What have been some of the positive or negative from hitting your goal weight?

RunStart34
RunStart34 Posts: 164 Member
edited November 26 in Success Stories
Just curious, since I am about 6lbs from hitting my goal weight. So far, i have had more positive then negatives from losing already 45lbs and only needing 6lbs to my goal weight. I'd like to hear from those who have already got to their goal weight or will be getting close to it. What were some of your experiences? Some of my positives from losing, has been that my healthy has improve and the attention i get from losing. I get compliments which are always a good ego boost. I do feel a bit negative though after losing the weight because now i get the compliments from guys who probably wouldn't have talked to me before if i were heavier. mixed emotions i guess. LOL. What were some of the issues you faced?

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    No issues...everything is good.
  • RunStart34
    RunStart34 Posts: 164 Member
    MrsPinterest34 wrote: »
    I’m 3-4 pounds from a normal BMI, I lost 37lbs. So far the only negative is all the money I have to spend to replace my clothes that are big. I have more shopping options and it’s insane. Everything fits. I’m trying not to become a shopaholic since i love fashion. But this time around I’m shopping out of the clearance rack so it’s not too expensive. I finally like how I look in shorts and a 1 piece swimsuit and even a 2 piece bikini. As far as others reaction, it’s been really positive. My blood pressure is staying within normal range. I have more energy. Everyone wants to know my secret to weight loss. Once in a while I get the, you are losing too much comment. I quickly shut down any negative comments. My response is my doctor approves of my weight loss, she is a medical school graduate with years of experience and I don’t want heart disease or diabetes. I’m definitely get more attention from the gentleman but i ignore it. I personally don't care for it.

    I hear you!!! Me too! Always hated shopping for clothes but now I can now feel comfortable and know that something will fit. I guess the hard part was to mentally prepare myself of the size i actually was versus what I thought. Kept getting the bigger sizes for a while.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    Fitnessmom82 wrote: »
    Everything has been great except for the odd rude comment sometimes. They don't usually bother me, but sometimes they get under my skin. Most recently someone said "wow. You've lost a ton of weight recently" I told her it's been over the course of 9 months and thank you. She replied "well most of it must have been recent because now you're super tiny ". I just said thanks again and told her it's probably more noticeable because I now wear clothing that fits, instead of hiding under baggy sweatshirts and jeans that are too big. She says "well you can't hide your face. You're too skinny, you look sick now." For the record, not too skinny. I'm right in the middle of a healthy BMI. I was kind of dumbfounded at her response. I would never, ever say something like that about anyone's appearance. Not my place to comment!
    So I guess the fact that people feel they have free reign to comment on my looks now is a negative aspect.

    I agree, that can be such a negative experience.

    I have also had people speak badly to me of others who are very overweight or obese...like I'm in some kind of club of average sized people? B **** no! I refuse to participate in that. It makes me disappointed in that person for saying tasteless, rude things...and sometimes angry. I've noticed it seems to be an even mix of people who didn't know me before weight loss, and people who remember perfectly well that I was obese for most of my teens & adulthood. Either way, no.
  • Saffyra
    Saffyra Posts: 607 Member
    When I reached my original goal, I made a new lower one. I just reached that one, too, and set a new goal again but this one is more about gaining muscle. It's been great, other than needing new clothes that don't fall off. No one has said anything negative. My mom said I looked amazing and was I sure I wasnt too skinny but qualified it by saying maybe it was just because her brain wasnt used to ever seeing me this way. Which makes sense because I weigh now what I did in 7th grade-- and that was 25 years ago. (I was overweight at this weight at that age).
    So all in all, it's pretty great!
  • SisterSueGetsFit
    SisterSueGetsFit Posts: 1,211 Member
    djeffreys10 wrote: »
    Honestly, the negative is that body dysmorphia is a *kitten*. Spend so many years improving your physique, and it gets so that all you see is what you need to improve. Never big enough, I can always be bigger. Never lean enough, there is always more fat that I can lose. No matter how good my body gets, it's never good enough.

    Totally, completely, 100% agree. I still see a fat girl staring back at me when I look in the mirror.
  • djeffreys10
    djeffreys10 Posts: 2,312 Member
    SisterSueGetsFit wrote: »
    djeffreys10 wrote: »
    Honestly, the negative is that body dysmorphia is a *kitten*. Spend so many years improving your physique, and it gets so that all you see is what you need to improve. Never big enough, I can always be bigger. Never lean enough, there is always more fat that I can lose. No matter how good my body gets, it's never good enough.

    Totally, completely, 100% agree. I still see a fat girl staring back at me when I look in the mirror.

    I don't even have that problem. I walk by a mirror and yeah, I think I look damn good. However, that's always followed by "but I would look better if..."
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    TL;DR from my meandering tale of weight loss:
    PROS
    - I'm happier looking in the mirror now than in any point before in my life
    - More self-confident
    - WAY stronger since I started lifting weights regularly in 2015
    - better overall relationship with food, eat healthier
    - feel like I'm knowledgeable/well-equipped to stay in control of my weight long-term
    - clothes fit better
    - The Mrs. can't help but stare sometimes

    CONS
    - I've always been pretty vain, even as a paunchy kid, but now, even though I'm more confident, I'm also really self-critical and dissatisfied with how I look. I just want to keep losing fat, gaining muscle, getting existentially "better looking".
    - I'm near-obsessive about weighing my food and logging. I genuinely dislike eating at a restaurant or someone else's house as I feel like I surrender control over my calories and macros.
    - I also spend a ton of time reading about, planning, thinking about my workouts, eating plan, etc.
    - Sometimes I find myself being very judgmental and critical of others who are overweight. It's always internal, but some things I don't like thinking about others.
    - Like others have said, everyone has an opinion. My mom and others family members comment that I'm too thin, others tell me not to get "too bulky".


    Now, for the aforementioned meandering tale:
    I came upon MFP in 2012 with the singular goal; losing the ~25lbs I gained rather rapidly after I got my first job out of college. The job involved a lot of travel with a coworker with whom I'd become very good friends. He wasn't very discerning about what he ate and I often found myself following suit; we'd always go out for lunch somewhere quick & easy and dinners usually consisted of a burger and a beer at any decently reviewed local restaurant. That took it's toll pretty quickly and after a few months and visible weight gain, I decided to make some changes. Starting to use MFP and logging calories really opened my eyes to what and how much I was eating which really changed my perception about food for the better. After losing the weight I had gained I found myself wanting to improve my physique even more. I was slightly overweight through most of my adolescence, and though I thinned out through high school, I've never been particularly high in self-confidence and even being at this lower, healthy weight (6'1" 160-165 lbs ~16% body fat from ages 23-25) didn't help much; I found myself being even more concerned about my appearance than ever. This hasn't subsided in the years since, if anything it and my body dysmorphia has worsened.

    The social dialogue about body image is overwhelmingly geared towards girls, but I guarantee comics, movies and action figures can wreak havoc on boys' self-image too. I've always been a huge nerd and love superheroes, Subsequently, it bothers me that that's not what I see when I look in the mirror. Growing up, my anxiety was soothed with sentiments about some people "just not being built like that" and assumed it was out of my hands to a large degree. I played sports growing up but never with access to a weight room so it wasn't ever something I pursued with any sincerity save a trimester of gym class we used weights a few days per week without any real plan or direction. About the time I started using MFP I tried P90X to "get ripped in 90 days" or whatever their tagline was. Saw some results but didn't follow the plan to the letter which hindered progress. However, it did serve as a decent jumping-off point; I really felt capable of inciting change in my musculature for the first time and to do the program I purchased a great set of Bowflex dumbbells, something I still use daily to this day. After screwing around with some of P90X I then tried P90X3 per the recommendation of the same coworker I had started traveling with in the first place. He'd also lost about 30lbs at this point but from 260 down to 230lbs (and still refuses to eat most vegetables, but that's a topic for a different thread). I thought the workouts largely sacrificed effectiveness for efficiency, never really saw any sort of improvement, and felt most workouts were too silly. Searching for something new, I came across Marc Perry's BuiltLean program/website. Marc's story resonated with me and I started that exercise program, which incorporates more traditional resistance training than the P90X series. The more I got into lifting the more I got hooked on it. My strength started to increase and so did my muscle size. After a time I abandoned BuiltLean and dove headlong into the archives at bodybuilding.com trying to find the best mode of lifting for what I wanted to achieve; basically, to look like Chris Evans in Captain America as this was right around the time Age of Ultron was released and my wife and I really started getting into the MCU. As my strength improved I bought a better weight bench, and an Olympic barbell/weight set and thus began my infatuation with barbell weight training. That was August of 2015, I weighed 168 lbs 17.625% body fat on 8/3/15. 4/7 was the last time I did a body fat scan, 13.8% at 173lbs per my skuplt scanner. By those numbers, I've gained 10.736 lbs of lean mass and lose 5.736 lbs of fat.
  • Sthsidirish
    Sthsidirish Posts: 22 Member
    Positives...The feeling of accomplishing a goal I set for myself that took nearly a year of serious commitment to achieve, MUCH better health, feel great, clothes shopping no longer causes near panic attack reactions, and the genuine compliments when they come.

    Negatives - The naysayers, those who have some opinion how they think i should have gone about it. The backhanded compliments..You look great...but (insert rude comment). My "favorite" is...is you lose anymore you'll look sickly. Well, according to the antiquated BMI chart I'm not even at an ideal weight...or so it has determined, lol. Lastly is by far the hardest. The mental aspects of it. Almost every time I look in the mirror I still see the same overweight guy. The fear of putting it all back on. The psychological hurdle of moving into maintenance and trying to consume those additional calories while battling the fears of regaining the weight back. Those I'm hoping will all pass in time.
  • 2y2k
    2y2k Posts: 41 Member
    edited April 2018
    djeffreys10 wrote: »
    SisterSueGetsFit wrote: »
    djeffreys10 wrote: »
    Honestly, the negative is that body dysmorphia is a *kitten*. Spend so many years improving your physique, and it gets so that all you see is what you need to improve. Never big enough, I can always be bigger. Never lean enough, there is always more fat that I can lose. No matter how good my body gets, it's never good enough.

    Totally, completely, 100% agree. I still see a fat girl staring back at me when I look in the mirror.

    I don't even have that problem. I walk by a mirror and yeah, I think I look damn good. However, that's always followed by "but I would look better if..."

    I agree. I sooooo feel this. I have to physically *LOOK* in a mirror or take a picture of myself for me to really *see* myself. Like, my mind is still catching up to the fact that I’ve lost 140 lbs and that I’m not morbidly obese anymore, but rather, quite small. And sometimes I think, “Maybe I should lose 5 more lbs...”. But anorexia isn’t healthy or attractive just as being obese isn’t healthy or attractive. I try to maintain that “balance”, but hot damn, it’s hard sometimes.
  • RunStart34
    RunStart34 Posts: 164 Member
    Fitnessmom82 wrote: »
    Everything has been great except for the odd rude comment sometimes. They don't usually bother me, but sometimes they get under my skin. Most recently someone said "wow. You've lost a ton of weight recently" I told her it's been over the course of 9 months and thank you. She replied "well most of it must have been recent because now you're super tiny ". I just said thanks again and told her it's probably more noticeable because I now wear clothing that fits, instead of hiding under baggy sweatshirts and jeans that are too big. She says "well you can't hide your face. You're too skinny, you look sick now." For the record, not too skinny. I'm right in the middle of a healthy BMI. I was kind of dumbfounded at her response. I would never, ever say something like that about anyone's appearance. Not my place to comment!
    So I guess the fact that people feel they have free reign to comment on my looks now is a negative aspect.

    I do agree on the comments. I do noticed how at first I kept getting positive comments like "wow, you are doing great" and my Goal Weight is at my higher BMI for normal category. However, now the comments have been changing to "you should stop losing weight" or " your skinny enough why continue". These comments are the ones I have been getting more and more the closer I get to my goal. I am guessing because all of my friends and family have only seen me at my highest weight and are not used to seeing a thinner version of me. Seem like a downer.
  • RunStart34
    RunStart34 Posts: 164 Member
    cabanners wrote: »
    I'm not at goal weight, yet, but I've lost 36 lbs (14 pounds to go!) so I've experienced a pretty big change in my appearance over the past year--and other people have noticed too.

    Positives: I feel better physically, I have more energy, I feel a bit more confident/sexy, my clothes fit better, working out is a lot easier, and I feel a sense of accomplishment.

    Negatives: The closer I get to goal, the more I realize that I STILL won't be completely happy with my body. I have a lot of excess skin on my stomach from childbearing and the more I lose, the saggier it gets. I thought I was unhappy when it was a round belly, but now that it's just saggy, I feel just as badly about it. So, that's very disappointing that I'll still have that issue.

    Also, people have begun to make comments like, "You don't need to lose any more weight...you're tiny already, you need to eat more!...if you lose more, you'll disappear" And yes, these comments are often from larger people and I have to question why they feel that way.

    Finally, another negative is feeling fear that I will gain it all back and be embarrassed that I "couldn't do it". It's an enormous amount of pressure to keep going and not gain weight. So, often I don't feel like I can fully enjoy holidays, parties, events, etc. for having to be careful of every single bite. Losing weight has been much more a mental/emotional battle over a physical one.

    I didn't get negative feed back when i was just starting to lose but I do agree that now that I am closer to my goal weight I keep getting the comments to stop losing weight. I am not yet where i want to be so those constant comments do put you off. I keep wanting to hear the stories of others so that I can keep motivated. There is always the good and the bad. Thank you.
  • MrSJWinship
    MrSJWinship Posts: 37 Member
    As my Butt Shrinks sitting is not anywhere near as comfortable. But at least I am not worried if the chair will hold me, so thats nice lol
This discussion has been closed.

Categories

Do you Love MyFitnessPal? Have you crushed a goal or improved your life through better nutrition using MyFitnessPal?
Share your success and inspire others. Leave us a review on Apple Or Google Play stores!