Newly Thin People Reveal Unexpected Benefits From Dropping The Weight
Society puts on pressure to always be losing weight or trying to get to model status with your fitness. Whether or not that is attainable, it is important to stay healthy, and eventually, doctors will tell people that their health is at risk and to start losing weight. But what happens to the people who do?
u/chknbt asked Reddit:
What unexpected benefit did you find from losing weight?
Here's what we learned.
Towel Dry
The biggest benefit that I didn't see coming was how easy it is to dry off. After a shower or bath or whatever it's kind of a pain to get all that skin dry, and you have more crevices for water to gather. It takes no time at all when you have less you to go around.
Stairs
Last summer, I lost 80 lbs(36kg) I was amazed how little I would run out of breath. I was able to go up flights of stairs and my friends would be out of breath. It felt amazing.
Hubba Hubba
Better sex. Even after just a few pounds lost. Bonus - strength training makes everything better too ;)
Freezing
Went from 205 to 135 pounds. I'm fucking cold all the time.
Covergirl
Buying clothes is not only cheaper but easier. So many more options and styles.
Just Tried It
I guess it's dumb to say this was unexpected, but I was able to run for the first time. I lost weight without ever exercising, I just ate less. One day a friend wanted to go for a jog and I went along. I couldn't believe how far I could make it without dying. I still hate it, but it was nice.
Discipline
It actually taught me discipline. It taught me to commit to myself and a goal.
I was thin, then I wasn't, now I am again so nothing was a surprise physically really though the take away made me a better person.
I applied the same logic of okay, this is my goal now I have to work a little every day to achieve it to my side hustle and it's really been paying off after years of stagnation. I'd say it's a huge benefit.
A Sleep Story
Higher quality sleep, waking more refreshed, even though sleeping a shorter period.
Petitness
My whole life, my mom told me I was built like a line-backer (I'm a woman). I assumed that if/when I lost weight, I would still be "big-boned". I've lost 80 pounds and to my immense joy, I don't actually have wide shoulders.
Brown Cow
I poop less.
(Probably because I don't massively overeat anymore as opposed to losing weight itself, but it was still oddly disconcerting).
A New World
I cannot say enough about the health of my digestive system. Before it was all fast food, fried foods, and processed foods and now that I eat fruits and veggies with every meal I wonder how the hell I even had a bowel movement before in my life. It was pain. It was all suffering. I just knew nothing else.
It All Works Better
My blood pressure decreased from 154/89 to 118/64 - "ideal," according to the doctor.
Confidence Up
Same person, women smile more, confidence increases, women smile even more.
I lost weight through straight weight lifting. Put on muscle, calories burned lifting + increased metabolism from more muscle + change in body composition...
You're You
People treat you like a person.
Jaws Do It All
I became slightly underweight and it caused my jawline to become very attractive and I began attracting a lot of women. Didn't do me any good because I am in a relationship but it felt good to be flirted with at work with random women 18-30 years old. Never had attention like that in my life.
A Career
I became more motivated with my music/hobbies and spent a lot more time on them instead of eating or watching TV.
New Life
A couple things come to mind:
I thought getting a leg rash from a long walk was normal. Turns out it's mostly a fat person thing.
I can squat without putting my knees in agonizing pain.
The clothing options! There is so much more you get to wear as an XL rather than a XXXL.
Oh and women are actually attracted to me now. That part's nice too.
Loop De Loop
Tying shoes without getting tired
A Delicate Frame
It's obvious now, but I never consciously thought about it: I never realized just how much difficulty I had moving through crowded areas. Concerts, busy restaurants, even open-venue events like ren fairs and carnivals. I'm sure at my heaviest I annoyed people as I made my way through the crowds, and it was doubly annoying to me as I tried. But now I'm smaller and more limber and graceful, and squeezing through tight spots or into tiny restaurant booths is easy.
I'm The Hot Guy
Didn't realize I'd become "the hot guy". I lost weight originally for health reasons.
Back when I lost all the weight, I walked up to my wife (fiancee back then) and I said a few things in passing, then said good bye. She was meeting a girlfriend who saw me with my wife. My wife texts me and says, "Emily wants to know who the hot guy is that I was talking to...."
I remember thinking, "Yeah wtf? Who's the hot guy she's talking to?! ....oh, ME! I'M THE HOT GUY!"
Wanna jump off the bandwagon? Then keep reading!
U/lit3rallyuseless asked: What doesn't deserve the hate it gets?
​Film and media are probably the biggest contender for being hated on randomly. It may seem harmless, but not always deserved.
Actors are people too!
Actors who played characters that people didn't like.
Really if you hated the character then the actor did a good job (assuming that was the role).
The best cartoons.
nice day summer GIF by PBS KIDSGiphyChild cartoons. Some are actually really good, even as an adult.
I feel like watching cartoons aimed at generally a younger audience allows for you to be reminded of some life lessons, I know I forget some things, or didn't realise others, or it at least partially renews my awareness of something I should still like or appreciate
This doesn't deserve awards, it's just my opinion that is apparently shared by many.
This man did nothing wrong.
Guy Fieri, he literally is the nicest person in the world but since he looks like he was electrocuted by mountain dew people want to saw his head off.
Even before that, I was witness to his other charitable work. A few years back, Santa Rosa was hit by some terrible fires and he showed up at a few shelters and personally cooked up and served some killer buffet food. No cameras, no massive team of PR, just a dude with an assistant to keep him on schedule to hit up other shelters in the area. Guy Fieri legit earned a lot of respect in my book for that.
You know who DEFINITELY doesn’t deserve hate? Animals. They’re just living their best lives, and need to be left alone.​
The best cats.
Black cats.
We got a black cat for the first time last year. I've since formulated the theory that black cats might get some of their reputation from the fact that people can't see them well in the dark and so they seemingly appear out of nowhere and they might be instinctually cautious because they know people have a tendency to kick them while walking in the dark. Our black cat is the sweetest cat I've ever known.
They get a bad rep.
Discovery Sharks GIF by Shark WeekGiphySharks. They are beautiful, complex creatures, deserving of respect and, like any wild animal should be left alone in their natural habitat, but they get this reputation as vicious bloodthirsty monsters. This is only because every shark attack is news, and only then because they are so rare. More people are killed EVERY DAY by mosquitoes than sharks kill in a year.
Any apex predator that has remained evolutionarily unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, whose existance predates TREES, is deserving or our respect and admiration. Shine on, you crazy cartlaginous fish, shine on.
So cute too!
Opossums. They're neat little critters. They eat tons of ticks that carry Lyme disease, (mostly) don't carry rabies because their body temp is too low, and they're the only marsupial native to North America! They get a bad rap because their first defense is to hiss and bare teeth, but failing that, they just play dead.
If you don't have the predisposition to hate them, you'll find they're pretty cute too.
E: this is about /opossums/, the north American species.
Kiwis, I feel for you, but this comment isn't about your possums.
​Hating on other people for just living their lives also seems to be a big contender for things that don’t deserve to be hated on.
This is so true.
Unemployed people. A lot of people genuinely are looking for work and did not want to lose their last job/it was beyond their control (like a layoff) but they get so much hate and called lazy by most people. I know too many unemployed people that are actually really trying hard. They definitely aren't lazy. (Not saying lazy unemployed people don't exist, but to be fair, so do lazy employed people too lol)
Leave the weather man alone!
Fox Raining GIF by Family GuyGiphyMeteorologists. They try their best to predict the weather based on patterns, models, and data. They're not perfect because predicting the weather is insanely difficult. When they get it wrong, I think we should go easy on them. It was probably an outlier result almost no one could have foreseen.
I've seen people get angry over the meteorologists for getting it right. Like they control the weather - it is their fault we are having rain, that kind of BS. Never made sense to me, but hey, I have plenty of relatives I clashed with growing up.
Please stop being d*cks to these people.
Customer service associates.
I hate when customers think that I, the minimum wage person forced to sit there and listen to them yell, am personally responsible for every policy they disagree with. Like, ma'am, if I had that much power and influence, I wouldn't be sitting here on a Saturday evening serving you.
Wholesome and necessary.
People don't deserve hate they give themselves when they are not doing too good at the moment.
I'm in a weird place and I didn't know I needed to read this. Thanks buddy.
If you haven't heard it from anyone else today, I'm proud of you.
It seems like people hate on things simply because they think they're meant to hate them. But you can always be the change and make an effort to stop being an a**hole about certain things.
No matter what though, sometimes haters gonna hate