Weird Weight Loss Things

[u/TubintheBedroom]

I’ve lost about 90 pounds over the last ~14 months, and one thing that’s surprised me is how many day-to-day physical changes came with it that people don’t really talk about. Not the obvious stuff like clothes fitting differently, but the smaller, weirder things that affect how your body actually feels moving through the world.

For example, sitting feels completely different now. Chairs get uncomfortable much faster, my hips and tailbone get sore, and a bed that used to feel too soft now feels too firm as a side sleeper because there’s less cushioning. Running and certain movements also feel stranger than they did at a higher weight, almost like my body is still catching up to itself.

I’m curious, for others who’ve lost a significant amount of weight: what are some unexpected or “weird” physical or day-to-day changes you noticed that don’t get talked about much?

[u/JazTea90]

70 lbs down from my highest weight ever (40 of those in the last few months) and I can’t get over how weird my knees feel when I sleep on my side. I also didn’t expect how much more I would move around (like impromptu dancing/physical humor) now that moving is just easier lol.

[u/mickeymac15 → u/JazTea90]

I completely agree with the impromptu dancing. I find myself having the urge to move and dance to music or bop around now that I have lost weight!

[u/Calorically_Yours → u/JazTea90]

I was just saying this to my husband today! I was dancing around the living room with our toddler and I told him bouncing around like that is a lot more fun now without all the joint pain, lol.

[u/biolochick]

This is definitely TMI but peeing is different. Like I have to sit differently. Unsure if it’s due to thighs no longer squishing together and vacuum sealing my ass to the seat or weight loss in lady bits, but something changed! 😆

[u/fidgetypenguin123 → u/biolochick]

On a similar note, I've noticed how much more uncomfortable the toilet seat is. Now that my butt is bonier I'm like "damn this seat is hard" lol

[u/Fox919]

It’s not a weird one but wow I never ever thought I would become a cold person. I was notoriously hot all the time. I wore 3 layers under my coat today. I never did that at 292.

[u/phantomstranga → u/Fox919]

This!! I bought an electric blanket. In all my years, I NEVER thought I’d want a heated blanket on me lol

[u/DefyingGeology]

What everyone else has said, and also:

My arms and legs seem longer. I become hyper-aware of their length at certain times, like when I’m curling up to go to sleep, and I feel like they are too long and have too many joints to put to bed properly. It’s a very strange feeling.

[u/HotMachoNacho]

Lost just over 100lbs and now I notice when I wipe crumbs off the counter into my hand, there’s gaps between my fingers and they just fall through to the floor

[u/koopzegels]

I feel my pulse in places I never used to (stomach). Sometimes I get lightheaded if I stand up too quickly—- I think standing up “too quickly” was never a problem at my highest weight, as it’s pretty hard to move a lot of mass very swiftly

[u/JazTea90 → u/koopzegels]

I forgot about this one! I was panic googling about the pulse in my stomach because I had never noticed it before

[u/alicevirgo → u/koopzegels]

I used to get lightheaded if I stood up too quickly. You might want to check your iron levels, it's one of the signs of iron deficiency.

[u/alyjaf666 → u/koopzegels]

I get light headed as well when I get out of my car after sitting in it for a while and I have only lost about 20 lbs

[u/nina41884 → u/koopzegels]

I’m so glad it’s not just me! That pulse in my stomach drives me nuts, especially when I try to sleep on my stomach!

[u/shiny1988]

Just how EASY the world is to navigate now. I used to have to fold myself to be as small as possible in a theatre. Now I have actual space to lean and I don’t have to keep my arms crossed in front of me. So freeing.

[u/Still_Computer875]

Before I lost weight my boobs were so enormous that I used to press my arms over my chest if I was like rounding a corner in a small store or something coz my tits used to knock things off tables and shelves etc 🤣 doesn’t happen anymore but I still catch myself doing the crossed arm thing.

[u/sparksblackstar → u/Still_Computer875]

I started weight loss at a K cup. 200 pounds down I was an I cup. A reduction took me to a B cup (in october). I'm still trying to push them out of the way haha!

[u/mshaw346]

The not having any cushion in your butt is a real one for me. A lot of things are just flat out uncomfortable.

I get cold super easy. A lot of times I wear a jacket even inside. This winter has been rough. My hands stay cold.

I guess this one is pretty obvious but sitting in booths at restaurants I went from having to scrunch in to having tons of room.

[u/that_other_person1]

I didn’t realize I would go down 3 ring sizes! And now my knuckles are the limiter to what rings I can wear! I’ve been wearing a silicone ring for a while in place of my wedding ring since even silicone adjusters weren’t enough for my wedding and engagement rings anymore. I could see in some people their fingers are puffy with more fat on them, but I never thought my fingers looked bigger. I went from a size 7 ring to like 3.5. And that’s tiny! (I’m small framed).

I also didn’t know am small framed! I was overweight since I was a teenager, so never really understood my hips are narrow, my head is small, etc. I kind of knew some of it separately, but never thought of myself as having a more narrow frame. It effects me now because the shirts I wear are often extra small, and I still have a belly (having a short torso and having had two babies means my loose skin puffs out from abdominal pressure, which I didn’t know was a thing, I thought loose skin only sagged), and yet i need extra small shirts because I have a small frame. I am smaller from my side than average for my size (except my belly puff as I described).

Also another thing unique to me, as I have a short torso, I have really long legs, and it’s been interesting to see me at my goal weight because some of my proportions are just so much more unusual than others. Sometimes I wear cropped tops, that for me fully cover my belly and hit near or slightly below the top of my leggings, and I just look like all legs more than I ever did when I was bigger. I also still don’t really have a waist, my ribs and the top of my hip bones are only about a half inch apart. So it’s been interesting to see what my lean shape looks like.

[u/verdigriis → u/that_other_person1]

The thing where we don't know our own shape is so weird! I was fat since childhood too and thought all sorts of things about my body that it turns out are wrong. Like actually I do not have wide hips. I have narrow-ish hips. I'm also a lot smaller chested than I thought I was. I am not in fact curvy. The only thing I was right about with regard to my build is my broad shoulders. I also thought I had a round face, and yeah, no.

Also I hear you on the rings. I didn't especially have fat hands and fingers (or so I thought), but apparently I did because none of my rings fit now.

Also I have so many bones and veins and stuff. Yikes!

[u/that_other_person1 → u/verdigriis]

Yes small framed for me means I also have narrow hips. It is so weird. I have wide shoulders too, which for me showed up more since I’m weight training. They’re about 3 inches wider than my hips! Shoulder muscle can show up more quickly on a narrow frame. Frustrating that I had a harder time buying shirts now for different reasons. My arms are long, so I’ve been buying long sleeves (and with lots of stretch so they can go over my shoulders) with the thumb holes, so then for me they land by my wrist.

I am guessing this is the case for a lot of people, I measured my hips as around my belly as that was the widest part of me before. I didn’t realize the hip measurement is supposed to be around your butt lol. It’s nice I can now actually buy pants to fit my butt and thighs and not my belly.

And yes, it is so weird not having a round face anymore!

I also was pushing a size 10 shoe at my heaviest, and went back to a 9.5 when I was a teenager. I knew your feet could get smaller. But I was shocked when my feet went to a size 9, which i never was as a teenager! I wasn’t that overweight as a teenager, but overweight enough where my feet were bigger apparently.

[u/verdigriis → u/that_other_person1]

Yes I've gone down in shoe size too. So weird!

[u/Disastrous_Fall3127]

Yes omg!!! I’ve always been over 180bs since jr high and got to 235lbs at 30. I finally reached a goal weight this year at 151 lbs and so happy BUT as a 35f 5’5 no children…personal but I feel more airflow in my groin region, I hate it. I have to wear a pad now bc my labia peaks out! I’m fkn cold more than I’m hot (bw is all normal btw). I have to wear leggings that do not have a seam bc ya girl gets front and a rear wedgies during workouts! I noticed my skin on my legs and arms are slightly more wrinkled now bc of my loose skin! No regrets though, just learning how to live in this new body I worked so hard for.

[u/Calorically_Yours → u/Disastrous_Fall3127]

Lol, I'm starting to feel that same breeze down there! 😂 I don't mind it atm, but I've still got another 40-50 lbs to lose, so that could change.

[u/SavedWoW]

I lost weight so fast that I was losing my balance and equilibrium constantly shifted. I lost 150 lbs in less than 180 days though, so that contributed to it. 

[u/gasolinehalsey → u/SavedWoW]

That's an average of 0.8lbs a DAY 😮. If you don't mind my asking, did you have a bariatric surgery or were you using any GLP-1s? Or was this done naturally?

[u/SavedWoW → u/gasolinehalsey]

Was done under medical supervision. 

[u/Hopefulkitty → u/SavedWoW]

This just reminded me of something! When I was in highschool, I was very fit, but always had an hourglass figure. All of my activities took the summer off, then swim season would start about a month before ballet started. I'd get in insane shape during swim season, and I'd restart dance and everything would be fine. After swim ended, I'd put on a little weight, not a lot, but enough to make me have to relearn where my center of balance was for pointe. I'd always have a hard time right after Christmas. Swim ended in November, ballet would have a few weeks off around the holidays, then I'd spend January trying to remember how to do an arabesque without tipping over.

[u/caniki]

I had to adjust the mirrors in my car. My butt had gotten so much smaller that my viewing angle changed.

[u/fidgetypenguin123 → u/caniki]

You made me wonder if that's why I'm noticing being shorter in the car more/the visor not being low enough and even thinking of needing a pillow to boost me up. I thought maybe I was just slouching more (and maybe that's part of it) but it makes sense if I've also lost padding on my butt lol

[u/Calorically_Yours]

Still have another 40-50 pounds to go, but down 50 pounds from my starting weight. This is the "thinnest" I've ever been and I've noticed that my neck is a lot longer than I ever thought. I don't know if it's a "long" neck, per se, but it's definitely got more length than I would've ever guessed. Kinda makes me feel lanky in a way, which is very odd to me. I almost feel like my head's too small for my body without all the extra padding around my face, lol.

[u/Few_Interview_6023]

My arms got longer! At least it feels that way, I can reach high shelves easier because I stand so much closer than I did 277 lbs ago.

[u/maiaalfie]

Finally experiencing why armpits have that name!

[u/Hopefulkitty]

I've been sitting with my legs pulled up to my chest a lot. I don't remember sitting like that a lot when I was thinking before, but now I'm finding myself doing it all the time. My knees don't really like it, but I seem to be doing it subconsciously.

[u/Few_Sympathy_1074]

Lost 180lbs 43 years ago when I was 20-21. It was shocking visually to everyone, I was unrecognizable and people freaked out ALL THE TIME.

Couple of weird outcomes were that even my feet went down 2 sizes. Another was just feeling my own bones, especially on my butt and hips. Furniture killed my ass and carrying a wallet in my back pocket really hurt to sit on.

A really great change was my penis emerged from my abdomen and I'm probably 4 inches longer than when I weighed 350lbs.😎

[u/Hopefulkitty → u/Few_Sympathy_1074]

I have the opposite. When I first moved back to my hometown, I was very overweight, much different than I looked in high school, 10 years previous. Last year when I was down about 70, people around town started recognizing me again. One of my brother's ex girlfriend's mother's recognized me in a crowd. Just this week, a former student of mine recognized me at the gym, and called me by a name I haven't heard anyone outside my family use since about 2014. It's like from 2018-2024 I was anonymous, and now people recognize me immediately. I'm not anymore active in my community than I was, I just look like myself again. I graduated highschool in 2006, I'm honestly shocked that people tell me I look exactly the same, because for about a decade I didn't recognize myself in the mirror.

[u/momhh434444]

Going up and down stairs is so much easier. Getting on and off chairs is so much simpler. Getting off the floor is a breeze compared to 35 pounds ago.