What nobody tells you about losing weight

I've lost eighty lbs (40 more to go!) and my hip bones and collar bones are starting to make an appearance. I also play the upright bass. The BIG one. When I carry the bass the neck rests on my shoulder/collar and the bottom of the bass rests on my hips. Here in the last few weeks it's gotten quite painful when i move my bass. The hard wood is pressing right on my bones and it's a fifty lb instrument!

Hi! I am 52 years old and am in maintenance mode after losing 55 pounds.

Here are some things I discovered:

1. My old round glasses do not look good on my no-longer-round face. I replaced them with rectangular frames that show off the cheekbones that had been hidden for at least 20 years.

2. While I am pleased to now have only one chin, I am NOT pleased to have it replaced with a turkey neck. I also have flying squirrel arms and wrinkles that were not present until quite recently. I didn’t realize just how much my fat had been keeping the skin from sagging and the facial lines plumped out. But it is better that I am healthier even if I do look ancient now.

3. Plunging necklines! After losing two bra cup sizes and fat off of other parts of my upper body, I no longer have the padding to fill out shirts. At my birthday dinner in a fancy restaurant, when I shrugged in response to a question, my sweater AND my bra strap fell off my shoulder, revealing a lot more of me than I ever wanted my mother-in-law to see. Oops!

4. I was VERY surprised to find out that it is now even MORE difficult to find clothes that fit than before. Why can’t women’s clothes be sized like men’s, where you look for the waist/inseam number in inches that matches your measurements? I am disabled, and it is painful and exhausting for me to try on clothes in a store. Last week, before leaving the house, I went to the websites of the brands I intended to buy and consulted their sizing charts. But when I got to the store, NONE of those clothes fit - I only found out by trial and error that what used to be size 10 is now size 6. Also, I tried on multiple pair of pants and shorts from the same company in the same style that were labeled the same size, but no two pair fit the same. When I brought the size 6 pants home, I compared them to the old size 10 hanging in my closet, and the waist band was EXACTLY THE SAME!

5. My former go-to jeans styles look like clown pants on me now because my butt almost completely disappeared (I still have fat on my hips and abdomen though). So no more relaxed fit or classic fit for me. I actually bought SKINNY jeans because they are more flattering to my new shape.

6. Although I still wear the same shoe size, my heels have gotten so skinny they keep sliding out of my shoes. I bought gel heel pads that attach inside the shoes, and those seem to help.

7. Except for my husband and a couple of people at the swimming pool where I do water therapy, NOBODY noticed that I lost weight. I think this is because I am not young, and people aren’t exactly checking me out. Family members that knew I was trying to eat healthy kept trying to sabotage me and were actually pretty rude about it. I believe this is because they were morbidly obese and wanted me to stay obese to make them feel better about themselves. I didn’t let anyone talk me out of sticking to my regimen.

8. Nobody tells you that maintenance is essentially the same diet as for weight loss with the addition of perhaps 100 extra calories per day. At least that’s how it worked out for me. At first it bummed me out that I would have to eat this way forever, but I am growing used to it. Honestly, I’m not sure I could go back to my pre-weight loss diet anyway - that was almost two years ago, and most of the changes I made are good habits to keep.

sadsongkrysy wrote: »

I've only lost 36lbs, still have 50 to lose but so far my clothes fit better, looser, that horrible kangaroo pouch is shrinking and I don't have to move it to shave lol, cellulite has decreased, I can walk/jog up steep hills without losing my breath, I can do squats without my knees crunching as badly. Just so many things so soon and I've still got a ways to go! My nose is less fat! My husband magically stopped having a 'low sex drive' haha. I've been told by family and friends what an inspiration I am, how I'm a role model, how great it is that I workout so hard for my size. Oh and the best part, this is more of a workout related success than a weight loss one but I suffered from severe mental disorders such as PTSD, PPD, APD, SAD, I can't control my emotions, would fight with my husband every day for no reason, cried buckets of tears everyday, but ever since I started exercising we haven't had a fight since March, I don't cry as often, my anxieties are less, I'm less paranoid and sleep through the night, I'm able to bond with my 1yr old son for the first time. My life has changed, I have changed, it goes beyond just looking better, as I feel alive for the first time in my life. It's only going to get better from here!

I noticed a huge difference in my moods too. For me it was a combo of exercising and not eating sugar/ wheat....it feels great to feel good.

You have to keep purging clothes
You have to keep buying new clothes (I hate shopping)
You will become more confident
You will look years younger
Your bones will not ache as much
I actually crossed my legs while sitting on a flight, without thinking about it
Some friends will NEVER say a thing about your weight loss

The thinner I got the meaner some of my friends and acquaintances became!! And realizing you and your friends only had food,drinks and being pudgy in common.

How cold you will feel in the winter. Experiencing the seasons in a different way due to fat loss. I don't get nearly as hot in the summer as I used to and freeze in the winter

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Yes- it's called vanity sizing. Kind of irritates me when I read someone's weight loss story and they say, "I now weigh 160 and I'm a size 4!" I'm like, no you're not. I was a size 8 in high school and I weighed 115. Sizes have changed over the past 20 years. Now if you're a bit taller and shaped a little different than me maybe you wear a smaller size in relation to your weight because of where you carry it (I'm more of a pear shape). Anyway, if I go to Goodwill I can fit into an 8 in pants and maybe a 6, depending because they are donated clothes that have been sitting in closets for years. I'm 5'4" and now weigh 125. If I go to JCPenney or somewhere like that I am closer to a size 2 or 4, I'm like, really? No I'm not! Kind of silly when you think about it and it would make things a LOT simpler if women's clothes were like men's- just inches for the waist and inseam- you can't change the size of an inch!![/quote]

Vanity sizing is ticking me off! When I weighed 130 pds in the late 80's, my pants were size 10. Now at 138, I'm size 4 or 6. I shopped in Kohl's last week, and the size 6 Vera Bradley shorts were Huge on me! Then, I tried on "Small" tank tops that were too big. Sounds like a nice problem to have, right? Not when there are no "X Smalls". Luckily there was one pair of size 4 shorts. So frustrating!

dramaqueen45 wrote: »

klbrowser wrote: »

Hi! I am 52 years old and am in maintenance mode after losing 55 pounds.



4. I was VERY surprised to find out that it is now even MORE difficult to find clothes that fit than before. Why can’t women’s clothes be sized like men’s, where you look for the waist/inseam number in inches that matches your measurements? I am disabled, and it is painful and exhausting for me to try on clothes in a store. Last week, before leaving the house, I went to the websites of the brands I intended to buy and consulted their sizing charts. But when I got to the store, NONE of those clothes fit - I only found out by trial and error that what used to be size 10 is now size 6. Also, I tried on multiple pair of pants and shorts from the same company in the same style that were labeled the same size, but no two pair fit the same. When I brought the size 6 pants home, I compared them to the old size 10 hanging in my closet, and the waist band was EXACTLY THE SAME!

Yes- it's called vanity sizing. Kind of irritates me when I read someone's weight loss story and they say, "I now weigh 160 and I'm a size 4!" I'm like, no you're not. I was a size 8 in high school and I weighed 115. Sizes have changed over the past 20 years. Now if you're a bit taller and shaped a little different than me maybe you wear a smaller size in relation to your weight because of where you carry it (I'm more of a pear shape). Anyway, if I go to Goodwill I can fit into an 8 in pants and maybe a 6, depending because they are donated clothes that have been sitting in closets for years. I'm 5'4" and now weigh 125. If I go to JCPenney or somewhere like that I am closer to a size 2 or 4, I'm like, really? No I'm not! Kind of silly when you think about it and it would make things a LOT simpler if women's clothes were like men's- just inches for the waist and inseam- you can't change the size of an inch!!

Same. I'm 5'7" and 145, and wear a 4 in Lucky Brand jeans, which is utterly ridiculous. I should be an 8 at best. It's flipping nuts.

When you go to do one of them zipline things and realize you are 60# under the max weight and nobody looks at you like you don't belong there... awesomeness!