What nobody tells you about losing weight

Lietchi

Melwillbehealthy wrote: »

I looked at my belly and was shocked at how strange the shape is becoming. It actually looks worse than it did before I lost weight. Also, I am getting a lot of loose skin and I never thought I would consider surgery to remove it but I still have a lot of weight to lose and expect it to get much worse before I am finished, I may consider skin removal then. I don’t know. I will try to do everything I can to help it shrink, but I don’t think it’s going to disappear.
The good news is that most of my skin inflammation has disappeared and gone. I never thought that would happen.

I looked worse halfway than at starting weight. But better again at goal!
And loose skin is hard to judge when you still have a way to go (excess weight is pulling it down): you need to reach goal, and then give it at least a year to tighten up.

Don't let fear of loose skin derail your weight-loss efforts, the benefits of weight-loss vastly outweigh the possible downsides!
Honestly, feeling lighter and fitter and more confident is sooooo worth it 🙂

AnnPT77

Melwillbehealthy wrote: »

I looked at my belly and was shocked at how strange the shape is becoming. It actually looks worse than it did before I lost weight. Also, I am getting a lot of loose skin and I never thought I would consider surgery to remove it but I still have a lot of weight to lose and expect it to get much worse before I am finished, I may consider skin removal then. I don’t know. I will try to do everything I can to help it shrink, but I don’t think it’s going to disappear.
The good news is that most of my skin inflammation has disappeared and gone. I never thought that would happen.

In terms of loose skin, it's kind of common to look worse part way to goal than one will look at goal weight, and worse at goal than one will in a few months at maintenance. That was true for me (even at age 60), and my loose skin kept shrinking at least into the 2nd year of maintenance . . . maybe longer, because the rate slowed as time went on, so it's hard to see the incremental differences. Admittedly, I only lost 50-some pounds, but that was around 1/3 of my body weight.

At this point, I don't think my body looks significantly worse than most 67 y/o women who've always been at a healthy weight. There are a couple of things I can see as tell-tale of weight loss still, but they're minor, and I think not things the average other person would notice.

IMU, plastic surgeons will ask someone to stay at maintenance for a period of time before surgery, which I assume is partly to let the body do what it will before surgery. The surgery's a valid option if someone wants it, of course - I don't mean to imply otherwise. Just trying to say that you may see more improvement than you're currently anticipating.

If you look at some of the long before/after photo threads in the Success Stories part of the Community, quite a few people look really good after losing large amounts of weight, even without surgery.

sargemarcori

soykk1995 wrote: »

How discouraging it can actually be when people ask you what you've done to lose all the weight and when you tell them they say, "Oh, I could never do something like that. It would be too hard."

I tell them "well, that's a choice," and then they get mad at me.

Melwillbehealthy

Don't let fear of loose skin derail your weight-loss efforts, the benefits of weight-loss vastly outweigh the possible downsides!
Honestly, feeling lighter and fitter and more confident is sooooo worth it 🙂[/quote]

I won’t stop losing because of excess skin issues. Really, it’s just a vanity thing that I can deal with later.

Melwillbehealthy

@AnnPT77 Thanks for the good advice. I am in no hurry for surgery of any kind. I’ve only lost 30 lbs., but I’m short, and maybe that’s why my body looks kind of strange right now. When young, I had a lovely shape. Now, my main goal is to get healthy, and have energy. I will wait and see how much of the skin will shrink, and if I can live with what I’m left with. I have at least 70 more lbs. to go.

vinnes80

palwithme wrote: »

+ That it can be an emotional roller-coaster. Some days you are happy with yourself and other days you get upset because you ate too much or you don't look right or you haven't lost any weight this week, etc. Learn to ride the roller-coaster and don't get off.

+ That it won't magically fix all your problems. In fact, some of my "problems" have come more in focus because of the time and energy I have spent on myself and not "others."

or you get emotional because you realize you could have done this sooner, but didn't

oolala53

Someone said nobody tells you that you don’t have to stick to the same handle that you lost weight with that in my experience they say that all the time. That’s why I sister to an eating style, but I would be willing to live with pretty much forever and then tweak that along the way so maintenance Has not been an issue. I also never intended to get to the low end of my BMI range because if you look at world, statistics, only countries with a very poor food supply have an average BMI that’s that low.

Jezreel12

What nobody told me was that even after reaching my goal that my mind will guilt me with my goal reach and tell me that I’m unable to maintain it.

soykk1995

butchgomer wrote: »

that 90% of weight loss leaves the body thru the breath.

Yes!!! I was surprised when my chiropractor told me that!!!

msghens

That it is a lifelong commitment, and the journey does not end at goal weight. You will be working the program for life.

justanotherloser007

Nobody told me that I would feel like a clothes renter. Go thrifting, buy a few clothes, wear clothes, thrift clothes, repeat. Is clothes renting a word?

Now that I am am at maintenance (like just happened this month on my 50th bday), I have another bag of clothes to go back to the thrift shop from whence they came. I am not sure how many times I have done this (I went through at least 15 bags before this) - total journey 20 sizes down.

Julieagain

That people feel that they can make comments about how you must have felt when you were heavier. ‘You must feel so much better’ ‘It must be so much more comfortable in this heat ‘ etc. Really?

ExerciseExtraFries

How much nicer people are to me now that I'm 100lb down

MsCzar

ExerciseExtraFries wrote: »

How much nicer people are to me now that I'm 100lb down

Sad, but true. When I struggled loading heavy things into my truck, no one would help or open a door for Heavy Me. After I lost weight, I had all sorts of help.

springlering62

MsCzar wrote: »

ExerciseExtraFries wrote: »

How much nicer people are to me now that I'm 100lb down

Sad, but true. When I struggled loading heavy things into my truck, no one would help or open a door for Heavy Me. After I lost weight, I had all sorts of help.

Lol. I lift weights several days a week and like to think I’m visually pretty buff, but I’m thin. I bought a used Pack n Play travel crib off Craigslist for an upcoming wee visitor. The lady, who was about my age, overweight and wearing support shoes, took one look at me and offered to carry it to the car for me.

I had to stifle my giggle and tell her sincerely “thanks but I got this”.

Besides which, the High Anxiety Dog was in the passenger seat and would have tried to rip her arm off. 😬

Def agree. People treat you different.

Melwillbehealthy

We’ll, I’m back. I’ve lost over 40 lbs. now, and still find my body shape changing in ways I don’t love, but can’t wait to see the end result.

ThisMagicMoment

Bump. I've taken off only about 40 pounds so far, and can't wait to experience some of the things that have been shared here, even if it is saggy skin.

SOIJ20

This may be a little deep, but on top of having more attention drawn to you and people treating you better... The Body distortion just doesn't go away that easily... I will always see myself as bigger than what I am. And I know another friend who lost loads of weight who deals with the same thing as me.

Evamutt

I still don't feel much smaller after losing 50lbs & I'm surprised when I look in the mirror

EliseTK1

I didn’t realize I would have loose skin and that it would be different than what I’ve seen on others. I’m 38, and I lost just over 30 lbs. I have wrinkly skin on my elbows from the backs of my arms sagging plus some minor wrinkling on my abdomen when I bend over and on my upper thighs when I sit certain ways. I also have some looseness in my neck. All of it is very subtle, so no one would notice but me. I just didn’t realize I could end up with loose skin at my age when I was barely in the obese category to start.

On the plus side, weight lifting consistently for the last nearly two years has improved my overall figure and functionality tremendously, so I’ll take the bit of loose skin over my previous lack of fitness any day.