I wasnt fat as a child, a pre-teen, teenager, or in early adulthood. I was fairly slim weighing around 125-130, size 7/9, all through school. In my early 20s I went to 150's. At 26 I met my husband and was at 158. (152 in wedding dress) After 13 years being happily married I now weigh 228. There has never been a week/month/year that stands out for weight gain. It has just gradually crept up. Around 5 lbs a year, nothing drastic. I am definitely a yoyo dieter. I have gained and lost the same 20 lbs. so many times, and then some. I sometimes feel like I have let the weight creep up BECAUSE I am happy. I was all the recognized things in high school,,. class favorite, homecoming queen, straight A, etc..... I dont have an unhappy childhood or an unhappy adulthood. I now have a college ed, good paying job, great marriage, and great home life. I always wonder if I would be as miserable about my weight if I had always had to fight it. I have a great self-esteem, has it helped to get me to this weight? I sometimes wonder who has it worse, those who have always been heavy......or those who become heavy, guess this is an informal poll......lol

I was fat beginning early in childhood - multiple traumas and a Grandmother who made me clean my plate... It seems I have always been the "fat girl". Still am... **sigh**

Been fat since I'm 6 years old.

My highest weight was 300+, lowest 150 lbs.

I can lose it, I just can't keep it off.

I'm heading back up to 300 and tired of the fight, I need help!!

My mom says that once I learned how to open the refrigator by myself the problems began.....so, yes, I always had a weight problem. In 3rd grade I weight 106 pounds.....highest as an adult was 353....lowest as an adult was 132....BUT, that is all behind me as I travel on my journey!!!!

Well when i was a child i was not fat... at birth i was almost ten lbs but i was a small to average child but when i was bout 9 or ten i started packing those pounds on like crazy. All thru high school i was the big girl but i wasnt huge i got huge after high school... i flirted with the 300 then i had surgery. Im still chunky!!!

Kim

Always fat, here. I have never been "normal" so I don't know what it would feel or look like. The up side to that is that everything now is new and wonderful, and I don't have some elusive goal I will feel like a failure for not reaching.

In that regard I think having always been fat is a positive with regard to this WLS journey--every new milestone is that much more amazing and it helps keep things in perspective. Sanity and peace are more important to me than size 12.

Always a fatty here too. I remember being chubby, even at age 4.

glitterqueen, great thread... it's makes you stop and analyze.

I don't remember feeling any different during elementary school.. I've looked back at the school pictures and I looked pretty cute (normal)! Of course, most of that time I was active in tap/ballet/jazz.

I have to say I've had problems with my weight since middle school (12/13 yrs old). I was no longer in dance, but I still remember being very active. My parents had a "rule" that before we could leave the dinner table we would have to ask to "be excused" - and couldn't leave the table unless they were satisfied we sufficiently cleaned our plates... I'm not blaming them (LOVE them to death!), just something I remember.

During high school I was overweight, my mom was a dietician and she tried many times to help me battle the bulge! But, she's a GREAT cook.. we're originally from Louisiana where rice is a staple of the every day diet and with au jus gravy on top it rules!!! She suffered from mental depression for many of those years and it was such an unsettling time, as a kid it was very tough and at the time my weight was not too much of a concern to me.

During my early 20's I went up steadily. When I got married at 25 I weighed 190, without much effort I got down to 170 ('course I was very busy working a full time job, going to college for EMT training, and volunteering with our county 911 service on my days off). Then I got pregnant! I think I was 205 when my son was born in April 1997. I never got all of the pregnancy weight off, and a year and a half later I started a new job that involves sitting all day at the computer.

I did get rid of approx 200 lbs when I divorced in May of 2000!! In the form of my ex-husband that's another story!

So, since being in my current job I have put on another 45-50 lbs and feel miserable. My metabolism is sooo slow, I get extremely busy at work that I usually skip lunch and never feel it. When I get home is when I have the problem.. eating too late/snacking too much. As long as I'm active it keeps my mind off of food. Like right now, I've been reading posts and for an hour or so and haven't snacked one bit. I've been doing low carb to get ready for my surgery in a couple of days.

Sorry I digressed so much... back to your original question! I think your great self-esteem and all the wonderful things you accomplished got you into a comfortable zone? where you get so busy and live your life, before you realize it those 5 lbs/yr have added up to what you see today? Please don't take offense, it's just a guess.

As for me, I've had extremely low self esteem as far back as I can remember. And, in my opinion I have always been heavy and the struggle is extremely difficult. So, I now choose to take control and as of next week I'll be well on my way.

thanks for listening,

I was a normal size 8lb so many ounces baby. But by age 2 I started to get chubby, then fat from there. I wore my aunt's hand me downs in grade school. She was in her twentys. Then by Junior/senior high I was bigger than my aunt so the Goodwill and Used stores was the option. I was always known as the fat girl through out my school days. My highest weight was 327 in September 2004. I could hardly find clothes to fit on my short 5ft 1in frame at that size. Ebay and online Fatty stores were my only option. Then I heard about the Lapband. The rest is history in the making.

I was a fat baby but thinned out until about 2nd grade then was fat until started using speed at about 14 years old. Fat again after baby at 19 but lost alot and weighed my thinnest at 124 pounds. Gained with birth of my sons at age 28 and 32 but lost the weight each time. After entered perimenopause I started putting on weight even while jogging regularly. I was up to 226 when I went for surgery last month.

I was a small baby and healthy toddler, but started putting on weight after my parents took away my dummy (pacifier - I had it until I was 4!!) and I was sexually abused (also at 4 yrs old). So I guess 1979 was a bad year for me, because after that I have never been in the 'healthy weight range'. I have literally pacified myself to being morbidly obese. But now it is time to find new ways to calm myself.

Glitterqueen, my situation is much like yours. I was thin most of my life although I did start to get a bit chubby in my "tween" years, then got very thin, probably too thin in my teens. It wasn't until I turned 25 that I started to gain, but once I did, it just didn't stop. Over the years I managed to lose enough weight to look like my thinner self twice, but I always gained it back after a while, and then some. For the past several years though, I have tried a zillion diets and have failed at each one.

I started gaining weight when I was 12 years old. I didn't really gain a lot until I got pregnant though. After havign a baby, I lost and gained several times until I finally decided I want the band.

Now I look back I've never been obese till the last few years. I've always been slightly overweight. I'm taller than average at 5ft 10 and was always a BMI of about 26-27, so always just over the top of my healthy range. Consequently as a child and teenager I felt like a hippopotomus, how I longed to be petite and pretty and cute. I never will be and I guess I can strive for being striking and elegant instead.

I got through one pregnancy pretty well, came out of it same weight as when I'd conceived, my second pregnancy undid me though. I gained 23kg during the pregnancy so was left with a bit of extra blubber and just the lifestyle change of having a baby and a toddler under 2, I was really stuck with them so young. It was hard to go out for a walk etc, in those few years I gained a LOT of weight and then got pregnant again. I was really concerned by my weight at that time so was extremely careful through the pregnancy and only gained 5kg so came out much lighter than I went in but over the last 2 and a half years I've gained all of that back plus 8 extra kilograms - and now I'm obese.

It was always going to happen though - my eating habits just didnt catch up with me before babies, afterwards and now being 38 and no longer as young and with not such a great metabolism as you have when you're a kid, its piling on steadily.

I was always a chubby kid. Not obese, but one of the largest girls in my class. In about year 5, I started to pile on more pounds. I had one stint of being a 'normal' sized person, in years 10 and 11, but that was due to bulimia. After I got over that, I piled on pounds again.

When I gave birth to my daughter 7 years ago, I weighed 207 lbs. I lost about 25 afterwords and its been a gradual climb since then, leaving me at 262 pre surgery.

Slowly going down though and I'm happier now than I've been in ages.

my story is almost similar to Glitter & Tink,

i was never a fat kid/ teen/ adult.. i gained waight the last years..

and maybe cause i have been too skinny hurts me more that now

im an obese woman.. it pierces my soul! i shy my friends that knew me

always thin and healthy!