What nobody tells you about losing weight

justanotherloser007 wrote: »

My face is so different. I mean, even different from the pic I have up for MFP. My eyes look bigger, my nose looks bigger, heck.. even my ears look bigger!! Not only do I not recognize my body at all, I don't recognize the person supposedly looking back at me in the mirror. Who is this person??

I know I need makeup help with my “new” face, but abhor the idea of dealing with it. So I just keep going without. It’s been lovely. I don’t have to comb my hair because it’s so short, and no makeup. I can shower and be ready for virtually anything in five minutes.

kenziestabes wrote: »

That your cup size might go up instead of down/the same. Cup size is a ratio of bust to band size, so if you're like me and carried a lot of fat on your back, the band size might go down without the bust shrinking, calculating a larger cup size.

Edit: wrote waistband to describe an article of clothing that goes nowhere near the waist.

Started at a 40F. Am now at a 32J/K. In April I am meeting with a plastic surgeon to discuss breast reduction. Since they won't go down on their own, and I don't have a belly holding them up from underneath any more....

I'm short waisted and had three nine pound babies in my twenties. People wonder why I'm so sure I'll need an abdominoplasty.

AngWBald wrote: »

I have 19 more pounds to lose to get into my Normal BMI range. Unfortunately I still have a lot of fat to lose around my waist. I have very pronounced Love Handles. They really poke out on my sides over the top of my pants. Being short, short waist-ed, and fat sucks! Taller people can hide it so well.

Yeah, I have the love handle problem too and holy cow, my bellyflap really is pronounced. It's like all the fat left on my body is right there. I'm really glad I never had kids for a number of reasons but I would imagine carrying even one would be kind of difficult for me.

Things they never told me about weight loss - how much BELLY I'd still have at 155 pounds!

Yeah, I didn't realize that there would be sagging, bagging, and cellulite in process. I keep reminding myself that it's like renovations on a house. There's a stage where everything's torn up and looks awful, but you have to go through that to get to what you want.

Sand_TIger wrote: »

mtaratoot wrote: »

Things they never told me about weight loss - how much BELLY I'd still have at 155 pounds!

The good news is, it’s super pliable and malleable.

Stuff that belly into something tight and supportive. You’ll be amazed.

I look like a million bucks til I pull down my britches and it kinda goes SPROING!!!!!

springlering62 wrote: »

Remember the old “snake in a can” gag? That’s my belly, unleashed.

Now there’s a visual for you.

Now I'm laughing my head off. I love that! My belly still has enough fat in it that it can't be flattened, which is another reason why I still need to work on it. Which brings me to another "nobody ever told me this" kind of thing. At 5'3" and fine boned, I'm still more overweight than I thought I'd be at 155 pounds. I do carry some muscle but a lot of other women are much more proportional at this height and weight because they have some natural padding on thighs and chest. I don't carry much fat on my upper body, or my lower body either, it's all just sort of settled to the middle.

wunderkindking wrote: »

Sand_TIger wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

Remember the old “snake in a can” gag? That’s my belly, unleashed.

Now there’s a visual for you.

Now I'm laughing my head off. I love that! My belly still has enough fat in it that it can't be flattened, which is another reason why I still need to work on it. Which brings me to another "nobody ever told me this" kind of thing. At 5'3" and fine boned, I'm still more overweight than I thought I'd be at 155 pounds. I do carry some muscle but a lot of other women are much more proportional at this height and weight because they have some natural padding on thighs and chest. I don't carry much fat on my upper body, or my lower body either, it's all just sort of settled to the middle.

This is kind of how I am. I expected to be 'reasonable' when I got into the normal BMI. No I just looked pot bellied and still really fat. I will say losing another 25lbs helped - but also have to say I still and will always have most of my body fat (and there will always be body fat) in my middle. I always did. Obese even my arms and legs were disproportionally thinner - then I lost weight first in... my arms and legs. It is what it is. It's not real noticeable anymore in clothes - at like a 20.something BMI.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s fat. I think it’s leftover spare skin. Skin does the pantyhose thing as we go (in mine and probably your case) from XXL to XS. You know. When they stretch out and bag and kind of do the accordion pleat thing. That’s my skin from underboob to top of pelvis, from side to side. (For some reason my back is pretty taut.)


I can easily pull belly skin out several inches when relaxed. But, I can also poke my belly with my fingers and it’s solid muscle underneath there.

One of my Pilates instructors was real big about having us “lobster claw” our lats and hips while doing side series, because we should “feel the action of the muscle we’re working on if we’re doing it right”, so I’ve fallen in the habit of doing so, and enjoying the muscle action. The sensation and appearance of loose skin isn’t there then.

Maybe what we’re perceiving as belly fat is like @AnnPT77’s batwing homily : loose skin until flexed and needed.

One interesting side note. I’ve been doing aquafit with husband for a couple weeks now, and swear it helping with the loose belly skin.

Either that or the chlorine is desiccating me so bad I’ll wind up looking like an old school dried apple doll.

@TxTiffani same! I'm five foot nothin', but I've never been "small." At 15 I was 150, so 40+ lbs overweight. I've spent most of my life north of 200. Last time I lost I got to 199 before all heck broke loose in my life, and I backslid about 70 lbs, so I still hadn't reached tiny, but I was starting to see that tiny was in there.

I'm kind of terrified of it, TBH.

Balance...balance...balance. I had no idea it was my weight that was causing me to be so unsteady on my feet. It's amazing how much improvement there is.