Top Stories

People Share The Creepiest Thing They've Seen While Hiking At Night

People Share The Creepiest Thing They've Seen While Hiking At Night
Free-Photos/Pixabay

The woods can be a scary enough place during the day, hut take away the light and things get even creepier.

The slightest sound or breeze can set your nerves on edge, and sometimes its safer to be scared.


Reddit user u/TheHeckening asked:

"Late night hikers what is the creepiest thing you have seen while hiking?"

10.

I drove to a park to go hiking at night in the mountains (so safe I know) And I hadn't even turned off my car and I already feel like I'm being watched. There weren't any cars around so I thought maybe it was just me being paranoid for some reason. But for some reason I looked to my right and I see this weird looking humanoid shape on top of the little bump hill about 50 feet away. At first I though it was a weirdly shaped tree until I saw the arms move (no wind at all). So now I know there's a person staring at my car trying not to move, for what I assume is for me to get out of my car and leave to a more secluded area as we were next to the road.

Of course I left, I don't go hiking at night in that particular park anymore.

-Bored_Science

9. 

​I was camping and some of the group had gone off on a late night stroll. After a while, me and a friend got bored and decided to go look for them. It was pretty much rolling grassland hills with few trees out there, so we figured it wouldn't be hard. It was also unearthly quiet, other than the occasional distant owl or coyote sounds, so we were whispering and being very chill. There was pretty good moon so we hadn't brought lights either. Anyway, I finally see someone standing under a tree on the crest of this hill, so I go up there first. I call out quietly and don't get a response. Again, no response. Kinda annoyed, I just strut up there, but I'm realizing something looks weird about this person I've been seeing.

They're holding their arms over their head and the proportions aren't right. But I think that was all kinda subconscious, because I didn't do anything different until I got close enough to see that it wasn't a person at all, but a freaking coyote that someone had flayed and strung up to the tree by the limbs like some kind of totem. I literally fell backwards in shock.

Turns out the woman who owned the property was no fan of coyotes coming after her livestock. She also woke us all up in the middle of the night once with sustained AR-15 fire. Like 20 shots. Someone who lived near there just said "Oh she must have found a whole pack of them. Go back to sleep."

-RandomEffector

8.

It was around midnight in a clearing for picnics in a large park that lots of people hike through, pitch black, no one around, i was with my boyfriend at the time, we got pretty frisky at one of the picnic tables, and I'm facing a river which is sort of illuminated from the moonlight, he's facing the solid black tree line, we're trying to have a good time and he becomes completely still and in a low voice says 'there's a man coming towards us' I turn my head, see only a white T-shirt approaching us at a brisk walking pace from the trees, and that's all I needed to see, I ran, knowing my bf would catch up. He did. I was never down for midnight forest stuff again. Haha

The man in the white shirt probably got within 25 feet of us by the time I had myself together enough to bolt. Still freaks me out. He said nothing just walked very fast towards us. Neither of us looked back.

-malibubuddtattoos

7.

When i was very little, like five or six, my dad used to take me on all sorts of adventures through nature, especially when we owned a little cottage up in the scottish highlands. Now, my dad is sort of a combo irish bloke + yorkshire laddy type of fellow and very spry (despite his being about 55 at the time), and on this particular occasion had decided we were going to go hiking way up into the cliffs (i was quite happy with this development as it meant a piggy back ride for at least 90% of the difficult bits.)

This was a proper, proper trek, he wanted to get to one of the highest bluffs so we could have an amazing 360 degree view of the gorgeous meadows and some sparkling sea, but after we reached the top plains, where it's all short, windwhipped grass and you can see for miles, he suddenly turned very still and very quiet.

When you're small, your parents are God so seeing your Dad look frightened is scarier than anything your own mind can come up with, so i was pulling on his arm and going, "what, what?" - my mum is epileptic and i saw her fits when i was a kid so i thought it was happening to him too, or something similar, and i wouldn't know what to do because we're up on this huge cliff and no one is around, when just as fast as he started it, he snapped out of it, fireman lifted me right up and just started striding away without a word.

over his shoulder, i could see a big, pale yellow object stuck into the ground like an obelisk. i know now that it was a refrigerator.

when i was older and i asked my Dad about it, he stiffened up and told me that when he was a boy in the 50s, he and his little friends had found an old style fridge in the woods, and being little boys, they opened it. well, of course, they had found a body - another child, who by whichever means had found themselves in the fridge and unable to get out. my Dad has never mentioned a gender which leads me to believe he either witnessed a very decomposed or skeletonised individual, but i can't ask him. remember that episode of the Simpsons where they unlock Homer's PTSD and it turns out he found a dead body when he was a teenager? my dad grew increasingly uncomfortable the first time we saw that episode and had excused himself to the kitchen before the ending. my Dad has seen some gnarly things but for wherever reason he will not discuss anything further about this dead child in the fridge, only that it happened.

so when he explained, i assumed it was the trauma and i said something like, "oh, that's awful - so when you saw the fridge up there, it brang up the old memories?" and he honestly looked at me like i was an idiot, i'll never forget it.

"no, Amy," he said in a very low tone, "it was because it was the same fridge."

clarification edit: I was a little girl, so there was no chance my Dad was going to open the fridge while I was right there and also possibly relive the experience of seeing whatever a mummified corpse inside a fridge looks like. No, I don't believe it was the same fridge (it literally would have had to traverse an ocean), but I believe my Dad believes that it was. Most likely it was a very similar make or model and the sight of it just surprised him and sent him west. Someone pointed out it should have been reported just in case - I have absolutely no doubts that he did, but he's in his 70's now so I don't intend on asking. I guess if you're ever up in the cliffs of the Isle of Skye, just keep your eyes peeled for a big beige fridge?

--zombae-

6.

My girlfriend and I had driven down an old dirt road that ran beside a lake on one side with mountains on the other. We were looking for unexplored territory to hike in. The dirt road became a trail and eventually was swallowed up entirely by the forest. Once the path became impassable by car we got out and hiked for quite some time and began making our way back to the car as the sun was going down.

It was a challenge getting the car turned around but I finally managed and we were off. It was slow going as it was a crappy road and getting dark fast. Suddenly we came to fork in the path that hadn't been visible coming the other way. Neither of us had any idea whether to go right or left so I just picked randomly, hoping that both would end up taking us back to the main road.

As we rounded a small curve in the road our headlights fall upon a man dragging a large hockey duffle bag off the trail into the woods. As soon as the lights hit him he just froze completely still. Driving past him felt like an eternity because we couldnt have been doing more that 5 miles an hour, due to the crappy road. My girlfriend and I didn't say a word to each other until we were well past him...at which point we were like "Wtf was that?". And then the road ended. Just like where we had stopped the first time, the forest had swallowed up this part of the road. We were going to have to turn around and drive by the man with the human sized duffle bag again.
I told my girlfriend to buckle up and hold on tight because at the first sign of trouble I was going to gun it. We came to the spot where the man was and he was nowhere to be seen. We eventually made it to the right path and got the hell out of there.

The weirdest thing about it was that there wasnt a vehicle anywhere near this guy for 50 miles in either direction. We would've seen it if there had been. We'd traveled as far as possible both ways and there just wasn't and place to pull off of the road. How the hell did he get there? Where was he going? What was in the bag?

-THEGUMB

5.

One night my friend and I decided to hike to the top of this small mountain at night for a meteor shower. There were 4 of us, all around 16 at the time, and thought it would be cool. We drove over and started hiking. We took a break about half way when we noticed there was a guy following us... in a business suit? We were weirded out so we decided to start back up and walk a bit faster. But by the next time we stopped he was like 10 feet away so we bit the bullet to see if he'd just walk by. He didn't. He stopped and asked if we were there for the meteor shower and if he could walk with us. Weird a 30 something year old man in a suit wanting to hike with four 16 year olds but whatever.

As we were walking my friend and I notice he was walking really close to our friend (the only girl in the group) like he could smell her shampoo close. We got to the top, sat down, and he sat down almost right up on our friend. With her reasonably freaked out I made and excuse on why we have to leave early and we promptly booked it the hell out of there. Nearly running the entire way down. When we got back to the car we thought "cool we ditched the weirdo". But no. When we were all in the car our my friend pointed out that this guy is FULL ON SPRINTING down the trail and towards our car with a large stick. Being in a car we just drove out of there very shook up. We chalked it up to some dude on some hell of a drug but 2 days later we all got a text linking us to a news report about a guy that had strangled his wife and then proceeded to kill another girl later that night on a hiking trail. It. Was. The. Guy. The same dude at the same hiking trail. We never told our parents about the incident and never went back there. EVER.

-Codarar63

4.

It was in the summer around dusk and I was camping at a remote campground with my dad. There was a lake right next to the grounds and my dad and I would trailblaze through the forest right next to the lake because if you went far enough there was a really pretty waterfall. A few strange things happed on this hike. We found a slash pile that had a little kids shoe on top. When we came to a small clearing, my dad had to take a leak to he faced one side of the clearing and I faced the other and we both clearly heard a child say "I'm over here".

My dad thought it was me, and when he realized it wasn't, we spent half an hour looking for someone, but we found nobody. After that, we gave up on going to the waterfall and started to make our way back to camp, but there were clear sounds of something following us (twigs snapping, bushes shaking). We haven't been camping there since.

-PlantBasedSpaghetti

3.

I go hiking in the woods that permeate my town, sometimes so late that i get to see the sun rise out there.

The strangest thing i ever saw was what I could only describe as a shanty town was built up seemingly overnight deep into the woods. Simple little hovels made of scrap metal and bed sheets and a small firepit that someone had made out of an old tire, with the fire still burning. But that wasn't the weird part.

The weird part was that this was well passed midnight when i found this place and it was quiet as a grave. There was no one there. Someone made the trouble of getting a fire going and then left it. From the look of it this place could hold about a dozen or so people and yet there was nothing there but the fire they abandoned and whatever possessions they had left in the shanties.

-Cyanora

2.

While it did not happen during the hike, rather the camping, it was still the creepiest thing I've experienced out there.

Was working at a summer camp for kids and we went on an overnight outing. Had a cougar circle our camp from around 11pm to roughly 5am. It was crying out, hoping one of us would separate from the group. I stayed up all night with bear spray and a hatchet keeping an eye on it with the other staff.

-Yukon_c14

1.

I used to often spend my summers bouldering with my friends by a relatively large forest that was about an hour and a half away from where I used to live. We used to spend some of the nights camping out there just to save some travel costs and time.

Anyway, I think this was roughly like the third or forth time we were out there camping, my friend had left all her climbing gear and her rucksack just outside her tent or we definitely think she did anyway. The next morning we found her boots, a few clothes and all her chalk powder had disappeared. We figured that it could have been completely feasible that she misplaced it, although we were quite sure that they were next to her tent we didn't really want to believe that they were stolen. Anyway, we didn't read too much into this and just stupidly said to ourselves that perhaps she had left it by the boulders and some animal took an interest to it... I know it sounds stupid but it was very reasonable to us at the time.

Anyway fast forward a year, we're at the same spot as usual, sitting by the tents and chilling after having some food. Mind you it's pitch black out, and only the camp area is lit by the fire. I go somewhere a bit out of sight for a slash and what do I see? A dude in a full on ghillie suit laying on his stomach looking right towards our camp site. I kinda stood there frozen as this dude clocks that I've seen him and he just bolts it out of there.

I don't know whether the event to the year prior was related to the ghillie guy but this definitely has stuck to all of us, we haven't been back there since which is a real shame.

-jhfk

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.