Struggling to accept

From the Male perspective, believe it or not, I went through the same thing. It is hard to accept that I no longer have the beer belly hanging out front, though I still feel I do. I look at pictures now and can hardly believe who I am. the bulge above my belt line seems as big to me as it ever was, though I know it is not. You will get used to it and adjust, hang in there.

It took me a while to start wearing stuff that fits still see that other person but you will see the you everyone else is seeing

I went through this. Buying clothes that were too big, not wanting to wear certain things that revealed the changes in my body because my eyes had not really caught up with reality. It was almost like going through puberty again, in a way. I suddenly became very aware of (and very paranoid) when people were looking at me. Guys would check me out, and I had no idea what to make of it. I felt like an alien for a while. But you get over it. It just takes some time.

And this needs to be said ... I can't speak for people who have lost 20 or 30 lbs, but as someone who lost essentially half my body weight, I can tell you I am not the same person I was before. People treat me differently now not because I am no longer fat but because I am much friendlier, more open, more approachable than I was before. I look everyone in the eye. I smile and nod at people when I pass them. I'll start conversations with random people. I don't get a deer-in-headlights look on my face when I catch a man checking me out. I didn't have that kind of confidence before, and that has a lot more to do with why I was treated like I was invisible before than the fact that I was fat.

From the Male perspective, believe it or not, I went through the same thing. It is hard to accept that I no longer have the beer belly hanging out front, though I still feel I do. I look at pictures now and can hardly believe who I am. the bulge above my belt line seems as big to me as it ever was, though I know it is not. You will get used to it and adjust, hang in there.

Totally get that men have similar feelings!

I can also relate to the belt line bulge. That area for me has gone from being the size of an actual car tire to the size of maybe like, a smaller baguette lol and yet I still feel like it's a tire.

I feel the same as a lot of people here. I still feel self conscious at times , like my stomach is still my bad area. I still have that weird boob thing at the top of my arms. I also find the extra male attention hard to deal with. I agree with others, sometimes it is nicer to be bigger are you are sorta more invisible to the world, you just exist inside you're own head.

However recently I have been like, I worked dam hard for this body and I am going to show it off. I wear either dresses or skirts all the time and I feel classy now. I feel a lot happier wearing my dresses and being 130lbs than I did always wearing jeans and t-shirts and being 155lbs.