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Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Again Reveal What It Was Like

Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Again Reveal What It Was Like

Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Reveal What It Was Like

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When you've lived in a place for a long time, it gets kind of hard to imagine it any other way. For most of us, when we move out of a place, we don't get to go back and see what it's like years later. One Reddit user asked:

Has anyone used AirBnB to stay in a house they used to live in, and how weird was it?

Most hadn't gone the AirBnB route, but tons of people shared their stories of going back to places they used to live. Some went for hookups, plenty of people cried and one person even found a beer they'd hidden years before! Click next to read through some of our favorite stories of people going back to the places they lived before.

Surreal

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Dunno if it counts but i was dating this one girl. First time we go over to her place... It's the exact same apartment i went to to see this other girl 15 years ago. I had even stayed for a couple of months there in the past it was so surreal walking in.

The Epic Party

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I once had an epic day/night of eating, drinking and being merry at various places with various people. There were many highlights of that day, but the relevant part is: around sundown, got a phone call from my sister. She got drunk and was adopted by a friendly group. They invited her back to theirs to keep partying after the main event finished. When she arrived, she realised the house in question was a house I had moved out of a few months earlier. So of course she called to invite me to party at my old house. Who was I to turn down such an invitation?

It ended up being an awesome night. I was stoked to find the new owners had done the very renovations I had planned in my head, only I had been renting so couldn't do them. They were stoked that I taught them the secret to working the fireplace without burning the house down, thus saving them from replacing the fireplace. The new owners were a gay couple, one half of which was a very expensive hairdresser, who gave me a free (drunken) trim and some invaluable hair related advice. Booze was drunk, pizza was ordered, drunken promises of lifelong friendship were made.

My sister and I eventually crashed in their spare room (which had previously been my spare room!) The next morning they made us pancakes. We didn't do numbers though - that night was too perfect, any attempt to continue the relationship would only pale in comparison.

That Place Was Tiny

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We were visiting the Ukrainian village my bro and I grew up in. When we moved, we sold the apartment to some family friends, so when we went back to visit, they let us hang out there.

Damn the place was tiny! I was 10 when we left, and I remember it as "huge" to my childhood mind.

Hidden Beer In The Bathroom

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I hooked up with a girl who lived in an apartment unit I used to. That was cool/weird.

I'd hid a beer in the bathroom fan and found it still there.

Striking Difference

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After my grandma retired, she lived in an expensive vacation place in a cabin for 30 years until she passed away. Like many older folks, she resisted remodeling anything and we really had to pull teeth to get her to even replace the 1970's (orange) shag carpeting in the 00's. So anyway, after she died, my dad and his sibling decided to sell the place because the remodeling would be expensive, and none of the kids/grand kids wanted to maintain the place or live in Vacation Spot.

Fast forward and my cousin is getting married at Vacation Spot and rents Grandma's house for the wedding weekend. The new owner seriously updated the place, and the difference was really striking - it used to be dark woods, small rooms, basic 70s stuff, now the entire top floor had all the walls knocked down so it is one great room with a full wall of sliding glass doors to the massive wraparound deck.

On the other hand, some things had not changed, and it was a trip. The master bedroom patio door still had claw marks from my grandma's dog that died in 2002. The old bedroom where I used to stay when I visited still had the old bedframes. The floor still creaked where there used to be a hallway between the kitchen and living room (now just a weak spot in the open floor plan).

My family agreed, it was nice to visit, but none of us wanted to actually do the work to make it this nice. So, hooray for the new owners! They did a great job with the place.

High School

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My high school building was sold off when they built a new building. The developer that bought it turned it into apartments. When i was in town for a class reunion one of the women I graduated with said she lived in the building so a bunch of us went over there to check it out with her.

The exterior looked mostly the same except for replaced windows and the school name was replaced with the apartment complex name.

The apartments are a few classrooms in a line with the hallway doors removed except for one an apartment.

They took out the bleachers in the gym and put in one of those rubberized tracks aroung the outside edge of the gym.

They left the auditorium intact and actually get local musicians to come play there and will play movies and sporting events in there

The cafeteria is a tiny food court with a Subway and a pizza place.

They redid the weight room and expanded it to have more machines.

The library is laundry room /lounge/business center/management office.

Painting The Room

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I made an online friend and agreed to hang out with and his roommate and help paint a room with them. It turns out he lived in my sister's childhood best friend's house. His roommate had known me since I was about 10.

I had been there to paint that same room the original time.

The Bad Luck House

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I once lived in a house that brought only bad luck to my family. I think it's because my parents used to use an old ouiji board. They both had affairs, got divorced. Sister left home, brother also left; left too. We were all too young really, I was only 16 and homeless.

They sold the house. Not long after, my dad turned mental had to be put into a mental institution and died a few years later of cancer. My brother died, my mom died, my whole family is pretty f^cked up.

I escaped, got married, had 2 kids and tried to move on with my life. I got tooth ache and my wife found me a local dentist. Their office happens to be in that old house. I haven't been back in 40 years and I'm not about to tempt fate and go back now.

I turn down the appointment, had to find another dentist.

Got Busted

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My mom lived next door to her best friend for nearly 18 years before she moved to her college apartment and eventually in with my dad. Mom's parents passed away a few years ago, but her best friends parents still live in that same house. She was over there lately and peeked over the fence out of curiosity. The people who lived there now saw her looking over their fence and she quickly explained herself.

They thought it was so sweet, so they let her walk through and she said it was bizarre. She hasn't lived there in almost 30 years and it has been remodeled 3-4 times since. She said she wouldn't have known it was her house.

The whole thing left her sort of bittersweet.

Half Of My Old Living Room

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I used to live in a very big apartment until I was about fifteen. My parents bought a house in the outskirts of the city, so we moved out and left the place. When I turned 20, I needed a place to rent near to the city and found out the same apartment was divided into 3 smaller apartments and was up for rent. So now I'm living in half of my old living room and my parents bedroom.

It's kind weird, the kitchen is where my old room used to be.

"Boy, Did She Mature Well"

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Story time!

Years ago I got really close to these two girls. We used to do everything together. We would book restaurants and cafes and it was like a mini party every time since there were about 20 of us in this group of friends.

If we were too drunk to drive, we would just crash at someone's place. At some point, I got closer with one of the two girls and I started hanging out more with her but strictly in a friendly capacity. I couldn't see her as anything more.

First it was just crashing on her couch, then i started staying over for coffee and breakfast when i woke up, then for food, then to study and all of a sudden i was kind of staying there. Then she started getting closer and closer until we started sleeping together. Sleeping. Not having sex.

And then she started getting closer and closer until one night she kissed me and tried to turn it into sex. I stopped her saying i didn't want sex to ruin our friendship.

After this happened we drifted apart; I didn't see her for years after. Three or four years ago I saw her at a funeral. Boy did she mature well. She hit the gym hard and everything wrong about her somehow disappeared. She turned into one of those women you see on Snapchat or in the gym and think **"Wow imagine if a woman like this ever came close to me." ** Of course she now had a boyfriend and was travelling the world.

I remember that I had always found it funny that the building her flat was in had her name. Well... Her father, I found out at the funeral, is one of the biggest developers in my country and that building was actually hers as a gift from daddy. Daddy owned another 40-50 buildings in that city and another like 50 in the country.

Fast forward to last year. I have this f^ck buddy and the first time I go to her place, the road seems very familiar but I can't quite figure out why until i see the name of the building.

Out of all the buildings, of course the lived in that one. I call and ask which apartment shes staying in. I go up... And it's the exact same apartment i used to stay in with the girl who owned the building.

Campus Tour

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I lived in a campus house, a BIG campus house. It had four huge bedrooms, two stories, full basement... it was a party house. We are sitting around getting high, drinking and playing guitar hero and we get a knock at the door. I was in the other room, and for some reason my good friends extremely dense brother answers the door (??) while holding a bong (???????).

The knocker was this really amped older guy with like TEN F^CKING KIDS. I think he was giving them a tour of campus, they looked high school age and were all wearing similar colors. He says something along the lines of "Hey! I'm Dan! I used to live here back when I was in college in the 80's! I was hoping I could show these kids what it was like!" and before anyone can stop idiot brother he just blurts out "YA SURE COME ON IN MAN!"

I walked in in the middle of this and didn't have time to stop him, but it ended up being fine aside from a little awkward. This guy (who seemed like a bit of a fuddy duddy at first glance) comes in, doesn't seem to notice any of the drugs or alcohol, the kids shuffle in and stand there awkwardly as he tells them stories like "Oh yeah that's where we set the couch on fire..." and what not. The whole thing was over pretty quickly.

And a house rule was made that no one besides a roommate answers the fucking door.

Naked In Her House

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My ex lived in the house that my family rented when we first moved to the area. The first time she came out to eat with the family, i just haaaaad to mention that we had all been naked in her house. We dated for over a year.

Current Boyfriend

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My current boyfriend lives in the house my childhood best friend lived in. He gave me his address and i knew the street, obviously, but the house number didn't ring any bells. It wasn't until i got outside that I realized he lived in that house. I didn't mention it to him. We had just started seeing each other and I didn't want him to be weirded out. Then I asked to use the bathroom, but didn't ask for where it was just sort of went. When I came back he was confused and asked if I found the bathroom ok. I just went:

"Oh... yeah I used to be in this house a lot as a kid."

Dad Loved Coming To Visit

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This kind of happened to me. I went to the same university as my parents did. They were there in the mid-late 60's while I was there in the early 2000's. I was looking for a place to rent and my dad's old house was listed, so I actually moved in. He LOVED coming to my rental when him and my mom visited because it was still kind of the same set up he knew.

Reduced My Mom To Tears

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My mother grew up on a farm outside of our town. It was a nice place, from her memories, with a lot of land.

I saw a friend who's a realtor now, whose family had bought the place from my grandpa and grandma, listing the property for sale and providing lots of pics and drone footage. The state of the house, which had obviously fallen into severe disrepair over the years since HIS family had left it, reduced my mom to tears.

Heartbreaking

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I toured a house I grew up in. It was a very nice Victorian with beautiful wood features and a grand chandelier. Well they tore all that out, ripped out the secret passage in the back, busted the 10 ft by 7ft window to replace it with cheap Home Depot ones, replaced the grand staircase with a cheapo kit one, and tons of other stuff. Was very heartbreaking.

Experiencing The Remodel

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About 3 years ago, we upgraded out of our apartment. We moved to our home, but maintained ownership of the apartment. So we remodeled the whole thing, and set it up for airBnB.

So about 2 months ago, we decided to try living in the apartment again, just for a week to experience the "new" remodeled apartment...

It felt meh. Kind of nostalgic at first. We quickly remembered all the little nooks and crannies and settled pretty fast. Honestly, we disliked having to be mindful of making noise again. We were glad when we left again.

The Pizza Oven

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A friend of mine moved in to her childhood home about ten years after they left. Her parents had rented the place for 15 years, but the owners were selling it off so they had to move out. Cut to 10 years later. She's now an adult looking for a new place to move into. It showed up on the market for rent. She applied, thinking it would be funny and she got it!

Some renovations had been done and it had been repainted. The pizza oven her dad built was still in the backyard, along with all the graffiti that had been done in the garage over the years they were living there.

Sneaking Was Easy

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I met a girl who lived in my old childhood house, didn't realize why the address was so familiar until I got there. Made sneaking around the house from her parents way easier because I already knew the layout and what parts of the floors make noise????????

H/T: Reddit

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.