Ever Had A Stranger Insult Your Weightloss Success? (A bit of a rant)

Candyspun wrote: »

drbeanie2000 wrote: »

I find it annoying when ANYONE who is a total stranger comments on anything that anyone else does! My husband bought some steak one time - the woman behind us said "all that red meat is going to KILL YOU, you know." WTF? One time I was behind a quite-pregnant woman in line at the grocery store and the *cashier* was the one giving her *kitten*. "Where's your husband? Wait WHAT? You're driving?! OMG you're doing it wrong and I can't believe you're so irresponsible and why don't you care about your baby?"

I seriously don't understand what people think gives them the right to comment on anything about a complete stranger.

Friends, family - that could be annoying but it seems different.

This. SO this. I've made it a rule of thumb not to make comments to people that are none of my business about their lives.

An example: someone prominent in our small town (and I used to see and talk to her often) lost a lot of weight, and the difference made her look like a whole new person. I was unsure of what to say: if she'd lost the weight deliberately, I wanted to congratulate her. But, also, it's been my experience that sometimes people drop a lot of weight because they've been sick, and I thought, if she has a serious illness, it could be really hurtful to say she looks great. I thought, I could ask her if she was trying to lose weight, but then realised it was none of my business to ask such a personal question. I thought, I could mention, 'you've lost a lot of weight', see what she says, and if I found out it was deliberate, then I could congratulate her. But then I realised, who the hell am I to comment on her weight? That's none of my business to comment on someone's appearance, and I'm sure she was well aware that she had lost weight.

I ended up seeing her on my walks. I STILL refused to ask her about her weight, or comment on it. But I did say hello and it's a lovely day to be walking.

An acquaintance who doesn't like this woman very much brought up her weight to me. In a cranky tone, she stated, 'and I'm sorry, but I think she looked better before!' So I told her it was not her body or her choice.

I've since found out this woman who lost all the weight has cancer. I don't know if the cancer caused the weight loss, or whether she intentionally lost weight before she found out, but you know what? None of that is ANY of my business, and I'm SO glad I never took it upon myself to say anything, despite my wanting to congratulate her if it was intentional. My need to give her positive feedback was not the most important thing.

We need to tread carefully. OP, one day, that guy is really going to put his foot in it and learn his lesson.