an offshoot of "Are you attracted to overweight people" thread..

[DerickM 1]

first of all, SOMEBODY teach me how I make a poll on this forum, I am a forum vet but I can't figure this place out!!!! :faint:

Anyways, The thread I mentioned got me too thinking (which may or may not be a bad thing considering what I am going to be talking about) , how many of you used to be skinny and then just gained weight due to kids,life changes, etc.? or How many of you have been overweight your whole life/long as you can remember?

Also, for those of you who used to be skinny. Did you deride (best word I can think of at the moment for what I am trying to convey) overweight people? overweight persons and how did you feel after you became overweight when the tables were turned? Did you ever think about it that way?

I am NOT trying to be mean and I understand that this may be an uncomfortable topic for some, however in my studies of human psychology this MAY help some by unloading some excess baggage on your mind "getting it off your chest" in other words.

For those of you who did "make fun" or tease those of us who were overweight when you were younger or whatever I wish to convey this:

*hugs* I forgive you *hugs*

:cry I hope I don't get in trouble or raked over the coals for this thread

[angie92 0]

I used to be thin(120) in high school and after meeting my husband. I started gaining weight after HS because I didn't excercise like I used to. I was in Poms in school and always busy doing things. Then once I met my DH we started eatin out at McDonald's all the time and I sat around alot more. We still did stuff but not like in HS. When we got married I weighed 160. My DH got a job on the railroad and with no kids I would eat when he got home no matter what time. By the time I got pregnant @ 26 I weighed 230. In 2004 I quit my job at a law firm and my husband and I started losing weight in Jan I lost 20lbs. On Feb. 13 my aunt who pretty much raised me found out she had lung cancer. At that point I didn't give a shit about nothin. My weight loss goals were out the window. She passed away in June of 06. I've been trying off and on this year to lose weight to no avail. I stepped on the scale in Aug. and was at 277lbs. my heaviest ever. I sat down and cried. I couldn't believe how I let myself go and the example I was setting for my son.

I never did make fun of overweight people because I always had a prob. with my weight when I was growing up. My mom was always skinny and would put me on diets. It sucked. The best part was she had to have a hysterectomy 3 yrs ago and gained weight. I told her it's not so easy to take it off is it?

Well that's my skinny to overweight story. I hope to be banned in the beginning of next year. I enjoy reading everyones success and complications with the band. There is no miracle cure for being overweight, it is something that we will have to deal with until we are called home.

[CCBSTX 0]

Until 13 I was kinda chunky.

13-20 considered slim.

I gradually gained my weight...10 pounds a year. With a few diets in between, which helped me to gain more...

I've never made fun of anyone in my life. Fat, skinny, race slurs, poor, etc. It was always a "turn off" to be around folks that thought they were better than others. It still is...

Once I gained my highest weight, I never felt THAT overweight. I just felt bad that I couldn't keep up with my family and I was always tired. Personality wise I've remained the same throughout.

Shawn

[lianna 3]

I was never overweight until my mid 20s. Got married at 25 and moved to South Texas. I dont know if it was the food (beans and rice, chips and salsa, PLUS the good ol meat an taters) or what, but I steadily gained. I attribute it to poor food choices, large portions, and a hot humid lazy "manana" attitude. Once I started teaching here I LITERALLY gained 50 lbs in 5 years. Who knows how or why we get fat? To make a blanket statement on the cause is ill concieved and steriotypical.

edited to add that regarding the last sentence: i get weary of people assuming that ALL overweight people have eating disorders and addiction.

[Kat817 19]

I was extremely thin growing up, with never having to pay one whit of attention to what or how I ate. I struggled when I married the 1st time to gain enough for my dres to fit properly!!! Then the reality of the marriage hit...and along with it come depression. I gained some, not a lot, going from 115 to say 140, lost a baby, never lost the baby weight. Had a baby, and lost a bit, but not much. Divorced, and began to seriously struggle financially, to raise my DD with no Child support, and no formal education. I think depression as well as life helped me gain weight then. Living on as little money as we were, the cheap things to eat, are not good for you!!! Ramen noodles, mac & cheese, fattest grade of hamburger....and through the years the weight just kept coming on. I eventually went back to school, and made a good life, for my daughter and myself, but habits were set. I opened a day care, and I ate and snacked with all the kids. I was fat and happy, and they loved me. They loved me just the way I was, my lap was comfy to snuggle up on!!! I had no desire to be married again, or date, my ex and his abuses had left a serious mark on me. Enter the love of my life (loooong story, but I let him get away once!!! Or he let me.....), and he accepted me as I was which was well over 250 by that time. We married, and I was happy, but by then I was just used to eating!!! I think somewhere in the back of my mind I was just waiting for him to say something about it. Years passed and he didn't, and I lost fairly well with Atkins, and he was right there with me supporting but not pushing...so when I fell off of it, and he still said nothing mean....I relaxed, and knew he was here good or bad, and began looking into WLS. My SIL is a wheel with a major insurance company, and she mentioned Lap band to me...and I began looking up things, and did that for over a year. Finally approached my insurance, began jumping through their hoops.....and over 10 months into a 12 month required supervised diet etc, I had a car accident, not my fault, and they required me to start my 12 months over. I ended up using the settlement from my accident, and self paid. Best money I ever spent. And DH is still as supportive, but he has made it known he is HAPPY about the weight loss, he says the girl he knew backin high school is coming back!!

And no I never teased the overweight kids in school...I got my Mom called to school for sticking up for a boy they were saying had fleas. Even the teacher giggled....guess telling her to shut up was not the way to handle it!!!

Kat

[Ariel 1]

My whole life i have been overweight. It's funny now though looking back at pics, i was not as big as i felt. I have always used food as my emotional crutch( i'm working on fixing that) , so somehow i can't help to think that if i was never made fun of for being oveweight i would not be where i am now. let me elaborate, in grade school i was chubby and the kids would tease me to no end about that. I could not talk to my mom about it because ever since the 4th grade she had me going to weight watchers. I therefor would just gorge myself on food until the pain went away. It produced a vicous cycle. I would get made fun of for being fat, so i would go eat, which made me even fatter. I know it is my fault for eating and letting myself get this way but i still wonder if i was never made fun would i be as big as i am now?

[apinksoprano 0]

Hello all, I was born chunky and thinned out at about 4-6 years old and that was it....For the rest of my life I have always been overweight and struggling forever...I was at weight watchers with my mom when I was 12, recommended by my doctor, very sad...But I was severely made fun of espercially in Junior high school, I remember I wanted to quit and never go back...My father actually had to go to parents houses cause I was so depressed and scared to be humilated time and time again and then I just got used to it....High school was fine I made a ton of friends, won best personality in my class, was the chubby cheerleader who everyone liked but I still had those jerks that made their comments....AFter high school as I have gotten older and have realized I have a problem with food I didnt get motivated to stop it I got more embarassed and isolated myself so nobody would know of my problem...I have been yo yo dieting for my entire adult life and a little before..I am ready to make it work and be the shining star I always wanted to be and not have to deal with the shallow people of america anymore....They can stick it, hahahaha

[Lisa99 1]

0 - 12 - Fat baby and stayed that way until I was about 12 (a favorite uncle used to "lovingly" call me "fat cat" when i was little...everybody thought it was funny, I didn't).

12 - 23 - was an athlete and cheerleader in school so I lost all of the baby fat and kept it off. After high school, got married and had a son. From 15 - 23 weight was 125.

23 - marriage started falling apart and within a year I weighed 175!! Divorced at 25 and my weight dropped back to 140ish.

29 - remarried to my DH, weighed about 140. He's a big guy and I found myself eating more than I ever had. We also ate out A LOT. Over the years the weight crept up. We dieted together several times and were successful but it never stayed off.

45 - Heaviest of my life at just over 200. Decided to follow in DH footsteps and get the lapband. Best decision of my life!

[Jachut 487]

I never had a serious weight problem till after my second baby was born.

I was NEVER thin though, so I did suffer a fair bit of childhood stuff, teasing and never being on of the cool, pretty girls. I never got the guys or anything like that, although I met my DH at 16 and I never needed too. I would have liked to have been hit on though, lol.

I was always about the size I am now, 5ft 10, 84 kg. Its only a few kgs above my ideal weight, so only just overweight. But I"m a "big girl". God I hate those words, but if you're tall, you need to be very willowy or you just look well "big". I'd love to be 5ft tall and 42kg like my SIL! But that will never happen.

So I've never been totally happy in my skin. But I should have appreciated what I had because I got much fatter after I had Ewan, the change in lifestyle and being at home all the time is what got me. You dont notice it so much after your first baby because one baby is so portable - I still went to the gym etc, but with a baby and a toddler it gets much harder. And then you put on so much weight you kind of just give up, and let it get worse. You think "oh, well, I'm getting older".

But I've never been morbidly obese either, however I think thats just a matter of luck. My body started to protest enough for me to listen, before I got to that point or I would have been there within 10 years, for sure.

[Marimaru 7]

I've been overweight as long as I can remember. Pictures show that I wasn't as big as I thought I was, but I was still overweight. I gradually went up over the years, jumped a fair amount when I started on Depo, and then jumped a bit again when I started on Paxil.

Right now, I'm about the same size (maybe even a little smaller) than when I graduated high school. I'm currently aiming for Jr. High, lol.

When I was a kid, I was 'aware' of people who were overweight, but it was never really something that occurred to me as a problem, or something different that should be brought to light with teasing, or whatever. I was teased for it, along with being poor and not having the variety of new clothing one "should" have.

I went to Subway today for lunch, and there were 2 women there who were rather large, and each got a footlong sub. Each sub had mayo layered on both sides of the bread, and then a 3rd layer on top of the meat once it was put on. Again, it wasn't something I thought "make fun" of, but more I felt a kind of pitty for knowing that there was a very good chance they were going to end up miserable in the future.

[ralheit 0]

I have had a weight problem my entire life. I was even put in the back row with the boys in my kindergarten picture because I was bigger than all the other girls. Over the years I was on every diet known to mankind starting at age 8. There were thin periods in there, but then I would gain all the weight back plus more until I just never stopped gaining and couldn't lose no matter what I tried. This went on all my life to my top weight of over 300 pounds. Since the band I am pushing toward a 50 pound loss and feeling pretty good about it. I just hope and pray that this will be the road to the healthy happy life I've always searched for.

No, I never made fun of "fat" people, I was usually the brunt of everyone elses jokes. I was brought up to be tolerant of others size, color, religion, etc. and have always been very offended by off color or cruel jokes.

Between genetics, bad choices, medications and just plain giving up hope, my life over the last 20 years has been miserable. I am so happy and excited at where I am so far and am looking forward to a much better life.

[bosteph 2]

Well, I am going to confess (even if I'm the Lone Ranger here).

I was a "Mean Girl" (like the movie) in high school. I was very fit, very curvy and very endowed. The boys chased me and the girls wanted to be me. That may sound conceited to some of you but that's how it was...

Fast forward a couple of years from high school to a very tough pregnancy. I lost over 20 lbs in the first four months of pregnancy and the doctors were extremely concerned. I was put on a 4000 calorie per day diet. Do you know how hard it is to consume 4000 calories per day when you only weight 120 lbs? Well, as time went on it became easier. In fact, I was on that 4000 calorie diet until about 5 years ago. My child is now 16 years old - YIKES!!!! The weight is stuck and this led me to the lap band decision.

Yes, I was mean. Yes, I was judgemental. Yes, I made fun of everyone. Yes, I'm now fat. And yes, I feel horrible about all of those things. I am moving forward and I will not (can't) continue to punish myself because of things I said and did as a kid. I deserve a fresh start because everyone does - at least once.

[carol453 0]

So far I am the first person on this thread to say this but until I was 32 I couldn't keep weight on. I grew up in a house with what I thought of as normal sized people. My family was all healthy weight. I was called names because I was so thin and I promise it hurts just as bad. Now as a obese person I have had a hard time feeling bad about the weight gain. I don't make fun of obese people in fact I tend to be attracted to heavy men. I guess everything is in how you percieve it. I am having lapband because I want to stop taking all this medicine that I am on. I am 5'7" and I would be happy at 160lbs all day long. Personally I am a happy fat girl but it is making me sick so the time has come to do something and I don't seem to be able to diet and excerise to lose it. I joined Curves today and have surgery Dec. 4 so wish me luck!