How has achieving your weight loss goals affected your life

I have experienced two distinct phases of losing fat, not necessarily significant scale weight in MFP terms, though.
For reference, currently 30, male, 6'1" tall.

TL;DR up front - was a chubby nerd until 17, that does some things to one's self confidence. Losing weight the first time showed that I could be in control of how my body looks and was key to allowing me to take up lifting in an effort to make my body look more like the superheroes I've idolized since my childhood. I'm happier now in my body than I've ever been as a 30-y/o still nerdy powerlifting/bodybuilding father and ever-improving my self-confidence and my physique.

At 17 I went from ~195-200lbs to ~165-170lbs over the course of a summer before starting my senior year of high school. Interestingly, this happened mostly by accident. I spent a number of weeks at a college prep "camp" away from home at a university in Indiana. I stayed in dorms, didn't have a TV, very many snacks, 3 squares at the student union, mandatory intramural sports, fell into an active group of friends, and it was SW Indiana in July so 90+ with high humidity all the time. In the three weeks I was there I lost 15 lbs going from a size 36 waist to a 34. I know that's a high rate, but this was 2006, a full 6 years before I'd discover MFP and probably 9-10 before I really educated myself well about weight management, fitness, etc. Hindsight being 20:20 I'd of course do things differently with what I know now. In the following 3-4 weeks before starting back to school I lost another 15ish lbs getting down to a size 32 waist as my appetite had adapted to not eating such large portions and snacking. By this point I was also making a loose-yet-conscious effort to lose weight once I'd happened upon some momentum. I was not nearly as meticulous about weighing myself/record-keeping at this point so I don't know my actual scale weights but 165 is my best guest; which happens to coincide with the exact middle of the BMI range for a 17 y/o male of my height. Needless to say, school shopping that year was a bundle of fun, my friends were pretty well shocked, and let's just say my girlfriend liked what she saw now even more. This resulted in a level of self-confidence I'd never experienced before. It also opened my eyes to the possibility of what my body could/should look like. Growing up I'd always been overweight to a degree; though in attempts at self-confidence preservation my parents used comforting terms like "husky", leading me to believe that I was just constructed this way and powerless to make any meaningful changes despite not really ever liking my body. I would roughly maintain this weight through college (even getting leaner as a freshman) until entering the workforce in 2011.

This section purely for context: fast forward to 2011 my first job out of college involved a good bit of travel with an expense budget. I often traveled with a coworker as well, he was already overweight and liked to indulge after hours. We wouldn't shy away from hitting up the local steak houses or microbreweries, polish off an appetizer, hefty dinner and a beer 4-5 nights per week. As you would expect after a few months of this there was palpable evidence of this lifestyle in the mirror and on the scale. Ultimately, this led me to find MFP and lose that weight, plus some more, getting as lean as 159 shortly before getting married in June 2013.

From this low point, weight crept to mid 170s by early 2015. I didn't love how I looked but also wasn't 100% satisfied with how I looked at 159 as weight lifting become more and more en vogue. This was also prime Marvel movie era and being the nerd that I am the on-screen physiques of Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth aren't blameless in my desire to get more muscular. Enter Phase two - picking up progressively heavier things. I'd putzed about with P90X and P90X3 with middling results but I started looking into more traditional lifting programs. BuiltLean, NerdFitness, and StrongLifts were all tried at various intervals and I started to progress both in strength and aesthetics. Within a few months I found myself upgrading from a small adjustable bench and bowflex dumbbells to a barbell and bench, moving from a second-floor bedroom to the basement so I could squat and deadlift without worrying about the floor. I will remember discussing the barbell/plates purchase with my wife; "300 lbs? Do you really need that much?" she asked. "Don't worry, I can't imagine this isn't all the weight I'll ever need." Four years later I Squat 365 and deadlift 385 (pre-child PR of 400) and I've gone from 18+% body fat to 12%. I find I'm more self-confident, diligent, and focused at work and in personal settings.

Biggest thing would be that I'm more fit and healthier than I've been in a long time.

nxd10 wrote: »

I have learned how much society discriminates against people who are overweight - particularly older women. I'm 60, but people assume I'm in my 40's (good genes - my mom looks young too). For reference, I was never more than 'overweight' - BMI 26 at the highest. My clothing size never changed because clothing sizes have gotten bigger over the years. But the difference is STRIKING.

I am a professor. Since losing weight six years ago, my students and colleagues treat me as if I am younger, 'cooler', and are much more excited to work with me. It is noticeable.

I am also starting a business, so am pitching for fundraising. Being fit and attractive makes a huge difference in being able to attract investment in my business. It shouldn't. It does.

On the positive side, I love looking in the mirror every day. I feel SO MUCH BETTER every single day. My only regret losing weight is that I didn't do it 10 years earlier when the weight started to creep up.

I have also recently learned that exercising is a great thing. I always walked - 10K steps was my goal. I walk to work every day. But I recently started working out in a gym for 45 minutes every day on an elliptical and found that my hips no longer hurt and my core muscles feel great.

@nxd10 Agree, sad but true. I wonder as more women become VC’s if this will change.

As someone who was overweight/obese since late high school, I have had to work through the grief this knowledge brought me. The flip side, in my case, was people took me more seriously, thought of me as smarter.

Amazing world we live in.

Look better, feel better, got stronger, more fit and heathier AND am getting compliments about my build from other men (which men know is something that rarely happens because men seldom explicitly compliment one another about anything).