I definitely underwent a metabolism change around 25. I had 4 post-college years of being able to eat decently and not changing weight at all before the Flab Fairy found out where I lived.

Hello. I am bored, yet I must work. Does this seem fair?

The only thing that will make today remotely bearable is that I have a pile of new CDs I'm importing into iTunes, and that I'll be burning more episodes of Samurai Champloo.

Bribery: only thing getting me to work these days.

Kalshane, if it helps any, I'd have thought you were about 215/220 just by looking at you. You're a tall guy with broad shoulders.

Thanks. A lot of people are really surprised when I tell them what I weigh. Last time I was weighed I was 260. According to the chart thingies, I'm supposed to weigh 185, which I think is absurd. I figure if I can get down to around 220, I'll probably look close to what people think of as "185" and that's good enough for me.

And therefore not a sister to whom I should say "sing it, sister."

Heh. Afraid not.

So is it generally asssumed to be universal that people gain weight when/after they finish college? Is it something related to leaving college (like, not knowing how to cook), or is it just "I am no longer 22 with the metabolism of a hummingbird" we are talking about?

For me (I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, apologies to those for whom it is a repeat) it was around 21 because I went from a job where I was on my feet everyday for 8 hours at a time (and until shortly before that walking over a mile to the bus every day) to a job that involved me sitting at a desk for hours on end with very little sleep due to wacky scheduling with little to do but surf the internet and raid for the vending machine for snacks and caffine while waiting for reports to print. During my Saturday hell shifts (Midnight to 4am, followed by a 7am to 7pm shift at our corporate office an hour away, followed by another Midnight to 4am shift, meaning I was effectively working for 28 hours straight but only on the clock for 20 of it.) I typically went through the better part of a case of Pepsi just to stay awake. Needless to say, my weight went up fairly rapidly.

When I was 23-24 I finally got into going into my martial arts classes for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, I got down to 230 and while I still had a gut, I was in pretty good shape. Then I took a hard fall in class, threw my hip out of wack, gained the weight back and then some while I was recovering and just haven't been able to get back into exercising regularly since. Every time I go back to martial arts, within a month something happens that causes me to miss a week or two and then the laziness takes over again.

Is it something related to leaving college (like, not knowing how to cook), or is it just "I am no longer 22 with the metabolism of a hummingbird" we are talking about?

For me it was suddenly spending eight hours a day sitting behind a desk.

Yes, this. I was way more active in college, what with the walking to class, walking to the dining hall, walking everywhere. And then moving home and suddenly driving everywhere combined with a desk job. Pfah.

I look at pictures of me in high school and I have a great body! (bad hair and questionable fashion choices). And I was so sure I was fat. It's been a combination of things. I exercise less, although now I live in a great neighborhood for walking. I probably eat more (of everything including bad stuff). And a couple of years ago I gained appx 25-30 lbs in three or so months due to a medication and I've never lost that.

Plus I eat worse than I did then. So I'm stuffing myself with empty calories.

My big shift was around 30. People (who I don't respect very much) spent a little too much time nodding with fake sympathy and telling me that I'd be fat once I passed the big three o.

Heavier? Sure. Bigger? Yes. Fat? No. For the first time I could put muscle on my upper body.

I have also discovered where I gain fat now, and that's new (it used to be very general). But it's not bad.

My body did change when I was taking ballroom dance classes, I didn't really slim down that much, but my legs started getting more toned and looking better.

I weighed about 160 (at 5'11") when I left school at 25. Started gradually gaining weight through my 20s and 30s. It's just within the last year (after spraining my ankle last July, and being unable to do my daily walks for a month or so) that I've really gained weight. I haven't had the courage to get on a scale lately, but I think I'm around 215.

I'm fat. But I'm pretty. So there.

I gained weight the first 2 years in college. Pretty sure it was fatty caf food and hormones at work (I was on meds.) I was exercising daily then (swimming ~2 miles daily) so I was stronger, but more fat in addition to more muscle.

I started losing weight when I began cooking for myself and quit the meds. Of course now, I still cook for myself, and I don't exercise. My weight fluctuates slowly, but by close to 30 lbs. I dropped to my lowest since high school (when I was bony, but didn't think so- I was rounder, babyish-style) about 3 years ago, 160ish. I'd like to drop back to that someday. That's where my head thinks I am and gets a rude awakening when I try to button a shirt over my chest!