Unexpected results of weight loss

You start to realise that people you had mentally filed into a "super skinny" category are actually just at an ideal /healthy weight and its your own idea of normal which is unhealthy. Which is the root of people telling you not to lose any more weight when you're still 30 pounds above a healthy weight range.

Underwear fits better! More comfortable! So basic! Hallelujah!

TxTiffani wrote: »

Bump! This is one of my fav threads! I’ve just started my journey (again...) and this is my favorite to read...can’t wait to add to it

Well done on returning to your journey

What an inspiring thread! Besides the expected things (needing to tighten my belt a couple of notches), I was surprised that I'm cold most of the time. I'm delighted and amazed to see my cheekbones again, and to lose my double chin. When I look in the mirror now I like what I see. Haven't felt that way in a long time. I'm about 10 pounds away from my ultimate goal, which I what I weighed at my wedding 27 years ago. It's just into the normal range for my height.

That I'd have this weird fascination with seeing and touching and admiring my ribs (I may have been previously convinced they're special things only other people have), that the look of loose skin improved after some months and I look less flappy. That I'd grow to LOVE moving my body. I even run sometimes! That it would take time to recognise myself in mirrors and photos (mostly I do, but sometimes I still don't). That my feet would get that much smaller! That I could comfortably shop in the kids' section for way cheaper (Eh, I'm a cheapskate). That people would treat me SO differently now that I'm smaller (what an eye-opener). That I actually have collarbones! That I would have a weird dimple above my frowny bellybutton. That I'd have to concentrate when moving at first to figure out the motion that would prevent my elbows painfully connecting my hipbones (I got it down, now). That armpit shaving would become a mission. How prominent it would be when I get bloated (Couldn't even tell before if I was bloated or just fat).

brittanystebbins95 wrote: »

acquilla30 wrote: »

My cheek bones look amazing and one that scared me was I can feel my heart beat in my stomach. I thought something was wrong but my doctor laughed and said it was normal in smaller people.

If you're lying on your back, you can see it, too! I find myself just laying there staring at it sometimes. Its fascinating!

I hadn't noticed this yet... Thinking I need to check it out because it does sound fascinating!

I'm about a third of the way through all the weight I need to lose, and I'm definitely seeing changes.
When I was 24, I was in a car accident and folded my foot in half. (Essentially the same breaks/dislocations from footbinding, incidentally.) An orthopedic surgeon put it back together with pins and screws, and said I'd have arthritis from it in my forties. And he was right. For all of my adult years, I've had a weightbearing budget, and I was very careful not to get myself to the point where I couldn't get to bed and had to sleep in the chair, most of the time. I still have a weightbearing budget, but it's EXPANDED. OMG. I can do three stores worth of grocery shopping for three hours, come home, put it all away, sit down long enough to eat lunch...and then stand up and start precooking the new food. I can do all the downstairs housework in one go. I have a ton of energy and want to DO THINGS. I don't wait to take stuff up stairs, I just do it.

Of course, this has revealed that my new limiting factor is lower back pain. Apparently the surgery gave me a slightly longer leg on one side. Which has given me some lumbar scoliosis. Who knew? Okay, so now I wear a quarter inch lift in my left shoe and am having to rehab my lower back and core. It would help if I could go to the gym, but COVID. Things to look forward to.

I haven't been this band size in bras and size in pants since high school. I've actually got bras that are a smaller band than I have ever worn in my life. On the other hand, I'm understanding now why my mom got a breast reduction in her seventies. It is HARD to find bands in small sizes with larger cups. So for now I'm putting up with sore shoulders (yes, working out would help. COVID.) and waiting for some decrease in volume. There's a sharp divide in bras; above 36, and you can find all sorts of good supportive bras. Drop to a 34, and suddenly no one with a 34 has above a DD, and they are very much "let's be pretty and not worry about support." I may have to wear sports bras. This is definitely not something I expected; I thought the boobs would shrink right along with the band needed.

As far as the pants go, my partners can't keep their hands off my butt if I'm in jeans. Verbal and tactile appreciation all the time. I'm on the verge of being able to wear straight sizes, which is an amazing thought. I've had the amazing billowing shirt episodes (but with water, not fire) and can't wear my old t-shirts even as work shirts. I've started to see a waist above the drooping skin and fat that is left from having three large babies. Maybe I'm not shortwaisted, just heavy/low busted! I've never seen myself thin as an adult, and seeing this body starting to come through the haze of the fat and loose skin is tremendously exciting. Even if it does come with a turkey neck and a new appreciation for cardigans all year round.

Actually liking my work id photo we have to wear everywhere

I've always been slim until I got injured 10 years ago and was also put on meds that caused weight gain. I was diagnosed with more meds and gained more weight and I am slowly losing it again. It's a horrible feeling when I looked in the mirror and realised I was really overweight and none of my clothes fit, and my face was all puffy. I miss my cheekbones, collarbones, my knees and my ankles. I think it was when I saw my profile in a picture with my daughter at Christmas that I realised how I had gone downhill. I felt awful. I'm just doggardly swimming and eating low calorie diet, and it's working. I have to have a knee replacement in May, due to a botched surgery after a skiing accident, so I want to be at my optimal weight for that recovery.

I get treated a lot better. I take a lot more pride in my appearance. People are more inclined to listen to what I have to say. Its nice that woman as well as some men tell me I look really good even though I'm not finished yet. Sleep got way better. I was having a bout with sleep apnea having trouble breathing which I was constantly waking up. I work as a delivery driver and tips have gone up and am the only driver to get a raise from my boss. Face and body is getting clearer from rashes and eye sight got a little better.

I have absolutely no idea what size I am and even less idea how to dress myself (besides just wearing a tent, effectively).

There is a better way, somewhere, but heck if I know what it is.

I AM ALMOST AT GOAL I WOULD LIKE TO LOOK CUTE.

I love taking baths and when I would let the water drain out I would stand up and a flood of water would rush out from the dam that was my butt & thighs! Well, that has stopped happening! All the water can drain because I’m now narrow enough that I can’t make a dam behind me anymore LOL

For it’s still feeling like I weigh 186 pounds. Like I am now 163 5”8 and fit, and i walk around places like target and I see skinny girls and I feel so big, when I know I’m not. But my brain has not adjusted to the fact that I look different and that I have lost weight. It’s so strange !!

TxTiffani wrote: »

You’ll have no idea what size you are🤷🏼‍♀️ Went thrift shopping and tried things on when I got home. One of the shirts I thought would be snug fits perfect, and a shirt I thought would fit looks like a tent LOL

No idea what size I am OR how to dress myself. Not that I ever had a great idea but at this point I have resorted to 'leggings and a tent, talk to me when I can try on clothes in a store again, I guess'.

Oh, I forgot a health one:

My GERD VANISHED.