Have You Always Been Overweight?

The short answer is that I can not ever remember being overweight. I was an average size baby (6 pounds and a few ounces), and as a toddler I had the typical baby fat. By the time I was in elementary school, mom was buying "husky" sized clothes for me. In 7th grade I wrestled in the 180 pound class (165 to 180 pounds) and in 8th grade I wrestled in the Heavyweight class (180 to 205 pounds). Believe it or not, I was always one of the tallest kids in my class through about 7th grade. I looked at my 6' 1" father and figured I would end up about 6' 4" and about 230 pounds. A great size for a football player. Unfortunately, I failed to take into account my 5' 3" mother. By 8th grade I had stopped growing taller while everyone else was just starting their growth spurt.

Even then I was already starting to watch my calories. While other kids seemed to be able to eat whatever they wanted, not me. Of course I made horrible choices. Who knew that the tall glass of orange juice I had every day after school was full of calorie laden fructose.

In high school I was wearing XL clothing, and by the time I was in college, I was having to shop at Big and Tall stores. By the time I graduated I was probably 250 pounds, and by the time I made it through grad school I was pushing 300 pounds. I continued to gain weight through my 20s and was 345 by 2001. I would diet and exercise on occasion without any significant success. The only bright spot was a period in 2001 when I was going to the gym at lunch with guys from work every day. I got down to about 325, but the 9/11 happened and my best gym buddy got recalled to active duty.

By the time I met Jen in 2004, I was back up to the 340s and have gradually trended upward from there. We dieted together in 2008-2009 and got down from 375 to about 360, but couldn't get any farther. Today I am 378 according to the scale in our bathroom.