What odd things have surprised you about weight loss?
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The bones. I haven't seen them in over 30 years, so they really look like they don't belong. I woke up one day and my knees were uncomfortable because the bones were pressing on each other. I remembered how anorexics are always asking for extra pillows so they can sleep pain-free. If my knees hurt at 150, I can only imagine how they feel. I always believed them that their bones hurt, I'd just never experienced it. Now, I don't just believe it, I get it.
Fitting into spaces. You'd think it would be a Duh, but the day I could squeeze past the grocery cart was a big deal. I was impressed, lol.
How fast I go through clothes. I bought shorts in sizes 10 and 8 to get through the winter and am in the 10s already. I cannot lose more than ten or fifteen pounds until March. Losing weight is not cheap!
Hangers! I need the adjustable ones for pants and shorts because my clothes aren't wider than the hangers anymore!
The loose skin. I guess I hoped some magical weight loss fairy would save me from it. It's the worst. When I realized that I could lose weight, I had this dream of becoming thin and having a good body. I now realize that will never happen. Even at my fattest, there was the idea that if I lost weight, I'd have a good body. Now that hope is gone and it's a little depressing.
People treat me better. Strangers, anyway. Obese strangers don't. I used to get that "we are in the club" thing, now I don't. In my heart, though, I'm still in the club.
Balance. To wash the top of the car, I open the door and balance with my feet in the car. It's just a whole different kind of balancing now. And harder, for some reason.
Driving. the last week or so, I keep playing with the seat. I cannot seem to find the right position for it.
Everything is different.
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How fast I go through clothes. I bought shorts in sizes 10 and 8 to get through the winter and am in the 10s already. I cannot lose more than ten or fifteen pounds until March. Losing weight is not cheap!
Yes! I bought a bunch of pants in size 8 and burned right through those. Now I literally have one pair of work pants and one pair of jeans in size 6 that actually fit. I have to constantly wear baggy pants with a belt on the tightest notch just to mix up my wardrobe!0 -
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The back of my knees, those bones feel disgusting to touch because I can- for the first time- actually touch them.0
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Is a saggy butt due to age or weightloss?
Lack of squats! Haha.
Sadly, my grocery bill is actually MORE than it was before, because I'm actually purchasing fresh produce instead of ramen noodles and boxed meals.
I'm surprised at how uncomfortable it is to sit on a hard surface like the steps. I'm still about 30lb away from my goal and the boniness is already bothersome
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How much better I look and feel by incorporating weights and resistance training into my work out routine. Last time I 'lost weight', my body looked like a log with breasts. Now with all the squat and lunge variations, as well as good mornings and deadlifts (plus many more exercises), I don't look so flat. YAY. The only cardio I do is ~20min of Kickboxing a day.
Also, my feet got smaller. At 260lbs, I was a 10 Aus....Now I am a 7.5-8 Can.0 -
meganridenour wrote: »Is a saggy butt due to age or weightloss?
Lack of squats! Haha.
Sadly, my grocery bill is actually MORE than it was before, because I'm actually purchasing fresh produce instead of ramen noodles and boxed meals.
I'm surprised at how uncomfortable it is to sit on a hard surface like the steps. I'm still about 30lb away from my goal and the boniness is already bothersome
Yeah my butt always hurts if I sit on something too long.
I don't buy fresh produce anymore unless it's really cheap, or really need them for a recipe, because you just can't beat $1 frozen veggies (plus I don't have to worry about them going bad).0 -
momoftwins985 wrote: »How bone-y my shins would get lol I don't know how that surprised me so much, but it did
^this.
I'm terrified for the next time I rap my shins on something. I know it's coming.
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I can no longer handle my alcohol!0
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How fast I go through clothes.
And this ^^
I only wear jeans on Fridays (casual Fridays). When I was my heaviest, I bought a couple pair of jeans in Size 16. One fit me, the other was a bit too tight. It took a little while to start dropping sizes but when I finally did, I figured I'd wear the jeans that had been a bit too tight for several weeks. I think I wore them twice and then they were too loose. So I bought Size 14 jeans figuring I'd wear them for several months ... but just a few wears and I had to buy Size 12 jeans.
Same with skirts ... I'm buying skirts that are just a bit snug and 6 weeks later, they are really loose.
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That I rarely need my inhaler anymore.
When I was my heaviest, I was really struggling to breathe doing anything more than walking slowly on flat ground, and I used my inhaler every time I knew I was going to put in a bit more effort.
Now I'm walking and cycling up hills which would have had me stopped by the side of the road gasping for breath, even with the inhaler, and I'm barely puffing.0 -
With the taller thing, I do realize that I stand and walk with better posture. So yes, I can that. I guess I do feel "straighter".0
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These are all things I've learned and decided as of 5 months ago, my start on MFP.
That it's a choice every single day.
The mental/emotional part is harder than the physical part of losing weight.
I just don't eat certain foods anymore and I'm okay with that because they trigger a binge.
I used to binge all the time and I realized it was from lack of eating, as in poor dieting, as in dieting every other day and hating my body. I would go so long with not eating enough and then drop the ball and eat thousands of calories in one sitting. Neither of those mechanisms did me any good.
I don't care about being a stick, as long as I'm healthy and feel good in my own skin, and feel like the decisions I've made long term have paid off for me, the curvy, tall, stretch marked, blemished, imperfect person I am today. & those things are perfectly okay.0 -
how much a couple of pounds and macronutrient ratios can really change your body.
less than 150g of carbs and 5 pounds smaller: my stomach is flat, I lose my love handle type fat, have slimmer thighs and look relatively good & slim.
just an extra 5 pounds and more carbs, I gain so much lower stomach fat and overall look flabby and puffy and 'untoned.'0 -
I'm constantly touching myself! (Not in that way.) I've been fat my whole life, and I'm still obese, but I've lost more than 90 pounds and cannot believe how much my body shape has changed. My chin has sharpened and my elbows are all pointy. I can get my fingers around my wrists. When I'm doing yoga and we're doing balance exercises, it's crazy to feel the tendons and bones shifting in my ankles. Even my knees have definition!
And wow, has my butt gotten less cushiony. Now I find myself squirming if I sit longer than 30 minutes and I'm constantly getting up and down to stretch.0 -
that I thought I didn't like skinny jeans and lingerie. I honestly *thought* they were ridiculous, but now I find myself thinking..I want all the things. Somehow I had convinced myself to dislike everything I knew wouldn't work. I still have about 40 more lbs to go, but clothed I now feel very body confidant, unclothed..eh..thats where the other 40 are coming from.0
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How much less my grocery bill is, and how much longer the foods I do buy last in the house!
^^ This but with alcohol. A six pack lasts me weeks now because I only have room in my calories for a beer or cider maybe once a week. It used to last a few days.
Also the shoe size thing - I had no idea my shoe size would go down with my weight!
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We just bought a new truck and I have to adjust the mirrors and seat when I drive after my husband. We have been together more than 30 years and we have always just left the seat and mirrors in the same place.
Just 2 weeks ago I weighed less then him for the first time ever (he is 4 inches taller). I guess I am really smaller now. (I've lost 111 pounds, so it's about time.
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John started laughing when he got in to drive last night and had to re-adjust- again!
He's rebuilding a Mustang for me which should be done by spring. He said "Then you'll have your own car and you can leave my seat and mirrors alone!
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kthompson601 wrote: »I'm constantly touching myself! (Not in that way.) I've been fat my whole life, and I'm still obese, but I've lost more than 90 pounds and cannot believe how much my body shape has changed. My chin has sharpened and my elbows are all pointy. I can get my fingers around my wrists. When I'm doing yoga and we're doing balance exercises, it's crazy to feel the tendons and bones shifting in my ankles. Even my knees have definition!
And wow, has my butt gotten less cushiony. Now I find myself squirming if I sit longer than 30 minutes and I'm constantly getting up and down to stretch.
I do that to! And am always staring at myself in full-length mirrors and window reflections.0 -
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That I've had to readjust the fit on most of my bicycles.
I had them set up a certain way, but as I gradually gained weight, I raised the handlebars a little bit and a little bit more so that I was sitting in quite an upright position on most of them. I was uncomfortable and couldn't breathe properly leaning forward too much.
I have been having back pain and sciatic pain when I ride lately, but it hadn't occurred to me that I need to lower my handlebars until last weekend when my husband and I rode our tandem for the first time in months. He had specially rigged it with higher handlebars for me, but I ended up with agonising sciatic pain ... and two things suddenly dawned on me:
1) I don't have the padding on my butt to handle sitting upright anymore.
2) I don't need to sit upright anymore because I can lean forward now.
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MiniChef_Kriss wrote: »how long its taking my mind to catch up with my body!
Even with pictures where i can see the HUUUGE difference in myself, i still look in the mirror and see the same person i saw at 252 pounds.
QFT! I still see my former obese self in the mirror all the time, but pictures and my friends' and family's reactions to this new me assures me that I have in fact changed quite a bit. Thank God I live in this age of technology so I can see the change for myself.0 -
How cold I'd be, all of the time. Even when it's 80 degrees outside. I never want the air conditioning on, while the rest of the family is sweating.
How uncomfortable sitting is when there isn't as much padding around the tailbone.
Also, how I had to change the way I talk to people. No one cared when I said dirty/flirtatious things in a joking manner to their SOs when I weighed 280 lbs. Now, at 160, I get the evil eye every time I do it, from people who didn't care when I did it before.0 -
that I thought I didn't like skinny jeans and lingerie. I honestly *thought* they were ridiculous, but now I find myself thinking..I want all the things. Somehow I had convinced myself to dislike everything I knew wouldn't work. I still have about 40 more lbs to go, but clothed I now feel very body confidant, unclothed..eh..thats where the other 40 are coming from.
OMFG THIS. I have a whole new appreciation for fashion. I'm not even close to goal yet, but now that I have an idea how small I'll be, I'm saving change to buy all the things I thought were stupid but really just disliked because I knew they'd look horrible on fat me.0 -
vaguelyvegan wrote: »The little bones. Ribs and collarbone and tiny little wrists. I feel like a bird.
I totally relate to this one! I always thought because I am tall with extremely wide hips, I was "just a bigger person"...not really. I'm tall with big hips, but ridiculously small bones all over everywhere else, child size hands and fingers, skinny feet, etc. I genuinely did not know that because I had not been anywhere near normal (non-obese) weight since I was 12-13 and still had baby fat.
I didn't realize I'd get hit on by totally different guys and in totally different ways than before. I've always been hit on by guys who complimented my shoes or glasses & asked to take me out to coffee and talk about nerdy geeky stuff. Now I'm finding random guys want to compliment specific body parts, and come to my rescue by carrying or lifting heavy things (which I'm capable of doing myself), and ask to take me out to dinner behind their wife's back, etc. It's honestly gross. Plus I'm married. And even if I weren't, I'd be more into the guys who hit on me "before" because they're just more my type!0 -
I'm quite new to this stuff and am still at the start of my journey (28lb down, 160ish to go!) but the one thing I've noticed is that I'm sleeping so much better at night and I feel amazing for it! I can't wait for start noticing all of the other things you guys mention 0
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cat_lady15 wrote: »I'm quite new to this stuff and am still at the start of my journey (28lb down, 160ish to go!) but the one thing I've noticed is that I'm sleeping so much better at night and I feel amazing for it! I can't wait for start noticing all of the other things you guys mention
Agreed! I also think I've cut back on snoring.
I tried to put on a sweater yesterday that used to be very flattering and fit on me, thinking it would be a little lose but still work, and it's like a poncho! I'll add it to the ever-growing pile of donations. I still can't get over how much bigger my old clothes are after only a 30 pound difference.0
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