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Clever People Share The Loophole Discoveries That Helped Them Game The System

Clever People Share The Loophole Discoveries That Helped Them Game The System

Clever People Share The Loophole Discoveries That Helped Them Game The System

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It feels good to play the system. Like, when you turn on all the cheats for a game of "Goldeneye" on the N64?

To go around the rules and avoid waiting in line is the basis for those "life hacks" you might have seen shared online. While it's cute that some people know how to keep your shoes from smelling using packets of ginger or how to save time by brushing your teeth in the shower, these stories are on a completely new level. People responded to Reddit user r/akivlam, who asked for the greatest cons and loophole exposers to share their tales:

What's the loophole that you discovered and subsequently exploited?

Playing Companies Against Each Other

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I used to sell guitars at a music store. This guy started coming in and window shopping, getting prices. Didn't seem serious so no-one wanted to waste time on him, but I was nice and maybe naive so I spent hours testing pedals, amps, etc. Writing out prices. He'd come in every couple weeks, telling me he has some money coming in soon. Everyone thought I was wasting my time, and after a while I started to believe them.

Then one day he calls and says he's ready to buy, make sure I have everything he wants in stock for next week (it was around $1500 worth of gear if I remember correctly) when he comes in. I get his order ready.

Dude shows up with a huge stack of gift cards. Apparently the owner had been running a promo in the paper - go to this random record store, pay them $50 and get a $100 gift card to my guitar store. Could only get it once a week. This kid had been going to this place every week for like four months, buying gift cards and saving them up. Brought em in with this look on his face, like we are all idiots and he is the smartest MF around. And he was, there was no fine print, no limitations in any of the postings anywhere. Guy just got a monster discount for being patient. Im sure they lost money on that deal.

They don't offer that promotion anymore, either.

CanadianBlacon

If They Don't Notice, Why Speak Up?

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I got a birthday coupon for a free entree from one of my favorite chain restaurants last summer.

I showed the person at the cash register but they didn't check it. So I ate my free meal. The next day, I brought it to a different location and the person didn't check it either.

This went on for five days straight.

healthyapples55

Stealing From The Bouncy Ball Machine

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One time I found out a bouncy ball dispenser at Walmart could be exploited. I could put a quarter in, turn it part way and get a ball, then turn the handle back and get my quarter back. I did that to get a few balls before I felt guilty and asked my dad if it's stealing. I was really young so I didn't fully understand.

MrFantastic18

Getting A Free Ride. Literally.

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I once signed up for a autoshop credit card.

I got my oil changed on our cars and new tires. I kept waiting for them to send a bill, and they never did.

I also told the cashier multiple times about not getting bills.

I also kept charging car stuff... Never paid once.

Nothing on my credit report, nada.

It's been ten years.

DKahnt

But, Which Tire? You Didn't Specify.

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Decades ago, I purchased a set of tires from an autobody shop and was offered a road hazard warranty for $10 per tire. I accepted and they rang up $40. I said that no, it's $10 because I only wanted it on one tire. They argued there'd be no way to tell which tire had the warranty and I pointed out that it would be obvious because it would be the one that's flat. Eventually they called corporate/legal and I got my $10 warranty and as I was leaving they were taking down the signs advertising $10 per tire road hazard and ripping up the brochures. Three hours of stubborn well spent.

_NightmareGerbil

It IS A Clear Bottle, After All

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When I was younger Mountain Dew had a promotion where 1 in 4 bottles won a free Mountain Dew. This was before codes and silly points, you just traded the cap for a new soda.

I realized I could look through the plastic bottle at the right angle to identify winners. I only bought 1 soda that whole summer! It was glorious.

sorryqt

Two Words: Free Burritos

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A few years ago, The Cubs had a promotion with Qdoba where if the Cubs scored a run in the 6th inning or whatever inning it was, you'd get a free burrito. When you walked into the stadium, the workers would hand you this little booklet that had the Qdoba coupon along with others. So many people would just discard them on the ground by their seats. After the games, I would go around and collect as many as I could find. I'd take them into Qdoba and get me free burrito regardless if the Cubs scores in the correct inning. The employees never checked or knew. So many free burritos that summer.

RyFromTheChi

Repeat: FREE BURRITOS

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Yes! When Chipotle had all their virus crap 2-3 years ago, they sent out all these free meal coupons. I lived in an apartment at the time, got the coupon, and noticed another one sitting in the recycling bin in the mail room. I went back to "get the mail" multiple times that day and dug through that shit and had something like 40 coupons. No expiration date, no purchase required. I barely bought groceries for almost two months.

clush

Adding To Subtract

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When I started college, a family friend gave me a $50 gift card to a local coffee chain near my dorm, the kind of place that also has pastries and prepared sandwiches. I had very little spending money at this point, so this felt like a real windfall and I intended to make it last.

After 2 months of cafeteria food, I finally decided to splurge on a coffee and a muffin, the total is like $4.00. I hand over the gift card, and the girl on the register gives me this incredulous look. it was like I had just handed her monopoly money. Immediately this feels like it's going to be an problem. She asks me where I got it. I tell her it was a gift. She rolls her eyes at me, clearly irritated. She says they don't usually take gift cards, I guess they were pretty new at that point, but it was a branded plastic scannable card, obviously legit, so i politely ask if she can try it. She sucks her teeth and starts punching at the screen. 2 or 3 minutes of sighing and rolling her eyes go by and she appears to finish the transaction, hands me my receipt and throws the gift card on the counter without a word.

I'm kind of taken aback at this point by her attitude, but look at the receipt and see my gift card total is now $54. She credited my card with $4. I realize i'm trying my luck here but i quickly grab a sandwich and drink from the case and say, sorry i forgot i wanted to get these too. She rolls her eyes at me again and rings them up. The total is $12. Punches at the screen for a while again, prints my receipt - my new total is $66. Despite being a broke student, I probably would have pointed out the mistake if she hadn't been so rude. Also I figured it was a one time thing, it couldn't happen again, right?

WRONG. The next few months I got the total of that card up to almost $200.

I ate very well that semester.

_PM_MEGOODVIBES

Winning With Mom On Your Side

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In high school we had a fairly expensive cafeteria and I ate A LOT as a teenager. We also had a yearly fundraiser for the school that auctioned off things like the best parking spot, front row at graduation and free lunch for the year. After my freshman year my mom smartly added up all the money I had spent on lunch the past year and decided that was her limit on trying to win the free lunch in the auction.

She got it easily.

I burnt that place to the ground my sophomore year and again my junior year taking full advantage of that unlimited lunch.

They did not offer the lunch deal at the auction when my senior year rolled around.

Playing For Free

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When I was broke I forgot to disable auto-renew for x-box Live so when the charge hit my account, I had to call them and ask for a refund. Super simple process and I had my money back the next day.

And to my delight they forgot to remove my Live access.

I had it for a whole year. When it was time to renew, I paid, called them the next day to cancel, and sure enough had free x-box live for another year.

Asylem

Getting The Casino To Pay? That's New

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I used to work in an office building downtown. Parking was expensive. Most places were about 10 bucks a day. So approximately 200 bucks a month. A bus pass for the month was about 80 bucks.

Then i discovered the casino paradox. If you parked at the casino, it cost 10 dollars. Expensive right? If you signed up for a casino club card, and you spun 10 dollars worth of slot machine, parking was free. Usually, you're left with about 6 bucks out of your original 10. Bad if you're purely gambling but now parking costed you 4 dollars.

Things got even juicer when the local sports team had a coupon for 5 dollars in free play on the back of each and every 50/50 ticket for an entire season. Since everyone loses they left their left over tickets all over, which I picked up. Now, with my free play money, I was technically getting paid to park downtown!!

riderfan07

Thanks, Tony the Tiger

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A few years ago, a cereal brand had a promotion, where a box their new cereal included a coupon for another free box of cereal.

Presumably, the intention was that you would buy one and get one free. But you could use the coupon to get a free box of cereal that included another coupon.

So, I bought one box of cereal at the start of summer, and then continually used the coupons to get more of that cereal for the next several months.

FigBits

Beer On Your Birthday

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I bought beer once at the grocery store using the self checkout line. When you ring up booze on the kiosks, it'll say it's calling for an attendant so they can check your ID. When the lady came over, she looked at my ID and then hit the top corner of the screen, input a four digit code and then typed in my birthdate. I saw her code.

So now whenever there's a long wait at the kiosk (because there's only the one lady for about ten machines) I will just put in the code and my birthday myself. Oh and you have to make sure you turn off the volume on your kiosk or it will say "ID check required" very loudly. I've only done it a couple times but nobody has stopped me.

Fanshelpmesleep

Taking One And Doubling It

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I took advantage of a retail websites online gift card sale. They were offering "gift cards" for 25% off, for a weekend sale. The great part about it was that they weren't actually gift cards they were just codes that they emailed to you to act as gift cards, allowing you to use it instantly. Well... it turns out you could buy gift cards with gift cards, for any amount. So my 17 year old self turned $20 into $650, over the course of about 4 hours and bought a brand new snowboard set up! I have never seen them run that sale again.

Givemeananswer61

Free Coffee = Life

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Years ago, a convenience store had emailed coupons for free cup of coffee. I had to print it myself cuz for some reason it wouldn't scan on my phone. So I printed it and used it and got my free large coffee. All good so far.

Then I thought it'd be worth trying to print again and use it. They scanned the bar code so I thought the system would definitely know if it has been used. Guess what? That wasn't the case. I printed coupons and made copies. My brothers and parents love this coffee. We used to print the coupons and use it EVERY morning for 7 months.

massivelight

Not Even Sure How This One Works...

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A few years ago, there was an app that was kind of caught on called Pocket Points. The aim of the app was to reduce smartphone usage in classrooms by giving you "points" when the screen was locked and not in use. You could use the points on deals local to your area, one of which was a pizza place that pretty much across the street of my college campus. The points were only generated when your location data said you were in a classroom, which was determined by "being in a building within a college campus".

I wanted free pizza and I did not have the patience to wait for it, so I emulated an android phone on a spare laptop I had and downloaded the app onto the emulated phone. I was able to set the location of the phone to be my college campus, which allowed me to passively generate points all day with no effort. I don't think they had any infrastructure in place to deal with that methodology. When I wanted to cash in, I'd log into the account on my actual phone and redeem the points for some good good free-zza.

I ate a good number of pizzas for free until they changed the way their deal was set up. (Instead of a fully free pizza, it turned into a BOGO deal). But I probably had like 7 pizzas for free because of this, which was totally worth the ~2 hours to figure out how to effectively emulate the phone.

cakeslap

Rolling In Rebels

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We have drive-thru coffee shops. They have coffee drinks, smoothies, Italian sodas, iced teas, energy drinks, etc... And they are on every corner in town. On your birthday you get a free drink---any kind, any size, no matter how expensive it is. You just pull up, tell them it's your birthday and tell them what you want and they say Happy Birthday and give you your free drink.

I stayed wicked buzzed the whole way through the day on my birthday last year, going from one to the next trying something from every category. It was all good and I drank it all. I even told them at my third Dutch Bros stand what I was doing and they high-fived me.

I was regretting it that night though. I felt like I had electricity pulsing through my body and I'm pretty sure when I slept my eyes were frozen open. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again this year. Leaning towards yes though.

themanje

Future Venture Capitalist

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Every morning I would stop and pick up a six pack of Pepsi cans. I would only drink one but I'd sell the others to my classmates. Made more than enough to buy another pack the next day with money leftover. My school didn't like my version of capitalism.

BindingsAuthor

Start Small, Build Big

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For years my dad was giving me cash for lunch money and my mom was pre-paying my lunches. I was ballin outta control with mountain dews and snacks at school.

TopScruffy

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.