How do really obese people get that way? Isn't there a point where one realizes how fat they are and does something about it? Not ALL obese people have medical problems that lead to obesity. By the way, I'm overweight and am losing it.
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Name : Kari, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 28, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
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I would say in my case it makes no RATIONAL sense. A viscious cycle of depression and eating is responsible. I ate compulsively to deal with emotions (rather than drinking, drugging or even smoking cigarettes as a stress-reliever), got depressed over my size, ate in response to depression, periodically tried dieting, would have some success at weight loss, some issue or other would arise and I would respond by medicating with food. I have never been able yet to look at it as a momentary step off plan when I violate a diet - my thinking is very all or nothing. One days indulgence leads to two. If issues are psychological, generally increased weight is linked to depression and incredibly poor coping skills. Medication alone won't do the trick. That's my answer any way. Not that I'm proud of it - I certainly wish it wasn't so. I'm sure I'll make repeated efforts at weight loss in the future.
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Name : K., City : Dallas, State : TX Country : United States, I'm quite large, and while I'm losing weight, it's not because I'm unhappy with how I look or feel. I just decided to eat healthy and see what happened. By healthy, I don't mean that I've stopped eatting ho-ho's and soda. I NEVER ate that stuff. By healthy, I mean I no longer eat meat, I eat mostly organic foods and I try to eat the recommended fruits and veggies every day. I've lost 25 pounds in 35 days. So why do fat people get fat? How does it happen? I think that for the most part, fat people aren't as uptight as thin people are. Fat people are typically nicer and more casual and laid back. I don't think that there are any fat people who think they aren't fat. Anymore, thin people tend to think they're fat too. I think there's too much emphasis on what people weigh and how they look. Thankfully, my tall, blonde, thin (almost too thin) boyfriend disagrees with todays standard of thin equaling attractive, and heroin chic as the look to be attained.
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Name : Sara, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 27, City : Scranton, State : PA Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, Easily... gaining weight is easy, losing it is hard, keeping it off seems impossible. A lot of the obese people you see have lost weight many times. Over my lifetime, I have lost over 220lbs, in increments of 50, 60, 90 lbs. It takes dedicated daily watchful effort and hours of exerise. Priorities change and you get tired of fighting with your body.
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Name : april gaines, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 47, City : broad run, State : VA Country : United States, Occupation : manager, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I gained about 30 pounds in 1.5 years at a stressful job, eating too much and getting too little exercise. I'm at a new job now and have lost about 15 pounds. I suppose this happens to alot of people, they put in on quickly and then struggle to remain motivated to take it all back off. As we all know, it's much easier to put on weight than keep it off!
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Name : Carol, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 24, City : Berkshire, State : NA Country : United Kingdom, Social class : Middle class, Very easy to answer with one word, genetics. The same way J.Lo got her butt and my brother got blue eyes. That accounts for a massive amount, but certainly not all. There are a myriad of answers to the rest. Medical, emotional, mental, physical? Couch potatoes who never do anything physical, well that's an easy way to become obese. Loosing the ability to walk or move, that is another way. However, if concentrating on the U.S. society,...which media keeps reporting is the fattest place in ther world, there are more difficult issues. The U.S. diet is also one of the worst. Though we have ample amounts of healthy food, we consume so much suger, so much 'processed' food, so much crud, that our bodies are obese. How many people eat at a place like McDonalds at least once a day? Fast food, still mostly based on fat and carbs, is not helpful to the situtation. AS far as my weight, I was born this way. I took after my father, which was very difficult, because my sister took after my mother. At 21 she was a size 1 and wearing childrens clothing (seriousely), where at 17 I was a size 16 and wearing 'fat' girl clothing. The depression this and other issues caused me became a sever problem with Manic Depression. I gained over 70 pounds in a two year window, and truly became obese, instead of overweight. Once certain body types gain weight, it is difficult to reverse it. Fat cells remain,...they just shrink. So I have all my obese fat cells still,...they are just a smaller size. Sure I knew I was getting fat, but I had no way to stop it. Emotionally, mentally and physically I was unable to cope with anything in my life, much less that.
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Name : aysha, Gender : F, Age : 27, City : Ammon, State : ID Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, I don't have an answer. I just wanted to say that I'm glad you are losing weight. I'm also overweight and I'm losing the weight. Its hard but I'm doing it. I know we need encouragement so I hope you continue.
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Name : Marcos Rodriguez, City : Chicago, State : IL Country : United States, I suddenly started gaining weight at age 8, and kept gaining all through high school, even though I participated in at least 3 kinds of physical activity almost daily every week in my spare time. My BMI was consistantly about 50%. My and eating habits were never changed, and I never stopped exersising. I do go through times where I'll suddnly drop 10 lbs, but gain it back just as suddenly for no particular reason. I have to run myself ragged in addition to what I already do, just to loose weight on purpose. It's just life. I wish that people would get over it and relise that our bodies are different.
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Name : Rhonda, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 23, City : Ramona, State : CA Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, Hi Kari. I'm 5'6' tall and I weigh 260 lbs. I wasn't always obese. I used to work out with weights, play tennis, and exercise. I was very healthy. I injured my back. No - I'm not blaming my weight on a medical condition, but it did contribute. All of a sudden I wasn't able to do anything. No exercise of any kind. I continued to eat the same amount of food, but being sedentary, I gained weight very fast. I thought, well, when my back heals, I'll start exercising. Turns out, my back will never heal because of a genetic defect. I couldn't return to my job. Depression set in. I eat when I'm depressed - more weight gain. The more you eat, the more your stomach stretches. The more your stomach stretches, the more you want to eat. You stay hungry. I can exercise now, but not like I used to. Being fat makes me feel tired all of the time. It's very hard to make yourself exercise when you feel worn out. I try to diet, get frustrated, and eat. I have bought every peice of exercise equipment known to man. My treadmill is working great as a coat rack. I have no motivation. I know I can lose weight if I eat sensible and stick to an exercise routine, but it's much easier said than done. Another problem, no support from the family. Every time I try too diet, my husbamd moans and begs for 'real' food. I cook it for him then end up eating it right along with him. Two weeks ago I decided to go on a low carb diet. I bagged up all of the food in the house that's not low carb (15 bags) and gave it away. I told my husband if he wants carbs, he will have to eat them somewhere else. So far, so good. Maybe this time.......
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Name : Jeanne, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 41, City : Aiken, State : SC Country : United States, Occupation : Housewife, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, People generally get morbidly obese without an underlying medical condition through a combination of family culture, poor diet, poor habits, rampaging denial, the increasingly-fashionable 'Annointed Victim' mentality, and/or total lack of self-control.
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Name : Ann30951, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Animist, Age : 37, City : K.C., State : MO Country : United States, Occupation : Administrative Assistant, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, If you are obese and losing it, then you know how people get obese. You eat more than you burn. For some people it's stress, for some people it's low self-esteem, for some people it's just not something they really care about.
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Name : Julie22497, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : New Age/Metaphysical, Age : 38, City : Kansas City, State : MO Country : United States, Occupation : professional, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, I think it's deeper than that. I was married to a very abusive man who accused me of having an affair with every man who ever said hello to me in public...even ones walking down the street in front of our home. I packed on over 100 lbs while married to this man and only recently realized that I did it to make myself more unappealing to outsiders and to stop the accusations. The accusations never stopped, and even the bad eating habits stayed on till I started healing from the abuse. A lot of people eat to avoid dealing with unsavory emotions, too. I know I've eaten my way through stress when it would have been much healthier for me to address the problem or take a nice, long hike to ponder what was going on. I know that now, but I didn't see it then. Also, in my head...I still see myself as thin -- the body I had before the abuse (from my spouse AND from myself in the form of overeating). I always have seen myself that way -- not that I don't see what's reflected in the mirror, but that the image I carry around in my head of me is not the size I am today. I'm losing, too.
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Name : Rachel, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 36, City : Niagara-on-the-Lake, State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : Homemaker, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I too am overweight and I'm trying to lose it. I think what happens is that it's a progressive problem...you gain more weight, become less active because it is more difficult, gain more weight because you're less active and so on. At some point your metabolism just slows down to the point where it is just barely functioning and that is a rut that it is hard to dig out of. If your metabolism has slowed down that much sometimes even the smallest activity will feel like running a marathon which is very discouraging and it then becomes hard to stick with an exercise program because if you can only walk for 15 minutes you feel like you aren't making any progress anyway so why bother? Same thing with dieting, if your metabolism has slowed down you can eat a salad and gain weight or a tub of ice cream and gain weight so why not just eat whatever tastes better?
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Name : Leann, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 27, City : Crown Point, State : IN Country : United States, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Lower middle class, DNA and your metabolism has a lot to do with it. I've seen skinny ppl eat more in one meal than I could in a day, and because of their metabolism, they burn it off almost as fast as they can swallow. I'm 1/2 German and Germans are robust ppl. My maternal aunts were all big women, so I didn't have a chance from square one. I am addicted to food, so there is a definite behavior factor. Please don't fall victim to the yo yo diet syndrome. I weighed 170 in high school and for my height and build that would be an ideal weight for now, but because I believed society's B.S. about skinny v fat women, I have lost and gained numerous times and am now unhealthy.
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Name : Dwanny, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Pagan, Age : 53, City : Springtown, State : TX Country : United States, I work with a woman who weighs approximately 35 stone. She's suffered one rape, one attempted rape, bullying at work and the murder of a close friend. In short, the psychological and emotional effects of a traumatic experience can cause self-abuse, be it over-eating, drug misuse, cutting the body or any number of ways people have of hurting themselves. It can deaden the pain of experience. Over-eating and excessive weight-gain can make the person feel so unattractive that no man is ever going to want to rape them again. Of course rape isn't about desire it's about power but not all women realise that. Please note that I'm not suggesting that this applies to all over-weight people. Just offering it as one possible cause.
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Name : Maria, City : manchester, State : NA Country : United Kingdom, 
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