As a child I didn't really have any problems maintaining a healthy weight, my parents were big on eating healthy home cooked meals and junk food and other processed foods were kept in moderation, along with the fact that I lived a fairly active lifestyle. When I was 13 my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and only made it 4 months after the diagnosis, this was what caused my weight gain and issues with food to spiral out of control. During this time my mom was constantly gone visiting my dad in the hospital or filling out bills/paperwork and just brought home fast food every night and kept the freezer full of fast "meals" like pizza rolls or chicken nuggets for me to make while she was gone. A depressed, bored pre-teen left to their own devices with unlimited access to a fully stocked kitchen is never a good combination lol. After school I would come home and watch netflix while crushing an entire large pizza by myself until I went to bed, woke up, did it all again the next day. About 2 years later and at the peak of my highest weight (around age 15, I was clinically obese with a BMI of 33) my mom took me to the doctors to get tested for diabetes, which thankfully wasn't the case, but I was told that if I didn't change my habits then I was certainly heading in that direction. This was a major wake up call for me and I decided to start taking my health seriously, I was too young to be having the aches and pains from the strain of carrying that much extra weight and not be able to get to my next classes in time without heaving and huffing the entire way there lol. I started making small changes like cutting out all soda and sugary drinks/snacks. Soon I began tracking my calories through MFP (eating at 1200 a day) and the weight came off like magic, even though I knew I was doing everything right I was still surprised that it was really happening! I've been maintaining for the past year but hope to reach my goal weight (115lb) soon :)

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(oh wow, sorry for the novel! I've never really shared my full weight loss story to anyone and figured that this would be the best place to do it as this sub really gave me a lot of motivation during my journey and figured it was only fair to contribute after lurking for so long!)