People thinking you're sick after weight loss?

briannadunn

I was once asked if I lost the weight on purpose. LOL

alicia0416

My family and friends ask me A LOT if I am on drugs..... I keep tellin em that I am doing EVERYTHING HEALTHY.... no appitite suppresents no magic pill..... just working out and eating right.... so yeah I get this........

Danayle

I think it's a common assumption because maybe more people do lose weight as a result of being sick as opposed to losing the weight to be healthy.

Danayle

I'm getting a bunch of this since I dropped the weight. In my field as an attorney, clients compare my website pics to whom they see now and ask the question to me personally... in fact, RUMORS about my health are circulating around town I'm learning.

Very odd indeed.

give them a huge big smile and say ' no i've been working out and getting healthy and I FEEL GREAT!" :happy:

I like this.

Danayle

I started out at 258. When I was around 190, someone told me I looked 'gaunt' No, baby, no one is GAUNT at 190 pounds

find another adjective.

They could be if they were 7 feet tall. : ) I'm guessing that's not your height though.

mearlie

what a compliment?! lol

AllyDelair

I WISH someone would ask me about my weight loss. Down 32 lbs and its as if people are scared to tell someone "you look great!" or "i can tell your losing weight." Why is it so hard to say that to someone?? gahhh. So frustrating!

djk721

uh-huh! I get asked that alot. My response--NO, just the opposite. I am getting healthier!!

NikkiSixGuns

Yup, been asked that several times by family, co-workers, and friends. Even people who knew I'd made some changes in my lifestyle to drop some weight. I just take it as recognition that I've achieved noticeable weight loss. So it's a compliment... Albeit a strange one.

honey_bee_keysha

That happened to me the first time I posted about my weight loss on Facebook.

This happened to me also. Apparently, my family members believe I am terribly ill due to my facebook pic.

carloc

I think that the social norm now is for people to be over their ideal weight by about 25 / 30lbs. Too many people now see this as a normal weight, so when someone makes the change and loses that extrea 30lbs and gets back to their ideal weight and they do it in a healthy way. Other people just precieve it as being too thin, looking unhealthy. And its also an excuse from them to justify their own weight issues.

My sister said the same to me after I lost about 22lbs. I told her that I was still overweight by about 15lbs and that my test was standing straight naked, if I looked down and could not see my little fella I was basically still over weight.

Do the healthy thing.

purpleprose

I WISH someone would ask me about my weight loss. Down 32 lbs and its as if people are scared to tell someone "you look great!" or "i can tell your losing weight." Why is it so hard to say that to someone?? gahhh. So frustrating!

I think a lot of people feel uncomfortable commenting on someone's weight. That's what I experienced anyway - a lot of my acquaintances didn't feel like they could say something because they didn't want to offend me.

On the other hand, my family seems especially determined to play the "oh, you'll get TOO thin if you lose much more weight" game with me. They were all worried and concerned about my weight when I was big, but now that I'm thinner than they are, they're suddenly changing their tune a bit.

Onaughmae

I have been asked if I have a drug problem. But I live in Corpus Christi where the obesity rate is 30.2%. Being in good shape and health is definitely abnormal in these parts.

I lived in Corpus for many years! I am now in San Antonio where the same issues exist. People have been really good about my weight loss because they know it is deliberate...but I do keep getting comments about getting "too skinny". Funny since I am a loooong way from goal.

MissSusieQ

In Highschool I lost a lot a weight and rumors started that I was on cocaine. Yea, I wasnt.

when I was in high school i got $10 pocket money a week from my mum. I don't think I could have stretched that to cover a blow habit, even if I gave up lolly snakes!

algebravoodoo

my mom asked me if i were making myself throw up the other day wtf

i would have looked my mom dead in the face and said "yes, ma'am" just to see the look on her face.

Gramps251

I don't think it's rude to ask a friend who lost a bunch of weight if they planed on losing it. I've known enough people who've become sick and lost weight and worse.

The first time I was asked, (years ago) it suprised me but I figured it was asked out of concern.

I don't think it has anything to do with our fat society. If your weight changes drastically in a short amount of time there is a reason for it and the reason can be hard work or illness.

MissSusieQ

I lost about 15kg a few years back and my best friend's dad was too scared to comment. eventually when her stepmum said something about my jeans getting a bit saggy in the bum he came out with some comment along the lines of 'I noticed you've lost weight, you look good, but I didn't want to say anything in case you were sick or something'. we all laughed at him, and then bless him, he came out with the most considerate comment of all.. 'well, it's really none of my business if you are sick or if you do just want to lose weight, so I kept my thoughts to myself!'

2012asv

I've got that several times as well... i don't even LOOK sick.

I'm tempted to just say yes and that's its highly contagious and fatal.

dittmarml

I actually was sick a couple of years ago and lost weight - but was still above my goal weight - so I'm assuming that 'concern' will return as I continue losing.

That said, there's a bunch of research on this in the U.S. - 63% of the population is significantly overweight (and going up) and peoples' perception of what is "normal weight" has been distorted ... so first off many people see "normal" weight as "underweight", when it isn't. Second, as lots of folks have pointed out, graduate loss isn't noticed until it hits some sort of "perceptual threshold" and then it looks like a sudden loss, so people are concerned.

Myself I also wonder if people are also unused to seeing people successfully reduce as a result of choice and hard work that they assume illness rather than conscious change.

CALABRESE3

Yes, Unfortunately I have heard this alot too... These people get this look on their face like I must have Cancer or something:((( To me they say nothing, I guess for fear of saying the wrong thing, but to my husband, they all quiz him on whats wrong with me:( And then say are you sure she is OK? HUMPF! After all this work, its kind of disheartening....So now Im focusing on weights and toning.....Hoping that will make a difference in my appearance.. I just think people are not used to seeing me any other way than fat!

bethygirlie

I get that all the time, especially since I'm so pale. I have considered tanning because I'm sick of everyone assuming I'm anemic/sick/etc. I get "don't lose too much more weight", um thanks but I have my own opinion. I'm 180 pounds, I think I can lose another 40 without looking bad, although apparently people at my work sometimes assume I'm starving myself because I work nights and I don't eat that much at night. Well I plan it that way, and I don't like working midnight shift on a full stomach because I'd just want to sleep. I hate it when people always assume you're sick when you're probably healthier than they are.

tking867

I don't understand at all why someone thinks it is perfectly okay to tell you that you don't need to lose weight or lose "any more" weight YET if you said to that same person, "I don't think you need to gain anymore weight" it would be the rudest thing they've ever heard!

carolg225

I haven't lost enough YET for people to think I'm sick, but I have a picture in my living room from 10 years ago after I had lost about 40 lbs and a good friend calls it my "crack picture". I think I look great.....funny how different we see ourselves from what others see....I know one thing.....I'm gonna throw a party when someone asks me if somethings wrong cause I look skinny!!!! :)

ltkasmala

Yes.... It's annoying. And I got remarks the one time I lost about 70 pounds maybe 12 or 13 years ago from people who never even saw me! I told how much I lost and what I weighed in the end (which was about 138 pounds--pretty much the same end weight I'd like to be close to this time, as well) and all I got was "Are you sure you looked ok?" Simply because I am kind of tall for a female, 5'7", with a larger frame, somehow people envision that weight must not look good. And if I had not been eating regularly (good food choices at the time, too) I might have been more concerned! Right now I am still about 30 pounds from my final goal weight and the majority of people who saw me last year and see me know just say "You look different", which I guess isn't so bad! People need to learn how to mind their own business! Until someone is really overweight with health issues, maybe they can't fully understand the reasoning behind needing, not just wanting, to loose a lot of weight! I"d ignore them unless the rumor mill gets out of hand. Some people have too much time on their hands apparently!

celiason81

Most anyone I know knows how hard I've been working to eat better and lose weight, so I don't get the "are you sick?" comments, but some co-workers have asked if I'm anorexic or have another eating disorder (I'm a nurse, so they're "just concerned"). Um no, I just don't snack on all the crap we have at work like everyone else. Then I get told I'm getting too skinny and shouldn't loose anymore weight. I've realized it is because most people are first shocked by a drastic change. Second, others (mainly women, moms more specifically) don't like to feel like they don't have an excuse for themselves being overweight.

PJ64

my mom asked me if i were making myself throw up the other day wtf

Nice username.

Hahahaha! I get asked, but its my Irish heritage and I'm Pale!!

slim_photographer

yeah this can happen.
I lost weight the healthy way one time. I stopped exercising and gained it back so a couple of years later I had this bowel disease and led me to loss like 30 lbs in a month.
People started to say that I was so desperate to lose weight that I had tried supplements that nearly killed and that's how I lost the weight the second time. Not only I almost died but having people I know spreading such lies was kinda depressing.
I guess there's no fix for such thing. Let's just keep doing what we know is right and I guess with time the truth will prevail.
HC

carneson3

A coworker just asked me this a week ago! I started to pretend cry and ask him why he had to bring up such a sensitive subject...THEN told him it was just weight loss! We all got a laugh out of it and I honestly was flattered that he cared enough to ask about my health!

EvgeniZyntx

I was asked if I had a cancer by my boss - actually she was concerned that I had not screened myself for that since my last weight loss was easy (I gain and lose reasonably easily). Her concern both got me to work out but was part of the mental self-sabotage that followed.
I've learned to not consider these comments as pure negative input.

sarahisme18

Yep! I became a vegetarian, and people constantly ask me if I'm being healthy. Then when I say I'm trying to lose weight, they give me this concerned look and say I don't need to—but how do they know? They can't see beneath the clothes, LOL