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.

I've lost a lot of weight and gained some back - what people don't tell you is that, no matter how much you've lost, it is always possible to gain the weight back if you stop trying to make healthy choices. I've lost so much weight that people didn't recognize me. That I was like the 'freak of the week' at work because people couldn't believe how different I looked. I've felt jealousy from others and admiration from others. I was feeling so good about myself but my unhealthy relationship with food continued - and I've regained weight. I only have today with which to make healthy food and life decisions - and now honor my weight loss with a daily focus. I just don't take a "cheat meal", holiday "treat" or food excuse as rationale for derailing my focus.

PaperDoll_ wrote: »

How hot I’d be. I mean, I was pretty irresistible before because of my charming and sweet personality. But these days, I can’t seem to keep the ladies from falling all over themselves for me!

I think it’s the 🍑 😏

Is it, @MelG7777?

Oh it’s the 🍑 amongst other things.🥵😏

springlering62 wrote: »

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

Hmm, it will be interesting to track this. How many years have you been small now? I think I have heard others say that it was a few years and they had some skin shrinkage. I have heard that sometimes, after a year the turkey neck is less pronounced. I have heard speculation that it is just that you get used to it..

IDK, I am just trying to ignore it and (except for my arms, which of all the things! Hated them before I lost weight and they are still horrible!! lols). Bottom line, there is nothing I can really do about it except live with it, enjoy the perks of losing weight - incredibly worth it - and consider it a reminder of what I am capable of: gaining large amounts of unhealthy weight that make me really suffer. If I remember that, and I keep it in mind, I am hoping to not gain the weight back. That has always been a goal, not just losing the weight, but keeping it off.

@justanotherloser007 I’ve been around goal since late 2020.

The loose skin still continues to lessen, although the pace now seems glacially slow.

There’s a definite pattern. I’ll go through several weeks of real floppy belly skin and cascading muffin top, and then it’ll look better for a few weeks, rinse and repeat. But each time it happens, there’s a wee bit less. I’m in an unusually floppy period at the moment. I’m wearing my tightest pants, and they are quite comfortable now, but there’s a couple of marked swags on my belly and some cascade at the waistline.

I caught a glimpse of myself doing dumbbells yesterday morning and started laughing. Everything looks like a much younger woman- up to the neck. It’s all wrinkles and crows feet from the neck up. It looked like Barbie’s head on Skipper’s body, if you know what I mean lol.

I do think the aquafit is helping tighten, though, plus there’s unexpected benefits.

I dropped a 45 pound weight on a finger yesterday morning and it was throbbing and turning rainbow colors all day. But after an aquafit class, it was markedly improved.

@justanotherloser007 - I can attest that the Turkey neck does get better. I had it so bad. Now there's only 1 visible fold when I smile wide - there used to be 7 or 8! It took at least a year and lots of retinol cream but even at 56, things did tighten up without surgery.

Same with the bat wings - only that took much less time and no expensive cream.

Still have wrinkly pockets on my cheeks where fat pads used to be, and don't get me started about the side boobs and deflated belly. But it's all so much better than it used to be. And a Turkey Neck is 100% better than a double or triple chin - or worse a no neck!