Overweight as a child (pre-teen)

LadyBlue · 05-26-2005, 04:06 PM

It seems that most of those PCOS ladies who have to struggle with their weight have said that they gained weight as a teen or adult. I was overweight as a child, especially around the middle and the face despite eating normal meals and being in a family that rarely indulged in junk food or desserts. We also had daily sports activities at school.

I was wondering if this could be related to IR or PCOS, even though it was before puberty or if it was something else entirely....just curious if anyone else had this problem or knew anything about it.

I dieted for years at 800 calories/day or less as a teen to get down to a normal weight.....not good for a tall and growing girl, but I didn't know that at the time.

Rozlynn · 05-26-2005, 04:14 PM

I started gaining all my wieght when I was in the 4th grade so prob around 9 or 10 years old. Docs tell me that when my ovaries started to really form so did the PCOS and all the problems with it. I didn't get my AF til 8th grade....

astrophe · 05-26-2005, 04:27 PM

Yep. I was a fat kid. I leaned out in my teens because I got taller and was a meal skipper. Then in my early 20's (that phase called second puberty) I started tacking it on again inexplicably. I was dx'd in my mid-20's, I'm 29 now.

Now that I'm better educated and dx'd, I know I've had the signs of PCOS/IR all along -- even before my first period. For instance, the skin tags and the dark patches of skin (Acanthosis Nigricans) I've had as long as I remember. I thought they were birthmarks!

HTH
A.

anglewormm · 05-26-2005, 04:31 PM

LadyBlue, you pretty much described me as a kid. I didn't try to do diets like you, but I belonged to TOPS with my mom for years. When I was in the group, I was losing weight, but never really got down to my goal. My mom always tried to feed us right with healthy stuff and buying at the nutritional store, but the school food was always full of fat and of course carbs. I had many tests for diabetes over the course of childhood, but never told I was diabetic. My brothers were thin, but one of them has gotten overweight since being out of school. I was a size 13 in 7th grade and an 18 or 20 my senior year of highschool. I did become less active as far as sports in my highschool years, but still continued walking through the 11th grade, until I got a truck, lol.

I often wondered if my doctors knew something then but didn't say anything, or if anything would have even worked. I was finally put on bcp after I graduated highschool to regulate my cycles (hadn't been regular since 10th grade). I had a hard time remembering to take them and finally quit after 3 months. That is when the other symptoms started, the facial hair, even more weight gain, etc. I blamed the bcp for some of that, and I still do. Anyway, just wanted to say I was an overweight kid too.

We didn't eat alot of meat, ate tons of fruit and veggies though. Of the meat we ate, chicken was high on the list. My mom doesn't like meat, so she says. LOL I believe it was just because most of it cost too much and hamburger and hotdogs just weren't her thing.

tariana · 05-26-2005, 04:36 PM

I have been seriously overweight since I was about 10, and no amount of dieting did anyhting about it.

BRIT583 · 05-26-2005, 06:06 PM

I've been overweight ever since I could remember. I was always the "fat kid" from elementary through high school. I remember noticing the AR patches on my neck in elementary - when AF first came. Then getting into jr high i started getting hair on my chin and lip. At that time, it was really light and thin...but by the time I was in 9th grade...it was dark and very noticeable. That's when I started shaving

And so it's been that way ever since. I always thought the skin patches were disgusting and that I was just dirty...although I would scrub and scrub - even using rubbing alcohol to try to get the dirt off...but nothing ever helped. Thank goodness I know what the cause is now...that way if my daughter (if I have one) I will be able to help her out early on...instead of having to deal with this through all of her school years and life.

BeetleGirl · 05-26-2005, 06:13 PM

I was underweight as child & teenager.
In my early twenties I was at my ideal weight.
& By the time I hit my mid twenties I was fat.
Back then & even now I eat what I want when I want so I guess I can't really complain.

BonnieBee · 05-26-2005, 06:38 PM

I was a skinny kid until I was about eight (which was when my hormones were just starting to increase and my boobs started filling out), then I suddenly gained a whole bunch of weight in one year. I don't know how much I weighed but it was something like 50 pounds in first grade and jumped to 80 in second grade or something ridiculous like that. When I was 11 I weighed 113 and when I was 13 I think I weighed 130 or something. I got up to 165 when I was 17, and that was my highest weight ever - it was also the same year I was diagnosed with cysts and hypoglycemia. Go figure. Now, at 19, I'm down to 145, probably due to taking better care of my insulin levels since I now know what was causing those sugar cravings!

barneyb · 05-26-2005, 09:27 PM

Reading your stories is sooooo reassuring to me. In the last 2 years, my now 9 year old daughter has gained huge amounts of weight. She now weighs 120 lbs. Her diet and exercise haven't changed - well, she's probably more active than she used to be. We eat the same things and I've lost about 20 lbs in the last 6 months, but she's lost nothing.

I have an appointment for a consultation with a pediatrician in a few weeks (DD won't be there as she's really sensitive about her weight and I don't want to embarrass her). I hope to convince this dr. that there is something wrong with my little girl and we need help to deal with it. When I took her to our family dr. he said - in front of her - that she was overweight and needed to eat less and exercise more. She was so hurt.

Anyway, my point is that reading what you all have said just strengthens my resolve to find someone to help us. Thanks for sharing.

Veggie2005 · 05-26-2005, 10:00 PM

I was not overweight until my '30's. I was never skinny - just average. Always comfortable with my appearance.

However, I did notice that most people could eat a heck of a lot more than me without gaining weight. I always had to be very careful about what I ate.

Ammaarah · 05-26-2005, 10:41 PM

I was always a 99th percentile kinda kid, but in height as well as weight. When I was little, I was extremely active and was sturdy but not overweight for my height. When I was about 8 years old I quit taking tae kwon do three times a week, and instead took a sissy-girl tap dance class that probably burned 5 calories a week. (No offense to any hoofers out there...I love tap but my teacher was a bit lame....shuffle-hop-step!) As soon as I did that I began to put on weight.

Around the same time, I became quite a bookworm. This, combined with less exercise, really contributed to my weight problem. Although it's great for kids to read, I think it's equally important for them to PLAY HARD.

I am worried about the little girls coming up now. I teach 4th grade, and I have several little girls who are between 100-120 pounds (and not too tall.) I also have one who weighs 130 and one who must weigh around 160 or more, poor thing. I have several chunky boys in my class, but not on the same level as the girls. The boys look like they have "baby fat," although that's sometimes a myth too. The girls look like little chunky women, poor kiddos. I really think it's got something to do with the food we eat, since the majority of my students are from cultures that love meat (even more than Americans) and eat a lot of it. They also drink tons of milk. And worse of all, they have gym only twice a week and there's a snack machine in the school that's always on, and is packed with garbage like Cheetos and chocolate-chip cookies. The deck is really stacked against some kids.

While being fat didn't ruin my childhood or keep me away from everything I wanted, I feel it did take away some opportunities. I loved to be in plays, but I never got to be the cute young parts. I was always the quirky neighbor or the mom. I loved some sports but I was too self-conscious to play on a soccer team because if I made a mistake, it HAD to be because I was fat.

anglewormm · 05-26-2005, 11:30 PM

It is tough being a kid not of "normal" size. I remember when I was in 7th grade, went in for a physical for volleyball. The doctor that I saw, not my regular one, was really mean. She told me I was fat and needed to weigh only 95 lbs, at 5'3" ( never have gotten any taller, just rounder). I was so upset by that, I couldn't even imagine myself at 95 lbs, I would be skin and bones. It was easy to eat good at home, but at school it was hard. When I went to school, we didn't have vending machines, but we also didn't have a huge choice in what there was to eat. Hamburgers, burritos, corn dogs, mac-n-cheese, etc. You all know. In highschool, it was a little easier, because we were allowed to leave campus, but when you don't have much money, and taking lunch costs more than buying it at school, you are doomed.

I used to get teased because I would eat "strange" things like carob instead of chocolate. People would tell me and mom that I was fat because I ate too much. They didn't believe me when I told them what we ate. As if I was a liar and just making excuses. When other kids were going out to McDonald's on sunday after church (or where ever they went), we stopped and had an icecream cone and then went home to eat. We ate alot of turkeyburger, lol. I still remember my dad grilling that for the first time, boy did it stick. We walked alot of places because until I was in junior high, my mom didn't have her drivers license and dad took the car to work. I would walk home from school on good days, instead of riding the bus, and that was 2 miles from home in junior high and 4 miles in highschool. Grade school was 1 mile, so I got plenty of exercise just from walking and PE. In the summer we would walk to the pool or park which was beyond the grade school. I just didn't understand why all my friends were thin and I was fat. I always had a bicycle, but my butt hurt on the small seat. That is why I walked alot. We did bike around the river, about 3 miles round trip, or bike down to the swimming whole, same distance, opposite direction. So, see I got plenty of exercise.

Even now, we don't eat a ton of carbs. I still have a hard time with weight. I am slowly losing it with met, but my activity has gotten less due to my weight making my hips hurt when walking too long. I hope that if I ever have children that they won't have to go through this, but if they do, I will know what to do.

My sisters, 12 and 14, as starting to show signs of problems and I have been gathering info for my mom for them.

BonnieBee · 05-26-2005, 11:46 PM

95lbs in seventh grade? I probably weighed that in THIRD grade!

anglewormm · 05-26-2005, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BonnieBee

95lbs in seventh grade? I probably weighed that in THIRD grade!

Yeah, I was probably close to that then too. I think I weighed about 140-150ish at a size 13. To me that has always been perfect in size, which is my goal now days. Shoot, my mom weighed 98 lbs when she was pg with me at 17 and she is only 5'. Just plain stupid. She was thin her whole childhood, didn't gain her pcos weight until after child #3. Her highest was 180. She still has a hard time and she currently is about 145.

OrangeDaisy · 05-27-2005, 02:01 PM

I was always the youngest in my class (born in October-started school at age 5 when it wasn't a crime to do so), but the tallest and heaviest. From about kindergarten through 5th grade I wore chubby sizes (from Sears of course). I had a growth spurt in 6th grade and was a reasonable size all through junior high and high school, but certainly not small (size 11/12/13). My weight came back in college (whose doesn't?), and then I lost 60 pounds on Weight Watchers in mid-20s. Kept it off about 5 years until life caught up with me, and I couldn't exercise 2 hours a day 4 days a week. Since then I had been at my standard overweight weight until I suddenly gained 20 pounds last year, and they diagnosed me as IR/PCOS. I've lost about 30, but I'm still stuck around that weight I've been most of my adult life.