ManInBlack

From about age 5 to age 16 you could multiply my age by 10 and get my weight in pounds. Typical chubby / "husky" kid. Once I could drive and buy myself food, quality went down, quantity went up. Rode bicycles constantly as a kid / teenager, and stayed strong and healthy. I was a "commuter" student to college and ended up eating fast food breakfast on the way to school (usually biscuits and some meat inside), a new discovery for me called "chicken fingers" at the University food court, and maybe a healthy home-cooked meal for dinner. Plus popcorn, or chips, or cookies, or... Also developed a very heavy drinking problem...with diet sodas. I have never drank alcohol.

I did so well in college that I got a great job as a co-op student, making nice money sitting in a chair keeping computers and databases running. Ballooned up to 300lbs by age 22. Graduated, got even better paying job sitting in a chair, and now co-workers loved going out to lunch, work trips came up with big dinners and catered lunches, could afford to buy nice steaks and cook them at home, got even less exercise from all the long hours, and developed a bad video game habit (World of Warcraft) that made me even more chair-bound and snack-food-obsessed in the hours I was at home.

Now 383lbs and 6'1" at age 26, met a girl who was willing to marry me, and I went on a strict protein-sparing-modified-fast and lost 60+ pounds before the wedding. Started back bike riding and continued to lose weight, then was "downsized" at work and stressed out at age 30-31, went back up into the 360s eating depressed. Got the job I've been in now for 16 years, again had many opportunities to travel and eat on the company's dime, and paid well so buying what we wanted to eat at home. Wife is tiny, can eat whatever she wants and not gain an ounce, and loves to see me happy instead of depressed, and she doesn't like to make food decisions, so it's always whatever I want.

Approaching 40 years old, was 396lbs, dedicated myself to losing 100lbs by my 40th birthday, did it again through the PSMF plus walking on lunch hours, bought myself a Surly Long Haul Trucker as my goal/reward for getting to 350lbs, rode it a lot on the way down to a minimum weight of 283. Now I'm 47, gained all that weight back by age 45, and have slowly been dropping since. Down to 364 as of this morning, LONG way to go. On my list for next steps are continue rowing (Concept2 rower), fix up the flat tires and broken spokes on the LHT, and ride. Diet is improving (both quality and quantity) but hope to try 5:2 "Fast Diet" soon.

What's been said above is absolutely true: no excuses, it's me to blame, and it's on me to lose it. Bad decisions have lasting repercussions. Food is fuel for the body. You don't let the hose run over and spill on the ground when you fill up your car, you shouldn't over-fuel your body. Similarly, fuel in a car is dedicated to the purpose of conversion to energy, not to making the car happy. Food isn't happiness. Food is fuel. Use good fuel.

Bonzo Banana

Another one here with teenage metabolism abandonment issues.

mrodgers

I stand on a scale about every hour at work to hang a materials bag and fill it. I generally stay the same weight all year except for the one season.

We have 2 weeks of shutdown over Christmas. Every year coming back after Christmas, I would be about 3 lb heavier. Added up over the years and it took me up to 247.

Obeast

I think poverty is the main reason. Poverty also means my parents are not exactly health conscious people so they make food decisions based on price.

Stormsedge

Stress...sleep deprivation...both over extended periods. Did I mention I like cookies and cupcakes?

Milton Keynes

Can we just call TMA a disease? That way it won't be our fault we got fat and we can insist the medical community do something to cure it. I'll get started setting up a charity with sad commercials with pictures of overweight guys like myself being shown with music by Sarah McLaughlin. "For just pennies a day, you can help a fat guy whose teenage metabolism stopped working. Please give."

Milton Keynes

Same for me, except that my highest was 280 and now I seem to be stuck at 230. I also had a sedentary office type job, but now I do more physical labor. I'm going to keep plugging away at limiting my carb, calorie, and alcohol intake while getting on the bike as much as possible. Now that the weather has warmed up and I've started closely logging everything I eat, I should be getting down into the 220's soon. But for some reason <230 seems to be an impenetrable barrier. Best I did before was 229 and change.

Milton Keynes

I agree and disagree. My dad was a big guy, the hardest working man I ever knew, but overweight. So there may be a bit of genetics I'm fighting against there. I wouldn't say it was necessarily poor health choices because we had good food, combination of meat, vegetables, etc. But, then again, we always had dessert. My mom always liked sweets and so do I. Even today it's hard for me to finish a meal and not feel like I need something sweet afterwards, even if it's something small.

The other issue is that my dad grew up during the Depression, so he always made us clean our plates. To this day I find it hard to leave food on my plate and feel guilty if I don't eat everything on it. I have learned to allow my kids to eat until they're full, and if there's still something left on their plate (within reason, often they have eaten half their meal only to claim to be hungry half an hour later), have them empty their plate into the trash. But I don't want to force them to always eat everything on their plate.

So, how you were raised is probably far more responsible for your weight than any claim of genetics, though I can't help but think there might be some weak genetic link there somewhere as far as metabolism. Not that I want to pass the blame, because it all still comes down to calorie intake vs. calorie burn, no matter what genetic or medical condition you might have.

I agree, feeding my face is the reason I'm overweight today. But with hard work and lots of bicycle riding, I can reverse the results of my love of food.

bbbean 

Plateaus are common. i spent weeks, even months a time or two stuck in a weight range before dropping again. You've made 50, so you know you can do it. Stick to your plan, and you'll get there. It really doesn't seem like it took that long when you're looking back at what you've done instead of ahead to what you need to do!

JDinTulsa

For me it was being chained to a desk for almost 30 years. That, and being lazy, not caring/watching what I ate, guzzling beer like it was water, and not getting near enough sleep!

Milton Keynes

I just want to say here that as of this morning I've broken through the 230 barrier and weighed in at 228. So hopefully I can keep on this downward trend all the way to 200 and below. Would be nice to not be a Clyde any more, but mainly I just want to get rid of what's left of my gut and my manboobs. If I can comfortably wear 1X T-shirts, that will be a plus as well. Right now I can wear a 1X, but they still feel a bit tight on me.

RubeRad

Congrats! I happen to have crashed that same barrier a few weeks ago. This mon morning at my weekly weigh-in 227 (also last week's mon morning 227, so...)

Milton Keynes

I was at 227.8 this morning, so looks like the weight loss is sticking and not just some wild weight fluctuation like I've had in the past. Anyway, that's 12 lbs. down since I started using MFP to track my food intake.

I need to get a new belt for work, it's one of those woven stretchy kind and the excess nearly wraps around all the way to my spine now. And it's a 42-44. My leather belt got too big and I had to punch a couple extra holes in it. The bike jersey I bought last month is still a bit snug, though, and it's a 2XL. Yes, I know they're supposed to be form fitting, and cheap Chinese jersey sizes tend to run small.

BikeSquatch

I grew up poor, with a poor diet to boot. I gained lots of weight young. I've always been taller. Currently 6'4". I started packing on pounds in middle school and hit 375 in HS. I was in football and powerlifting but just ate so many freakin' carbs. (pizza rolls, pasta, pizza, all the "italian" carbs).

I ate emotionally. It was hard to ever admit that to myself because the visualization of emotional eating to me was crying into a tub of Ben and Jerrys with a diet coke next to me.

I ate because it made me feel good. Was like a beer after work kind of deal.

I have since started dieting April of '16, and have gone from 500 to 300. Tons more healthy, able to do things, work out, bike, etc. Looking to hammer away these last 50 pounds this summer/fall if i'm lucky. Been plateau'd for awhile.

Happy to be hear and would appreciate any tips for riding while on keto!

JGM411

IPA, really good IPA's, and not weighing myself for almost 15years.

The alcohol is no more and I'm down 20lbs since 26Jan. I want to get down to college weight of @ 170. Sixty lbs to go and I am under no illusion that is going to happen anytime soon. This is a long term process as it was packing the weight on in the first place.

Milton Keynes

Yes, I indulged a little in the alcohol department this past weekend, and it seems like any time I do, it shows up on the scales. And it's not like I was slamming back six packs, either, maybe like three rum & cokes all weekend. Alcohol has definitely been put on my forbidden list while trying to lose weight.

velojym

Got married, moved with her to a city where my employer had a branch, but my commute got pretty bike-unfriendly. Bought a little pickup. Bicycling became something I did on the weekends and some weekdays.
I ate less, knowing that I didn't "live" on the bike anymore, but my weight went up steadily. After moving back to the city where we met, I hooked up with my old bike club on a Tuesday night ride, and in a group where I used to be a front-runner,
I got dropped hard. That was maybe 12 years ago. I haven't really recovered from that, and I'm up to 350 lbs.
I can tell myself I need to get back on the bike, and I still have my bikes... even reinforced a couple of them with stronger wheels, telling myself I'll ride them. But they're still gathering dust in the basement.

Started this post in another thread, and decided it didn't belong there:
My "Me" bike is a 2000 Kona Jake-the-Snake. I lived on this bike for a few years (well, I had an apartment, but that was just for sleeping), did all my centuries on it, was as fit as can be... did the Hotter'n'Hell Hundred in '04, in about 5 hours, which I like to think is pretty darned good.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances completely in my control, though I failed to control them, I'm up from 195 lbs at 6'4", to 350 lbs.

I have other bikes, but also see where some suggest a 'cross frame for a road bike, for guys like me. All those miles (about 40,000, give or take) were ridden on 23c Axial Pros, on deore/cxp23 32h wheels, and I wasn't afraid to do a little low-level hucking on ol' Jake. I'd do bunny hops over parking blocks, and even used that skill to great advantage when it was the only way over a giant dead armadillo on a narrow chip-n-seal Arkansas road, on a group ride.

So, intellectually, I think Jake can handle it, if I take it easy, especially with the Velocity deep-v 36h wheelset I recently bought. I am afraid of damaging Jake, though, and of all the junk I've gathered through my life, this bike is the one thing I have that I wouldn't give up.
Or am I just telling myself that for an excuse not to ride.
Sorry, I know that's a story for another thread.

bikingbill

I was always a big child, hitting 220lbs and 6'2" in Jr. High, but started bicycle racing in college and got very lean (but still 220, and strong enough to break a frame on a climb).

The problem is, I got used to a 6000+ calorie/day diet (we trained hard) and when I went to grad school, I gained about 100 lbs in a year.

JLDickmon

Short answer? My wife's cooking.
And stress.. I'm in auto repair, and it ain't getting any easier to diagnose and repair these sophisticated systems on todays cars, and no one really feels like paying for it.

RubeRad

I hear that, and I'm one of the guys that really hates paying for it! My strategy is to put as few miles as possible on cars, so they don't break.I want to get to a point where the kids are out of the house, and my wife and I have just one car that gets no more than 5000 mi/year.

jhoblho

Yeah! That's me! My grad school diet is (I'm ashamed to admit) has been primarily ramen noodles and canned veggies...
I think that my age also factors in. I went back to college later, and my middle-aged body does not handle lack of sleep, bad eating habits, and lack of exercise the way it did when I was in my 20's.

JLDickmon

Not to poke fun at you, but that reminded me of a line in a song by Da Yoopers..
(think of this to a polka beat)
"..I'm married to a couch 'dat burps, and talks to 'da TV..."

RubeRad

Dude, time to upgrade; get into high quality instant ramen, and use frozen mixed veg (like me!)

RubeRad

Did Da Yoopers also write "I don't want her, you can have her, she's too fat for me"? My uncle drums for a polka band, and when he got married, his (pleasantly plump) wife requested that song

Milton Keynes

I think that song predates Da Yoopers. My dad was into polkas back in the day, and I remember that song from the early 70', and I think it was old even then.