when I quit playing sports I started adding the weight. I can't wait to get under 250 lbs, I have no clue when I was ever under 250 lbs. You would probably ahve to go back to Junior high(when I was probably around 6'2 250 in 7th and 8th grade)