Things people say when you lose weight

GertieLouTackett wrote: »

"You need to be careful. You don't want to develop an eating disorder" (I eat more now than I did...the quality of your food matters)

"You look great. What diet are you doing? or What did you do to get to this point?" (I tell them and then they respond with..."Oh, I wouldn't do all that."

And my favorite..." Since you lost weight your head looks smaller." lol

CasiferNash wrote: »

hallobailey wrote: »

Weight loss is a very personal journey but it inevitably draws comments from the people around us. I’m curious, what kind of comments have you received related to your weight loss? Good, bad, frustrating. Here are a couple for me...

Good: “You are looking fit”
Frustrating: “you don’t have any weight to lose” or “don’t get obsessed with your new diet”

The worst one that I got was "Oh, look! you're finally doing something" with a mocking shocked look.

Kinda dampens the spirits a bit.

For sure! Sounds like someone that needs to be taken off the old Christmas card list. (Though honestly I'd be tempted to make a rude gesture as well.) In any case, you did it for yourself, not for them, and you still win because of that.

What people don’t say when you lose weight:

Seeing an acquaintance you haven’t seen since midway through your weight loss. Have a brief flash on intuition that their lips said one thing, but intuiting that they were privately thinking,”I wish she’d put it back on. “

Paranoia, or the occasional ability to read minds?

ChrisRShaw wrote: »

OK I have a weird one. We went to a fancy wedding this past weekened, and I bought a great dress in a much smaller size (thanks to my weightloss). One of my close friends (I am sure was meaning this as a compliment) said " this dress makes you look super skinny " While I love the dress I kind of felt like it negated all the hard work I had put in the loose the weight and it was just "lucky" that I found a magic dress that made me look skinny.
Maybe I am being overly critical but it kind of irked me

I see your point! Many people (myself included unfortunately) don't really think about what their words mean all the time. What always happens to me is that I know what I mean so I figure everybody else should, too. Well, words have specific meanings for a reason! It would really help if people took a moment to consider the message being received as well as the one that was meant.

I wish I was a conversational analyst - this material is wonderful.
Some tiny things that contain so many presuppositions that we all guess – e.g. "Don't give up now." (I don't know why, but this one bugs me.) – but which somehow are difficult to explain.

Good luck everyone and thanks for these posts.

.... for me, "oh come on, you don't need to lose weight" from women (I am a woman to, sorry for my silly nickname ) is the most annoying, I am projecting a lot of things there. I am BMI 26 and I just know I look awesome at 23, sigh, but really not now yet.

Okay, so glad I stumbled on this thread!

"You're looking great!" That was very encouraging, seeing as it came from a pretty health-conscious guy.

"You've always been small, you've just been hiding it with baggy clothes." This made me laugh. I am short, yes, but the baggy clothes are now 100% because I can't afford to buy new clothes (thanks 2020, haha). I had fun digging through the back of my closet to fish out smaller sizes, and then the 'holy cr@p' comment followed.

For the first time in more than 10 years, I feel half decent health-wise. I am not where I want to be just yet, but I'll get there, slow and steady.

What I can say, and this is making me giggle, is that people around me are suddenly becoming aware of their own health/weight. Almost every social gathering/interaction they are mentioning plans to do this diet or sign up with that coach. Meanwhile, here I am doing it all by my self, no fancy diets, no expensive health coaches, just some good common sense, haha. Honestly, I do hope they find something that works for them, as dropping the extra fat has done wonders for my mood and energy, and I want them to find that same joy.

I was told im looking skinny when I went from 382lbs to the lower 300s. I also was drinking a monster drink and my boss said your drinking those again you were doing so good. I told him I still am reminding him im down 114 lbs in 7 months. I also had someone try to fat shame me for eating a slice of pizza implying that I'm gaining weight when I'm still losing and working hard as he'll at it.

CameronWhittaker wrote: »

I hear most of the comments you guys have said, one in particular that confuses me.
When they ask what I have done I explain "stopped eating junk food, exercise more, and log every meal on an app.:

Then they say "oh you count calories???"

Like its a bad thing.. iv had some pretty significant results since I started logging, It's not the only thing iv been doing and I don't count super accurate, more like just to keep track...

But I don't get why people think counting calories is a bad thing.

Oh goodness that's so true! I wonder that too. Yet, so many books/sites/ads/signs/commercials say "lose x pounds a month without counting calories" or things like that, as if counting calories is the biggest heap of drudgery imaginable. I think of some hungry person counting calories individually like beans. Really it's freeing - once I know what I'm putting in, I know how much more I can put in, and I can enjoy my food without that worry "did I eat too much? Did I not exercise enough?" It's all about information! Information is good!

I just got a "you make me sick" from someone whose scale went the other way during lockdown

Jealous much??