Jonathan Bailor has a nice explanation for this, where he uses a clogged sink analogy. Every body has a rate of flow from the faucet (food intake) to the drain (metabolization and elimination). If you clog the drain and make it inefficient, the sink fills up to a higher set point (you gain weight). He says that it's a hormonal issue, and it may or may not be genetically established. His key to fighting obesity is for people to switch to high quality food that unclogs the hormonal sink and establishes a new, lower set point. Basically that's what keto and LC eating does, but Bailor's approach gives a little more dietary latitude.

(It's all interesting stuff backed by actual scientific research, which is great. Like I said before, the problem for me starts when Bailor starts to hawk his program, his books, his supplements, and so forth. I guess he has to make a living, but somehow the information loses some value when I see it as advertising.)

I was never overweight growing up. Money was scarce. There were never any snacks in the house, only a cake when it was someone's birthday. We ate our meals and nothing else. It never entered my mind to eat something when it was not mealtime. If I got hungry, I just thought "Wow, when's dinner?"

After I got a job and was eating out for lunch, etc, I started to gain a little bit, but I kept it under control. At age 35 I married Mr Potato Head, a confirmed carboholic who's weight never changes. My eating habits changed to be more like his, and all bets were off. I gained 80 lbs and it brought along a couple friends, Heart Disease and Diabetes. My sink was definitely clogged. To this day, DH still tells me that carbs do NOT cause weight gain. Maybe not for him!!!

A gradual process starting in my mid forties, until I decided to do something about it as I approached 60. I was small and puny as a child, and average as a younger woman. Not scrawny, not plump.

I'm pretty sure that the happy state of matrimony is fattening--for both parties. Among other things, the pleasant society of mealtimes and wanting to please (dessert, dear?) changes the eating dynamic. And that's before pregnancy, eating on the run, and break room pressures kick in. Healthy eating can be a tough discipline.

Yeah I think one person's craving triggers the others. Even living with Dad, we each cook our own meals, so our eating isn't exactly chained, but if one of us is buying peanuts etc. the other can get in trouble. Right now we're both doing carnivore, that makes things really easy.

Having a dual-income household compounds things. When everybody gets home, nobody wants to cook. The telephone and pizza delivery is all to easy.

Yes, it was getting married and cooking for a new husband, making desserts and treats for packed lunches. Then it was pregnancy and feeding darling children, who required 3 square meals and carby snacks all day long! Where did that come from? As a child, I only ate at meal times and wasn't allowed to snack for fear it would spoil my dinner.

The children are now adults and I am still working on losing the "baby" weight.

I was 14 when I got heavier. I have been struggling ever since. I have to say I really only have maybe 20 pounds to lose. I'm not on a time line because i can never go back and eat like i did anyway. You have to eat the same way when you get to goal. With maybe a little bit more food.If you think you can have all the food you couldn't have when you were losing weight you'll gain it back. That is the lesson it has taken me awhile to learn.

When I was a child I ate as a child. When I became a man I ate as a child and I got fat.

I was skinny to the point of scrawny as a kid - to the point where the pediatrician accused my mom of not feeding me properly! Yet we were one of those apparently anomalous 50s families that always had snacks around. My parents both had major sweet tooths and we never lacked for cookies, donuts, etc. But I stayed skinny! That is until I hit puberty! Suddenly, no changes in eating habits, I began to gain weight. Still, I was never skinny again but I was not seriously obese or anything. Just your classic American woman who wishes she could lose 20-25 pounds. I was still feeling fit and athletic and I ran, I skiied, I played racquetball. My weight popped up a bit when my son was born and I could NOT lose those last 20 extra pounds. I was breastfeeding as well. But I weaned my son shortly before his first birthday, and when I did those last 20 pounds vanished in less than two months. Again no changes in eating- just no more breastfeeding. However, when I was 30 years old I had a freak accident jumping over a fence, and I shredded my posterior cruciate ligament in the left knee, and needed major surgery. After the surgery I began to gain weight like crazy, and within a single year my body weight had doubled. That was 35 years ago and it’s been a struggle ever since.

Thin until about 7 then pudgy until about 12. Dropped weight until I was my lightest at age 18 or 19 (119 pounds at 5 feet seven inches), then stayed OK until late 20s when I put on a few pounds (135)

Was still OK until after having first child, then never fully lost "baby" weight until after last child, when I went on an Atkins-style diet and seemed to effortlessly lose weight.

Was at a good weight (145-155) for about a year, then went back to eating carbs and ballooned back up over the years to what I am now.

Amazing to think about all that I ate when I was a teen and I didn't put on weight. That said, now that I think of it, I was practically doing intermittent fasting from grades 7 through 12. Hated breakfast, so didn't eat much if at all. Mother packed me a skimpy lunch that was likely 400 calories or less. Didn't eat much until I got home from school, which was between 3 and 4.

normal weight all my life, until first incident.

2 incidences.
1) car accident. confined to wheelchair for 3 months. gained a ton of weight.
found Atkins and lost all the weight. kept it off until....

2) got involved with someone that didn't eat red meat but drank like a fish.
took on her habits..
gained 40 lbs, drank like a fish, hated myself for the first time.


Now.. dropped most food groups in 2006.
I'm about 98% animal/seafood
and 2% carbs in the form of veggies, herbs, spices, dairy.

rarely drink.
don't eat grains.
have pretty much maintained my weight for 10+ yrs.

I was underweight all my life until I got married to a sugaraholic, and then with eating carbage I bacame normal weight. With my first baby I put on 45 lbs, but only lost 30 lbs, so stayed overweight till my second baby and didn’t lose my excess. I have been yo yo-ing ever since. However, this will be my final challenge as I will never again be an indulgent idiot scoffing carbage.

I was always slightly chubby (European chubby, not North America chubby) but in my late twenties I was diagnosed with depression and put on 30 or so pounds as a side effect of the medication I was prescribed. After that, I yoyo-ed up and down with each medication switch, until my most recent switch, about 4 months ago, put me at an all time high 205 pounds. That’s when I turned back to low carb eating and so here I am again.

I was always big. I remember in third grade seeing my mom reading a book called “how to help your child get thin”, or something to that effect. I truly think I’m one of the small percentage of people in the world that is allergic to carbs.

I’m 41, I started low carbing/Atkins on 3/27/18, I’ve lost 74 pounds by simply not eating more than 20 carbs a day. My mom said I’m thinner now than I was in high school :-)