How can mothers of small children be overweight?

Question

I don't even have the chance to pee sometimes let alone eat. I don't mean those moms that still have their pregnancy baby fat I mean obese mothers, how do they do it? How do they do all the running around and taking care of small children like toddlers and infants??? I don't mean to offend anyone, I just don't understand how they have the energy to run around being so overweight and when they have the time to eat so much to maintain their obesity?

Answer 1

Some people have more efficient body's than others.

For me, I wouldn't say I'm obese, but I am not 'thin'. I have 3 sons, and I work a full 40 hour week. I pretty much am the only one to do the housework and main gardening duties. I also stock the house and make sure the children have enough of everything. It too amazes me that I'm not thinner, but with an eastern european backround, my genetics are very efficient at using very little food...I guess 3 small meals a day is too much for me!

Answer 2

I am overweight, a LOT more than I should be, considering my daughter is 3 and my son is just 1. A lot of it has to do with the medication I was taking for post pardum depression. With my fist daughter I lost all my pregnancy weight and then some within the first 3 months of nursing. With my son it was completly different and much harder to loose the weight, it didn't help that I had 2 c-sections and was on excersize restrictions for the first few months. Now I have lost all muscle control of my lower abdomon due to scar tissue. Granted, some people can be over eaters, especially when they're depressed. But I am a vegitarian with the exception of chicken and fish, I keep a very strict diet and yet I now weigh more than I did at 9 months pregnant with my son. There is no exact reason why one mother can have 5 kids and be pencil thin and another on the same exact diet and excersize weigh over 200lbs. A lot of it has to do with ceratonin in the brain and genitics. Also, children born to overweight mothers are more likely to be overweight themselves, but this is not the case with my son. I am very busy, but I am no more tired chasing 2 children and being oveweight than I was when I weighed 129lbs and only had one child. Every person is different and not everyone chooses to be "fat". I didn't and I wish there was something I could do about it, but despite all my efforts this is somrething I am just going to have to live with until I can find an alternative medication without the weight gain side affect.
Besides, it's not eating that causes one to be overweight, the lack of eating will cause your body to retain everything because it thinks it will be starved and your body doesn't know when the next time it will recieve nutrition.
For the record, I am very active, I don't even own a TV and I do not eat doughnuts for breakfast and McDonald's for lunch. Not everyone "chooses" to be fat, and I don't try to lose my kids in amusment parks and I sure as hell haven't given up. Some of the people who have answered this question honestly have no clue...

Answer 3

If they are running around with kids, they aren't obese because they eat too much. They're obese because they have a very slow metabolism. When it's really slow, you can run a million marathons and still be fat. If you ever notice, a lot of fat people don't actually eat that much, it's just a sad stereotype. A lot of skinny people have a hard time understanding this because they don't actually have to work to keep fat off, they just eat what they need and go about their day. For some people, in order to be thin you have to eat almost nothing and then exercise three times a day to keep the fat off. Obese people's kids can be skinny not only because a child's metabolism is naturally fast, but because of other genetics in the family. Families, like people, come in all shapes and sizes.

Answer 4

Half the reason is because when you don't meet the normal caloric intake your body needs it goes into "starvation mode", sorry I no longer remember the technical name, and refuses to burn any fat because your body thinks it must store it for the future when you continue not to eat enough. The other thing I think is the calories we do have time to intake aren't good ones. Personally I was chubby before my daughter and now I'm even chubbier after. Because I don't have time to eat right and just grab whatever I can whenever I can. Sometimes nobody in our house eats dinner except my daughter because we either don't' have the money or the time to buy something. I don't really feel that there's time to exercise either...as my local gym doesn't offer classes at 12am...and I don't know if I'd be alert enough to get to them anyways. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Of course that's all just a cop out and if we really wanted we would only weigh 100lbs right?

PS Awigo you're forgetting another tenet of scientific study. Rate laws. They aren't that simple and the forward reaction doesn't always have the same activation energy.

Answer 5

you heard of that commercial cortisol? Stress can make you gain weight, Cortisol can help you lose it. Buy Cortisol, ya know? I am on the same page with you. My mother has been overweight for 10 years. She used to weight less, but she sat on her butt forever and it caught up to her. I went to take my son to a in home daycare once a week to play with other children. She said I could stay and observe, and I sure as heck observed, she sat on the couch the whole time, ate the kids meals, and she weighed a lot. Women get stressed out and quit like my mother did. She never took us to any playgrounds after age 8. It's the people who are so lazy, and they just want to sit down and eat their sorrows away. Well, I limit my intake to one soap opera a day, and I am active before and after that. I don't have a very big house, but I have a very active two year old and 8 month old. I have to chase my 8 month old around, and I am kept on my toes, because my son likes to sneak in pushes and shoves. Well, from my own personal experience from my mother, is they can't handle it anymore. My mom would intentionally lose me at amusement parks and grocery stores, so They are not happy in life, and then everything goes.

Answer 6

Not everyone can be 'perfect' and skinny. Some women have weight problems. Have you heard of hypothyroidism? Have you heard of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or Metabolic syndrome? All of these can lead to weight gain. Its not fun being overweight. I have all three of these problems and I am slightly overweight. I will be on medication for the rest of my life. Just because someone is overweight does not mean they sit around all day eating ice cream and candy bars. I hope I don't sound rude, but honestly no one likes being overweight, some have underlying issues.

Answer 7

All human bodies are bound to the laws of thermodynamics, which state:

Energy in + Energy from storage = Energy out + Energy Stored

Bingo. So either increase energy out, or reduce energy in. I would like to note this however - I have known a number of people who preform physical labor all day and still remain overweight. At the end of the day, 'energy in' is key. Energy out helps, but cannot prevent being overweight.

Answer 8

If you really understood what it's like to be very overweight, you wouldn't ask that question. Metabolic resistance means that even if a very fat person eats very little food, that person will maintain their weight or even continue to gain. I work out four hours a week and eat slimfast for half my meals and I don't lose weight.

Answer 9

Study the causes of weight gain. Maybe you will learn something.

Not every overweight person eats candy bars and potato chips all day.

Just because someone is a mother, doesn't mean she automatically has to be skinny.

Answer 10

They are eating all of the wrong things when they do eat. Probably donuts for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch plus what their kids don't eat, and frozen chicken fingers and canned green beans for dinner. I know that you mean you are too busy to eat not that you are getting all kinds of exercise chasing your kids around. It does burn more calories than sitting on your a-r-s-e all day though!!!

edit: If fat people are genetically wired to be fat and "don't actually eat that much" then why is it that when they have bariatric surgery which causes them to be able to eat very little THEY LOSE WEIGHT?????? Isn't it really that fat people don't really each that much around other people???