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I am the ultimate roller coaster rider when it comes to weight. I have weighed in between 145 (where I should be for my height) and 235 (where I am now) several times in my adult life.
I make no excuses. I have a sickness and I know it. That sickness is compulsive overeating, and I've been warring with it since my last year of high school when I quit athletics. I was 165 when I graduated in 1987. In 1990 I was up to 190 and soon after I went over 200 for the first time. Around 93-94 I got back down to 155. Then I went back up to around 215 for the next few years. In 02-03 I got really motivated and got back down to 148, but I slowly put it back on over the next couple years. In 07 I got down to 185, but that only lasted a few months, and ever since then I haven't been able to get back under 200.
I have a short, stocky body, and so when I am badly overweight it makes me look really hideous, unlike a tall person that might just have a gut. My face especially blows up....it looks like someone keeps slapping playdough on it.
Thing is, I still have that athletes body underneath, and when I start losing weight it doesn't take long to start looking good again. I don't mind saying that I'm a damn good looking guy when I'm at or near my appropriate weight. It's either very bad or very good it seems....
Anyway, not sure why I was even compelled to join this discussion........maybe out of guilt, who knows. I'm worried because I'm entering the age where I need to worry about heart attacks and what not, and yet the urge to eat uncontrollably is stronger than ever.
I'll probably wind up seeing a shrink about this. I don't want to get on medication because of the side effects, but I'll have to do something soon if I can't find a way to get things under control and stable. It's been like this for 20 years now, so I'm pretty discouraged.
I don't expect pity of any kind...there's no excuse for someone like me that can't control themselves and take care of their body. I do think compulsive overating is a true disease, though, and I hope I can conquer it someday - sooner rather than later.
I do think compulsive overating is a true disease, though, and I hope I can conquer it someday - sooner rather than later.
Good post. At least your recognize you have a problem, a lot of people make up an entire laundry list of excuses as to *why* it's nothing they actually do that makes them overweight. I think one major problem is that most people don't start seeing the catastrophic health issues they face until they get into their late 30's and then have been that way for a LONG time. Look no further than the people that have to ride assistance scooters around stores and they are maybe 50?
Basically, I think that people in this situation are pretty much the same way as alcoholics it's just that the latter has more of a social stigma. Either way, people that overweight generally won't live to a ripe old age and will have a greatly diminished quality of life in the interim.
Best of luck, I would seek some sort of support\counseling group, there are a number of people out there that have gone through major transformations on this topic so there are tons of role models.
Honestly..unmotivated complainers bother me.
People who complain about their job but won't take a class to change things.
People who complain about their finances but refuse to budget.
People who weigh 300 pounds because they love to eat junk more than
they love being heathy.
I am close to my perfect weight and I wish I could eat some foods
but I don't and I make myself go walk when I would rather sit around.
I don't mind if someone decides to be large but I mind them
acting like my size 8 is without sacrifice ..like it just happens .
"you are so lucky you have skinny genes!!!"
no I don't !! I just eat heathy and exercise.
I hate the idea that if you're overweight, you MUST eat junk food or you MUST care about that next ding dong more than your health. It's just grossly untrue for many people.
Some people on here know the saga of my health. :P I'm 5'4 and 220 pounds and have been at this weight for the past 3 years or so. To maintain my obesity, as someone put it, I eat a whopping 1400 calories a day. Wow, I'm really breaking the bank there! I count calories and have done it so long that I'd guess I'm generally within 100 calories when I write it down. I write down every food that passes my lips. I don't eat products with gluten, white rice or potatoes, or many processed foods. I'm not always 100% on keeping these products out of my diet, but I'm gosh darn close! I also exercise quite a bit. Due to a bad ankle that I tend to roll every couple of months, instead of run a mile, I quickly walk two. When living in Mexico, I walked EVERYWHERE and would rarely take the bus stops closest to my house or school.
My weight is due to a lovely mix of genetics (I'm the smallest woman on either side of the family, with the exception of my mom), insulin resistance due to PCOS, and routinely having to take prednisone for skin conditions which without fail make me gain 40-50 pounds in a month- no matter what I'm eating (although granted, I tend to get my seasonal prednisone rounds right around finals time at my college).
I hate it that when on the RARE OCCASION I splurge and get a small frozen yogurt or get something I actually want to eat once in a while at a restaurant other than a salad with almost nothing on it, people stare at me or make comments. How dare someone who happens to have the genetic luck to be thin stand behind their 4 scoop ice cream cone at me with my little sugar free sorbet or frozen yogurt in a cup. How DARE they! And it happens whenever I'm out at an ice cream stand (all of about twice a year).
The worst happens from the townies around my school. Rather than take the free shuttle into town, I walk the mile into town and the mile back. Because my school has a limited amount of fruit, I regularly walked to the grocery store and filled my backpack with things I needed and also anything any of my friends asked for. On several of these walks, people leaned out their window and MOOED at me. Not even teenagers- seemingly middle aged people! On one run to the grocery store, my best friend was having a break down and wanted me to get her some chocolate ice cream, fudge, and other chocolate things. Some old man in line behind me admonished me for what was in my cart (of course ignoring my pears, celery, tofu, soy milk, carrot sticks, and hummus). I told him I had just hiked a mile into town in a blizzard to get these things for a friend and he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Stop lying. We all know that someone your size has no self control."
I mean really, what? I can relate to people who are thin having attention drawn to their weight. Whenever I see that happening among my friends, I nip it in the bud. However, how can you relate someone calling you "skinny" (which, in this culture, is a compliment) to complete strangers telling you that you have no self control? Or that you're disgusting? Or taunting you out of car windows? Or that you have a mental illness? I'm sorry, but if you are thin and have never had weight problems- either due to overeating, medical problems, genetics, whatever- then you can't know the pain it is to be overweight. I can't walk around with a sign saying "Sorry that I disgust you, my doctors don't know why I'm fat", so I get judged for something that I am doing everything right to change. I realistically cannot cut down any more calories and even when I've changed my diet in the past or upped my exercise, not much has changed.
Even at my weight, my cholesterol is perfect, my blood pressure is fine, and I most certainly can bend over. I can't run, but that's more on account of a chronically sprained ankle than my weight. Just a month ago, I climbed to the top of the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan in Mexico, no problem. I've hiked mountains in Iceland. I have plans to hike the Cotswold Way in England in the next few months. How dare anyone assume that because someone is fat that they can't do something?
Before you judge people, know that you can NEVER know the situation. We send people with anorexia to rehab and there often seems little stigma about it. Why don't we, as a culture, do something for overeaters? No, instead we ridicule them which in turn creates more emotional eating.
Sorry for the rant. It's late and some of the ignorant posts on here REALLY ticked me off.
charolastra00, That was an absolutly terrific post. Im so impressed by all you said and how youve said it. Sadly, there are some on here (just like those in "real life") that will totally ignore/bypass all youve said and just keep insisting its all based on how/what one eats...and how much overweight people bother them. Some people just refuse to see/understand anything but their own prejuduce. Try to just ignore them! I know how hard it is. Personally, Im totally motivated and inspired by you now. And hopefully, someday something will work for you. Sounds like youve got a lot of great going on already. And you know in your heart that youre doing it all right.
Bless you!!! Tiffany
I just personally know alot of very heavy people who claim
they eat 1500 calories a day but I am around them when they eat
and each plate is 2000 calories and they go for seconds and then get dessert.
They are either kidding themselves or trying to kid others or truely
think that much food fits into 1500 calories per day.
Again..I don't care what anyones weight is...just
quit telling me I have skinny genes.. I work hard to be thin.
When I eat more and move less I gain weight.
there are definitly medical reasons as to why somone may be overweight, this is true. However, there is ALWAYS something that can be done about it from a medical standpoint or a self driven standpoint. Some may need to work out harder and longer than others.....the bottom line is this. If you want it bad enough you will get it....no matter what. As a trainer, the only thing I've seen stand in peoples way is themselves......
As a former ‘skinny’ person who’s now a ‘fattie’ I can see why people get disgusted looking at a fat person. Sounds horrible to say but I honestly disgust myself. Seeing fat rolls or arm sags is not a pleasing sight!
While I could (and at times do) blame my weight gain on medical reasons, I know if I made drastic changes to my diet and activity even if I didn’t lose weight I would change fat to muscle. I also know my life is out of control and that’s when binge eating takes over. I’ve read books on nutrition and exercise. I know what I should be eating and what activity I should be doing.
What do I do with all this information? I do nothing with it. I have great intentions and even stick to things for a few months – until stress and chaos in my personal life rears its head. Food is my drug of choice and I obviously don’t have the will power or strength of character to do the right things.
Say what you will about how disgusting fat people are. There’s nothing you can say that I haven’t already said to myself. My hat’s off to those comfortable in their own skin. But I question how comfortable some overweight people really are based on how defensive they become.
Dea
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and proud of it.
And hopefully, someday something will work for you. Sounds like youve got a lot of great going on already. And you know in your heart that youre doing it all right. 
