I've spent a bit of time lately thinking about how and when I got so fat. I'm surprised by my own conclusions.

1. Sugar: Brownies and fudge for Snacks during college. Every day. Net Gain: +30 lbs

2. Weight Watchers*: I lost the weight and I gained it back, plus a little extra. I re-joined, lost some weight and gained it back, plus a little extra. I'm sad to say I joined many times before I learned my lesson. The end result was always the same. Net Gain: +15 lbs

3. Phentermine: I loved Phentermine. It made me happy, gave me energy, and completely destroyed my desire to eat; I shed pounds like rain off an umbrella. I gained the weight back faster than you can blink and it brought many many many friends. In retrospect, I think I lost a lot of muscle and my metabolism slowed way down. Net Gain: +40

4. Cyproheptadine: An anti-histamine. The doctor told me not to worry that it was also used to treat anorexia; I should have worried. Net Gain: +15 lbs

You know what's not on this list? All my other bad eating habits (besides sugar). I have plenty of them, but I truly don't think they've played a significant role in my weight gain over time. My weight has been incredibly stable apart from the periods listed above. It gives me hope for the future.

*I know I'm about to receive a lot of flak for this one!

I was a premature birth, just over 4 pounds. They tell me I was overweight by the time my mom could take me home. I've been overweight every since. I have no idea what it means to be skinny.

I was 10 pounds 4 ounces at birth, I have never been normal weight. Growing up food was always whatever was quickest and easiest for my mom. Lots of fast food and fried items. Also due to things from my dads childhood he would binge nightly so my mom encouraged us kids to eat our junk food and hide it so my dad wouldn't find it. So it was a bad unhealthy eating environment all around. Created lots of bad habits that were very hard to overcome as an adult.

Food was my "friend". Consoled me when I was sad and celebrated with me when I was happy. We are no longer in the circle of friendship...although the b@stard still keeps calling me

I vividly remember the first time I asked for food when I wasn't hungry. I was 6. We had just gotten back from my grandfathers funeral. I asked for a bologna sammich.

tasted good. Felt better. Hey if it works for that... it should smack boredom right in the chops eh?

Eating like every meal was my last! Oh yea and thyroid issues but mostly me pigging out.

This is a complex question, but when I look at childhood photos, I was pretty normal size until about 1st grade. What happened the year I was 5? I was molested by a teen boy.

So I think I used food as a coping mecanism because in my family we weren't allowed to "act out" or verbalize our needs due to abusive father. Every time I dieted down I believe I became anxious (did not recognize it at the time) over time, I think the fat itself became what caused me to be hungry all the time (obesity as a disease process).

Food became my self medications of choice because my dad was also obese and overeating was always an ok thing, even encouraged. During the 80s, I got sucked into the low fat craze - you know how Pasta and rice and whole wheat bread were good for you? Turns out, I am quite carb sensitive so my whole belief system around healthy eating was wrong.

Four years of undiagnosed SIBO raging out of control. Created a waterfall of sugar cravings, micronutrient deficiencies, sleep deficit, autoimmune flares, GI disfunction, food sensitivities, endocrine dysregulation, cravings, binging, dieting, lather, rinse, repeat.

Interesting question. I was a heavy kid, and I think it was an area of comfort in a dysfunctional home. I got my weight down to normal my Jr. year in high school and was at a health consistent size until I left the Army Reserve and had kids. I just didn't pay attention and then my train wreck of divorce it just kept getting more out of control. So when I found myself 50, and a heart attack waiting to happen I started using weight watchers to try and get my size down. Didn't work.

So specifically what lead to becoming obese...it was being lazy about my food choices (easier to eat processed/fast food), and not exercising. Depression helped make it easier not to pay attention too.

My mom always said the difference between her and her skinny friend was that her friend, when she gained a few lbs, did what it took to lose it. Mom just accepted the few lbs, not thinking it mattered that much. Fast forward 20 years and it mattered a lot. Mom's been telling me that since I was a skinny teenager. I didn't listen, obviously, but it's my new mantra.

I think one of the biggest factors was that I had a HUGE appetite. Growing up we would have our dinner and always wanted seconds after eating a porion just as big as my dad's and my parents would say i had enough. But i was not satisfied. So a couple times in the evening i would sneak back in the kitchen and sneak some food. Then i got older and got out on my own and had nobody watching me so i ate what i wanted...on the way to work i would stop and get some breakfast items. Then sometimes i woukd go out to lunch. Then driving home i would get something to munch. Thn i would come home and have dinner. Then snack in the evening. So its no wonder that my weight skyrocketed.

I too had a huge appetite. I used to walk home from elementary / middle school the whole time promising myself not to eat. By the time I got home, I devoured anything that wasn't moving and then ready for a huge dinner in a few hour. I think that appetite came from a high carb diet. My parents were in the dairy business and I could drink a quart a day of cow's milk, for example. We also had a lot of pastries, cookies etc around. I think WHAT i ate contributed to the hunger monster.

Too much cake.

100% dieting. I was put on my first diet at 11 by my mother. I was a normal weight and she put me on slim fast. It hurt my body image and destroyed my natural intuition about how much food to eat.

By high school I had gained some weight from poor eating habits... That I then took off with a crash diet. Worked like a dream.

By college I was anorexic. I figured out dieting was like therapy- I equated thinness and striving to be thin with happiness and self worth. Through college I constantly dieted and rebound binged. I had a cycle of dieting and binge eating for years that kept my weight average to chubby. I always felt fat. I eventually became bulimic in a desperate attempt to deal with my ever increasing binge episodes.

I became pregnant by accident when I was bulimic. I was 150 pounds at 5'6. Pregnancy was the first time in my adult life I wasn't on a diet. I binged and binged and binged and gained 100 pounds in 9 months. I could not handle the emotional stress of not dieting. Plus I was emotionally starved by that point.

Over the next five years I sought therapy for my issues. They told me not to diet again, that as long as I did I would gain rebound weight. The e planned it was a biological reaction to lowering calories. Whenever I didn't diet my weight remained stable, but if I ever did, I would regain everything I lost and then some.

My marriage fell apart over my weight gain and depression over my body. My ex tortured me about my looks and inactivity and I ate even more to cope with that.

Dieting caused weight gain but I also ate to cope. Ever since that first diet I felt deprived of food and it became a way to treat myself to something extra special. Food was never just food for me. It was my drug of choice.

Why do we gain weight.... Emotional eating.. Dieting... The addictive nature of the American processed diet... Lack of nutrition... Inactivity that only gets worse as one gains...

So many reasons.

This surgery allowed me to step away from my emotional eating and have some peace with my food relationship. I find other ways to deal with things now.

I too had a huge appetite. I used to walk home from elementary / middle school the whole time promising myself not to eat. By the time I got home, I devoured anything that wasn't moving and then ready for a huge dinner in a few hour. I think that appetite came from a high carb diet. My parents were in the dairy business and I could drink a quart a day of cow's milk, for example. We also had a lot of pastries, cookies etc around. I think WHAT i ate contributed to the hunger monster.

If anything will make a person fat, it's milk. Why do you think we give it to newborn babies that then almost double in size within a month!!!

Too much cake.

Mmm, cake!