Since this forum is centered around age, I thought it would be interesting to share the age when we started gaining weight. I'll start:

I was pretty thin and athletic until I was about 17 years old, then it came on really fast. Within about 2&1/2 years, I had gained a whopping 100lbs. It just went downhill from there. I've yo-yo dieted for the past 10 years and nothing has worked. Right now, I am the smallest I've been in about 7 years, saying that totally blows my mind! lol

How about you all?

I was always a big kid, but not really fat. I was one of those "solid" kids, and I"m tall. So I always FELT huge but wasnt really, looking back in photos I was a normal healthy kid, just not stick thin and tiny like some kids are.

Once puberty hit, I started getting hefty. Again, I never became obese, I skirted around overweight, but being 5ft 10, and 80kg, as a 15 year old girl, you may as well be 200kg becuase it makes you completely unattractive to the opposite sex. I couldnt wear the clothes I wanted at a size 16 (an American 14) because back in the 80's, plus sizes just didnt exist and I wanted the same stuff as the other girls anyway.

I lost a lot of weight on Tenuate at 16 when I had a hip injury - I was very athletic, played softball, netball and tennis. I got down to my current size, about 70kg, of course I nearly went insane from being on amphetamines and my parents eventually realised that the doctor that had put me on them for what was really a 15lb weight problem should have been shot. So back went the weight. I lost it again at about 22 before I got married and spent my 20's at about 75kg, I had my first baby at 28 and got back down to that weight. I must say whilst its technically a fine weight for my height, I was definitely a bit fat - this time around, having lost the weight with a lot of running, I'm an entirely different shape and a good dress size smaller than I was back then. Once I settled into life with a baby, the inevitable happened and I began to gain, I was about 80kg when I became pregnant for a second time at 30. I gained a whopping 20kg (over 40lb) and lost hardly any of it with the birth. Then with breastfeeding, I began to gain more, and my entire life was turned upside down with a baby and a toddler, no more walking, no just going to the gym whenever I felt like it, long hours trapped at home whilst one or the other was asleep, it took me about five years to get up to 100kg. Then I fell pregnant for the third time. Horrified at my weight and my history of pre-eclampsia, I didnt gain ANY weight during that pregnancy, in fact I lost a little. But again, breastfeeding and life with a new baby, 3 years later I was seeing 110kg on the scale. A few attempts to lose that and soon it was 113kg at which point I went and saw the lap band doctor.

so really, for most of my adult life, between 16 and 30, I skirted around the 180lb level for my 5ft 10 height, not ginormous or even obese by any stretch but definitely feeling hefty and unfeminine compared to normal weight people. I was miserable with that kid of weight. By nature, I have a tall, willowy build, I'm meant to be thin, I have quite fine bones and I looked pretty darn chubby at 180.

In those years I'd developed such truly awful habits, I wasnt brought up to eat all day, eat loads of crap, sit around on my fat arse. My mother is nothing like that and was horrified by the lifestyle I was adopting. And I really feel that breastfeeding creates a hormonal environment in me where I gain weight alarmingly, and I did it for six years in total, so there was plenty of opportunity to get fat. Lack of sleep, and lack of organisation didnt help, I didnt shop properly (so hard with a baby and a toddler) etc, and all those little factors just added up.

Well I guess I'll go next. I'm 26 I gained started gaining weight when I was 12 and was 150-190 through out high school at 4'11", after high school i dropped 80lbs that stayed off till about 22 then slowly the weight came back I stayed at 165 for almost a year and a half and then I within the last almost 2 years I've gained 50lbs. I'm trying to get all my appointments done to hopefully get my surgery in april. Well that's my story.

Congratulations to everyone that has had success thus far and to all of you in my situation good luck.

Yep, I was always the fat kid. lol. No story about that. Just the truth.

I was the chubby kid when I was younger and the biggest of my friends in high school, not obese, but definitely a few sizes bigger. I gained to about 90 kilos (200 pounds) when I first moved out of home when I was about 21 and then starved myself down to about 63kilos (145ish pounds) in about 8 months. Then it took me about 6 years to get back to 95 kilos and the rest seriously seemed to arrive overnight one night (well it was more like a year to 18 months after I sustained a knee and back injury and was unable to do ANY exercise without severe pain), I first met with my lapband surgeon at about 110kilos and was 115kilos (250 pounds) the day they gave me my surgery date.

I was a skinny kid. I started gaining weight when I hit Jr High and found a la carte dining in the cafeteria, vending machines, and I started getting rides home from the bus from older friends (it was a mile from the bus stop to home). I gained weight actually pretty slowly. Took about 4 years before I got onto my first diet...the summer before my senior year of HS and I got onto Atkins and lost about 40 lbs (no idea...I didn't weigh at the beginning). Looked awesome, slowly gained the weight back over the school year. Yo-yoed my way on up the scale from there. Thank God that's all over.

Preschool. I was always the second fattest kid in my class, until #1 successfully dieted in freshman year of high school. After that, I was #1.

Umm I guess I was never really the skinny kid, but I wasnt a kid that when you saw me you thought I was chubby. In kindergarten I had a bad encounter with some classmates, and after that I started gaining weight, and managed to keep it on through high school and most of college..lucky me right! lol

Growing up I always thought I was fat...Now that I look back at my pix I wasnt...I was a size 7/8 in high school...I might have been bigger than most girls but I wasnt fat. I'm tall so I always felt bigger than all the other girls!

I started gaining my weight in college....before I knew it I had gained about 75 lbs. We ate out all the time because it was convenient.

I quickly lost 45 lbs only to gain it back plus 25 more....I cant wait to get back to a size 7/8...well I'll settle for 11/12

PPL dont realize the nasty things they say...my greatgrand father saw me last year and I hadnt seen him in a long time and the first thing he says is..you sure have put on some weight since the last time I saw you...my bestfriends dad saw me for the first time in about 5 years last month and he said the same thing....I cant wait to here.....WOW Kanina what have you been doing you look smaller than you did in highschool!!!

I was fat when I was little, but I thinned out in high school. I was about a size 8/10 through high school and thought I was still SO FAT! I could KICK myself now!!

I gained a little weight in college, and was a size 10/12. I looked GOOD in my pictures when I look back, but at the time I was certain I was a cow!

My senior year of college I went through a really bad breakup, moved, and decided to eat all of my feelings... and I didn't stop eating them for 2 years after I had gained 150lbs! It's amazing how easy it goes on, and how hard it is to get it off!

...title is a joke:rolleyes2:. but i remember my dad saying when i was only 4 or 5 mos old, he got a cupcake and smeared the filling around my mouth and i went CRAZY. he said i was 'destined' (sp?) to be overweight. or maybe it was my grandma taking me to mcd's EVERY single day after pre-school? so i think i would say i started gaining weight since i was a baby. poor eating habits were inflicted upon me i guess; i did try doing something about it in h.s. lost a whole bunch of weight, but of course gained it all back and then some.:mad2::glare:

Looking through my elementary school pictures you can see it. One year, I'm a normal little girl - the next my face looks like its been inflated... Lucky me it also happened to be the year my mom decided a perm would look nice... :blushing:

I was about 11 when I started gaining. I was 198 by the time I hit 7th grade and graduated at 250. Went on birth control, tried three brands- gained 10 lbs. each time, up to 280. Quit smoking for 4 months, picked up a Hardee's Breakfast habit to replace it and gained another 25, up to 305. And over the course of the last three years I gained about 12 from eating lots of cheap noodle based meals (god I love carbs...) :wub:

Hm.. since I was born! I was always tall and "big boned"

I guess by time I was 13, I realized it was.. I was tall and fat.

One day when I'm not lazy, I'll scan some young pics of me.. when I was discussing this surgery to get a loan from the bank of Mom & Dad, my mom said I was always the big kid, I have an older bro and younger sister, who are both overweight.. but as kids, I was the only one of the 3 that was always big.

I put on some weight at 13 but was always about the 182 pound mark but I am tall. Then when I was17 I went to university and was working hard, partying and always broke so dropped to about 140. I couldn't believe I was attractive for the first time in my life as my friends were always the pretty ones while I was the "funny" one.

At 20 I fell pregnant and was back to my pre pregnancy weight(about 160) within weeks of having my daughter.

When she was 6 months old I had the contraceptive implant and gained 85lbs in 6 months! I got depressed and wouldn't leave the house and ate for comfort and over the next year I put on another 24lbs.

I'm 25 now and have been trying for 5 years to lose the weight. Slimming clubs, weight loss pills, crash diets, gym etc. My appetite is huge though and my partner is really thin but he eats what he wants (usually junk food) so thats why I'm hoping the band will be the tool for me!

So my target is 180 and I would be happy with that. If I could get lower than that great, but I won't worry if I don't!

Thank you Mom, for constantly reminding me when I first started gaining wait, and haven't let me forget since!

I started gaining weight in 1st or 2nd grade, enough that I quickly became the fat kid. I know I was very overweight by then because by 3rd grade I had to start seeing a dietician (that didn't last long, logging food never worked for me. I could tell you exactly what I ate but it had no effect on me).

I was up to 340 lbs. by the time I started college, lost 55 lbs. my second semester there, then gained over 120 lbs. I have no idea how much I actually weigh right now because I haven't been to a doctor's office with a scale that goes over 350 in a year and a half (I was 407 back then).

I was a skinny kid. Reached my full height of 5'4" in 7th grade and weighed 110 through HS. and collage Weighed 115 when married and had a 23" waist. I actually tried to put on a little weight for my wdg so my colar bones wouldn't stick out (I was self conscious about them) Then I had 6 kids in 10 years. At one time during that time I weighed 100# and had no boobs. At age 32 I started gaining a few # a year and welcomed it untill I got to 132. Then I started to think I might be getting fat so I tried some silly diets and got fatter with each one. At age 40 I quit smoking and gained 40# and went over the 200# mark and got really serious about dieting. Then would lose 10, gain 20, for years. Two years ago my oldest son committed suicide and I ate through my pain and gained another 40# bringing me to my highest of 286. Sorry for the long story, but I've had a long life.