I think the biggest perception shift is that I am now seen as athletic, whereas no one would have ever mistaken me for that before. I feel like I'm treated similarly. I was teased about my weight a few times when I was younger but I think that was just age related cattiness more than anything and would have disappeared into later adulthood. I never had poor self esteem as a larger person, but I did not see myself as attractive. Nowadays I think I appreciate my body more and compliment myself more than I used to.

I am treated the same.

for me I use to be negative but that has changed when I lost weight.

Since most of my coworkers only see me eating things I've made and brought from home, they think I only ever eat healthy. They have not seen me when confronted with chocolate GF brownies.

It is true that compared to my 300+ pound days, that I really do eat much healthier.

how has the manner with which people treat you, and their apparent perception of you, changed?

I've been at WL for 22 yrs. I got from 285 to around 215-220 and stayed there for years. That was a big change. I worked out regularly, trained with weights to the point where I got a few comments about that. I wore nice clothes that fit right.

Yeah, I got a lot more respect like that than I did as a fat slob. But truth was I was still plenty fat at 220.

People comment that I look to be in good shape now and I like it.

Has this affected your own perception of yourself?

This whole WL campaign, both parts 285 to 220 and 220 to 180 has changed a lot of how I see myself. As a giant ironic development, to close the deal to 180 I found I had to quit caring much what other people thought or wanted of me.

Going around telling myself I should lose weight and not getting it done was very damaging. The world didn't suddenly become wonderful when I made goal but that nagging voice in my head shut up.

I didn't notice that I was treated any differently after losing weigh than I was before I lost weight.

My perception of myself? I'm sure I'm more aware of my weight gain that most of those around me. I think I do sometimes suffer from body dysmorphia.

My perception is that the dynamic has worked mostly in reverse. I still remember feeling better about myself within days of having joined WW. I think the note-worthy game-changer for me was that I moved from 'thinking about losing weight' to actually starting a program to do it. The change in my self-perception was noticeable almost immediately. Without losing a pound (or maybe just a couple-few), I really felt more confident just having made that transition.

The fact that I felt better about myself made me carry myself differently and project a more confident person that interacted with others. I found I was more engaged with my peers, friends, etc. By that, I mean I noticed I was not constantly thinking and evaluating my fat self while engaged with others. I could be more present in conversations and less obsessed on how I looked or others perceived me.

One of my biggest eye-openers came after I'd love 30-40 pounds. I was to give the opening presentation at a day-long workshop in a venue I'd not been in before. I got there about an hour ahead of time to size up the room. There was and would be no podium! In that moment I realized that doing the presentation as I had in many other places for several years prior, I had used the podium to hide behind.

My moment of panic on this particular day was short-lived. I realized I no longer needed to hide. I was comfortable, even eager to be able to move about the room as I gave the presentation without focusing on my fat self and really much more engaged with audience and the topic.

It's been a symbiotic dynamic but I think others' perception of me has changed mostly because my perception of myself has improved with weight loss, not vice-versa.