I have PCOS and am IR so I think that played a huge part of my weight gain! I have battled my weight all my life with being superactive in sports all my life.

Hi,

For me it was emotional eating that caused my weight gain. Now that I look back I realize that most of the foods I was stuffing down affect serotonin levels. I think that I would have done anything to feel better.

Marty

the first 30 I put on with the help of BCP screwing up my hormones - the remainder I'll own up to myself.

No. I don't believe hormones contributed to my weight gain. I think the tendency to be overweight is largely hereditary in my case and that, coupled with my reaction to carbohydrates, my mother's obsession with food and MY weight, and years of dieting (starting at an early age) made me fat.

I do have two fat parents so yes that has something to do with it, and diabetes runs rampant in my family. I'm also insulin resistant and have hypothyrodism. All contributing factors

I've been chubby/fat all my life but I do remember gaining inordinate amounts of weight around puberty. I believe gained about 100(!) lbs. in the course of three years and although I wasn't into sports, I walked everywhere and was active.

My sister has pcos and had insulin resistant diabetes/ high blood sugar. She has the diabetes part under control. She weighs around 190. She was put on birth control pills to help control her periods when she was not yet through with puberty. She believes that if she hadn't taken the bc pills that she would be normal now and not have pcos. She thinks that the bc pills screwed up her hormone levels and developement and caused something to happen to her. I am overweight because I made myself this way with a little help from antidepressants which I only recently stopped taking and had been on since I was 10. Now I am 22. I started taking the antidepressants as I was going through puberty. Maybe that has something to do with my fatness.

I'm not sure. Ask me in a week. This week my doctor has started me on 10-day cycles of hormone treatment (progesterone). She just about assured me that it WOULD cause weight gain.

Yes, but the culprit was the hormone INSULIN.

I think so... Every couple of years I go through a period of hormone inbalance.... very heavy periods. Tests for some of the usual female issues such as endometriosis, fibroids and other stuff have come back negative. Some test they do during and endometrial biopsy has shown an abnormal hormone level each time and then I go on Lupron shots for 6 months. Each time I gain weight.
But it's that same old thing, we are all different. I'm curious to read other's stories. This is a great thread topic.

I think the primary cause of my weight problem is genetic. I have two teenaged children and only one has inherited the problem. He (like me and my father) seems to lack the "turn off valve" for eating, whereas my daughter, like my husband, naturally eats a small amount then doesn't think about food again for hours. I don't think my father, son and I are "emotional eaters"--the impulse to keep eating is physiological, possibly due to insulin issues. Eating low carb helps me control this, but my son has not been able to do so--he is 16.

So in answer to the question on the thread, the weight issues in my family don't seem to depend on gender.

For me... most definitely. When my hormones are screwy I gain weight really fast. In 18 months I went from 176 to 260. I had lost and regained more than 50 pounds during that time period, so as far as the doctor is concerned, I doubled my weight in 18 months. No doubt it was hormone related, because at that time, I started having actual labor each month with the Curse, instead of just cramps. The doctors (who I fired) tried to give me a hysterectomy to deal with the issue. No thanks. Even though my hormones were wonky, I liked them. My mother was a total hysterectomy in her 30s and it was all downhill from there for her. I would rather have the major cysts removed every 6-12 months than give up my ovaries and uterus.

But that is just me, and being a newlywed, we are hoping for children.

On the plus side, since starting Atkins, my blood sugar has leveled out and this past TOM, I didn't even need Motrin. The cycles before? Heavy narcotics. So low carbing is helping me in more than just losing weight. My cycle is a bit erratic at the moment, but the doctor said it's because of the fat loss and hormones being re-released into my system. But I can live with that.