Daily Post--2/17/08

So, Sunday already..... I did not get the buddy matches done yet. I'll get on that once I get home and get the list posted. Monday will be our first roll call for the Easter round and I will get that message posted tonight too. Sunday's topic: What, if anything, caused you to gain weight till you were obese/morbidly obese? Was there a medical reason? Were you a binge eater? Do you attribute it to emotional stress? Please share so that others can learn! Lea

I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome 15 years ago. Before that, I always thought it was my fault, one way or another. So many times over the years I had heard "but you don't eat much". Such a relief to know it really wasn't my "fault". As a result of that, though, I had to undergo infertility treatment in order to have my son. Thank God it worked. I also take Metformin to manage the other "wonderful" aspects of this illness. Four years ago I lost 70 pounds on Atkins. Two years ago I started gaining it all back in spite of following the same mealplan for two years. Finally, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Hypothyroid. That took another year to stabilize and in that time I gained back all the weight I had lost and then some. After this disease was stabilized and my levels were normal, I tried losing weight, and lost 10 whole pounds. WHOOPPEE!! That's when I decided to go with weight loss surgery. I've lost 54.5 pounds since last June and I'm never looking back.

My reason is I like food to much! I am an emotional eater so I eat when happy, sad, stressed, joyful, you get the picture! I still battle the food demons daily! But nothing tastes as good as thin feels!

Hi lEa, Mine was mostly emotional. I ate because I was bores, sad, tired, mad, happy....I also had an underactive thyroid which I know contributed to the weight gain. I gained 64 pounds in 3 months when they found the thyroid problem. I just kept eating because I figured I was already "this fat" I might as well keep going. BAD CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Katy

I was obese for as long as I can remember. My mother was too, and had WLS two years before I did. My earliest memory is of my uncle offering me chocolate cake if I'd come to his house - I think I was three. I never knew "normal". I weighed 231 when I got pregnant with my daughter, and was 250 when she was born. The stress of having a baby and being a single mother got the best of me, and I continued to gain weight. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and I began medication to control this. Soon after, I was diagnosed with clinical depression, and began taking Paxil, which has the known side effect of weight gain (thanks a bunch, doc!). I gained 75 pounds in a few months. I never felt like I ate more than a normal person. Looking back now, I don't think it was the quantity but the quality (or lack of) that put me in the position I was in. Nutrition was a mystery to me until I met Dr. Krahn.

Thats a hard one... and not a really nice one. When I was younger I was molested by my step father and his brother. They would say things like when she gets older she is going to have a nice body, etc... As I got older I did get a nice body and the molestions did not stop but got worse. I was severly depressed and thought if I ate, I would get fat and they would leave me alone, so I did gain weight but that did not deter them. In 1978 I was very sick with T.S.S and almost died, so they put me on steriods and I gained lots of weight... I have been on steriods on and off since then. I find that when I am given a compliment, i get scared and eat.. So I would always sabatoge my diets. For me its alot of emotional stress. I did have years of therapy but it did not all help. When I decided on this I did not tell anyone, The day before surgery I told my b/f and I made him promise not to tell me when I was losing or that I looked good.. My entire family did find out and they have put me down for it.. just like everything else.. The only good thing I can say about what those years did to me was I have a sixth sence of men now, and can tell by just looking at a man and the way he interacts with children if he is a molester.. and I have told men in resturants that I know what they are. So for me it was two reasons, Emotional eater and medications, plus the stress.

I've never been a small girl but part of my problem came from eating out too much and enjoying food. After I got to be over 240 my health just went downhill from there and ther e was nothing I could do to lose it, my metobolism was shot to heck and I was too sick to exercise. Take care! Kellie

"I've never been a small girl but part of my problem came from eating out too much and enjoying food." Same for me. There is a genetic component for me too. My grandmother had RNY back in the 80's, I've had it and now my mother is pursuing Lap-Band. No matter what I ate or how much I exercised, I still gained (or yo-yoed!)

My sister had it done in the 80's also! My mom was never overweight but she had 3 overweight girls and it drove her crazy!! Kellie

I'm definitely an emotional eater, plus I like food. Jules