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People Confess To Seeing Things They Were Definitely Not Meant To See

Getty / Serge Krouglikoff

We've all had those moments in life where we've walked into a situation and gotten an eye full. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's funny for everyone but you. And sometimes it's horrifying.

Reddit user MakeYourMarks asked people to share their stories. 

"What was something you saw you were definitely not supposed to see?"

Of Sound Mind and Body

I found my dad's will. I was on his computer while he was at work and ended up finding a strangely titled word document. At first it didn't seem like a big deal. It contained a note to each of his kids. It wasn't until I got to the last one, my youngest brother, that I realized it wasn't just a will. The start of that line read something along the lines of "If anything is going to make me change my mind now it's writing this part". I realized I had found my dad's suicide note. I was about 14 or 15 at the time and I had no idea how to go about talking to him about it.  I decided to just keep it to myself. He started buying us gifts and stuff and I would get really scared and I still just kept it to myself. I remember one day on the weekend I woke up in my bed to a loud bang coming from my dad's room. I laid there in bed for probably half an hour frozen. Once I worked up the strength I went to his room and opened the door.  He wasn't in the bedroom. I was so confused until I saw that the bedroom window was open. What had happened is that there was a gust and the wind had slammed the door shut, but my paranoid brain had heard a gunshot. After that I was laughing hysterically and I don't have much memory of the day past that. 
Shortly after this incident my dad had returned most of the gifts he bought us kids and I slowly started to believe that he had changed his mind. I never confronted him about it until last year, about 14 years or so later, but I never fully accepted that he was ok now. I called him distraught about a separate matter and he started talking to me about depression. He told me on his own about he had considered taking his life, and went in to detail about it, and all I could do was cry and tell him "I know." We talked a lot longer after that and we were finally able to put it all to rest.  arckalocal

Vacation Video

When I was 8 or so my old nanny was showing me a video of her time with her boyfriend in Paris. After it blacks out for a few seconds it then suddenly cuts to her lying on her hotel bed completely naked, telling her boyfriend to 'come get it'. She jumped out of her seat tried to cover my eyes and told me to never tell anyone. I have now told potentially thousands of random strangers.  Winnie-the-Broo

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Sacrifices

Growing up with my little brother and single Mom we never had a lot, but she made sure we always had a safe and decent place to live and there was always food on the table. She never really ate much, I remember dinners of baked chicken, beef stew, salmon (it was a lot cheaper a million years ago)... good food, nothing terribly extravagant, but always nutritious, yet she barely ever ate. When I was 10 I saw her eating pb&j; on crackers in her room after dinner. That's when I realized there was never enough food for all 3 of us, she would cook what we had for my brother and I and she would eat the bare minimum, always out of sight, so that my brother and I wouldn't worry about the actual level of poverty we were at. I never asked for another material thing from her after that night.  superfly355

Owwwww...

Was getting a vasectomy and the doctor told me not to look down.

I looked down.

...I shouldn't have looked down.  xoidbiox

BFFs

My mom was helping her BFF and BFF's husband move, and when she lifted the mattress off the bed frame there was a small box labelled with my mom's name. She had never seen this box before, so she went and asked BFF about it. 
Apparently BFF and her husband had started "spicing things up" in the bedroom. The box in question was filled with adult toys, and they labelled it with my mom's name just in case something happened to the two of them; if their parents or children had to go through their things, they'd think the contents of the box belonged to my mom. 
And now my (single, early 50s) mother has a cardboard box in her closet labelled with BFF's name.  nanna_mouse

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Cold War

I was driving from West Berlin to West Germany in the late 1980's. My bf gives me wrong instructions so I have to take an exit off the Autobahn to turn back and get back to the correct exit. 
On the small country road on which we found ourselves, we see a large truck with a missile on it, surrounded by Russian soldiers. 
They were as surprised as we were, but just laughed and waved at us, as we got the hell out of there as quickly as possible.  mischimischi

Email Chain

My boss forwarded me an email telling me to do something. I noticed the email chain had his bosses on it so I read through the chain. They had asked him to rate all my co-workers and I from best to worst earlier in the conversation.  DtownAndOut

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Mafia Golf

When I was in college I worked at an arcade/minigolf joint that seemed to give zero f**ks about actually making money, but was never in any kind of financial trouble. When I got hired, the owner literally said "I pay minimum wage and I expect to get minimum work for it." I worked the front counter, and collected money for the mini-golf and sold cups of coins (or you could just use the coin changer). The till was completely busted and would be off by $50 or more in either direction no matter what you did.  I realized very quickly that I could just pretend to ring up golf fees and cups of tokens and pocket the cash, so I'd pocket $30-40 every shift, and nobody seemed to give a shit. One of the assistant mangers let me take a break twenty minutes after I'd just taken a break because some of my friends had shown up and wanted to smoke a bowl with me. He was like "That is totally more important than your job." It was awesome. 
Then one day I walked into the owners office while his secretary was recording figures in the ledger. I can read upside down pretty well and it was very obvious that the figures she was recording had nothing to do with the business we were doing. We sold maybe $60 of golf fees a night, and maybe $100 in coin cups, but she was recording $600 and $1000 for each. I commented on the discrepancy and quipped about how someone would think we were in the laundry business and she got really squirrely and told me to leave the office. The next day the owner called me into his office and we had a very circumspect conversation about how much I was enjoying working there and enjoying the perks of the job, and I very much got the sense that he was trying to decide if I was going to tell anyone anything. Apparently he decided I wasn't (and I wasn't), and so I kept working there. About a year later the owner was arrested for money laundering and we all got fired. Still the best job I ever had. The mob is an A+ employer.  Blood_and_Brass

Liquid Courage

My teacher shoving a flask into his desk drawer when I came in unexpectedly.  kaizack

Infidelity

I once walked into my dad's van while he was with a woman who was not my mom. Dad had a drinking problem. Mom took me and my brother to go looking for him because he was supposed to be buying Christmas presents. Found his van at a bar. Mom sent me to look inside the van to see if there were presents in there. He turned over his shoulder and looked right at me and said in the most evil voice, "Get out." This was 20+ years ago now and I still get emotional thinking about it. I still remember the entire thing so clearly.  IndyDude11

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Unknown Sibling

The other day I was looking for my old passport, when I found a few of my Dad's old visitor's passports. Now, my Dad is older than most (he's 70 while i'm a teen), so imagine my surprise when, listed under "children" in the passport, there's the name of a kid born in the 1970s. The best part is that the name isn't on later passports of his, so I guess I accidentally found out I have a (dead?) half brother.  well___-_then

Use Two Cameras Next Time

Not me but a coworker several months before I started at the company. Big boss man comes back from a site visit/weekend at his cabin not too far from site. Has someone burn all photos from his camera to a CD and makes a couple of copies. One copy is with my coworker and another guy looking at photos from site. Suddenly the photos of the site trip ends and there are topless photos of big boss man's wife at their cabin on the disc. 
But wait, there's a twist: Another copy of the same set of photos was currently in the boardroom PC where big boss man is showing photos to the client. My coworker doesn't know what to do, tells our lead administrative assistant. She confidently marches into the boardroom and ejects the disc interrupting the meeting. Big boss man asks, "what are you doing?" She simply says, "there's a problem with the disc." and leaves.  bigalfry

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Multi-Tasking

Back in middle school we had this really strange gym teacher about 6'2 and ripped. Me and my friend were going to the bathroom and thought that the locker room toilets would be clean since no one used them throughout the day. When we walked in to our left was one big shower room and there was our gym teacher showering while eating spaghetti out of a Tupperware container. Thank god he was wearing swim trunks but he turned around and said you guys aren't supposed to be here so we left.  stuffn_cannolis

Home Business

I was about 8 or 9 and my parents were going to be out of town so they had me and siblings stay with a family from our church. Once we got to the house (which was really nice BTW) they had one rule, you can play wherever you want but the basement is off limits. Me being the little jerk that I was snuck down there first chance I got and was supremely disappointed to only find rows and rows of plants growing under lights.  Low_town_tall_order

When You Don't Have a Photocopier

Went to a co-workers house to help get the scanner to work, which hasn't worked since her daughter had tried to use it a few days earlier. I tried to load the software, which would hang while trying to connect to the scanner. 
A quick power cycle of the scanner, and the software loaded. The software defaulted to the "recent scans" screen. The most recent scan was the genitalia of my co-worker, her daughter or I suppose it could have been a page from a XXX magazine. 
My hotkey skills were fast, so I may have Alt+F4'd before she saw what I did, but once that software worked, I used a different program to perform a test scan. 
Easy, but uncomfortable way to earn $20. essieecks

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Santa and Mommy Were Doing More Than Kissing

Saw a Homer Simpson keychain in my mom's desk drawer. Didn't say anything. Two weeks later its in my Christmas stocking and she goes "Wow, how did Santa know how much you like the Simpsons". 
That's how I figured out Santa must've been sleeping with my mom.  jay_bro

Kissing Cousins

Walking in on my cousins railing each other.....

Now I understand why they were close at Thanksgiving.  Dooooly

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Read a Book

My dad once handed me his tablet and suggested I look at an ebook or something, while we were sitting around in a theater waiting for a play to start. I don't know if I misunderstood him or what, because when I brought up his amazon reader app, I saw that the last book he had been reading was "How to deal with a sexless marriage" or something along those lines. Dad was very embarrassed, quickly took the tablet back, and we did not speak of what had just transpired.  EclectusInfectus

Overheard

More heard than seen, but... I was golfing with my mother's fiance when he got a phone call. He had his cell volume turned up really high, and I overheard a woman who wasn't my mother say some things, including the phrase "f_#$" in a seductive manner. I convinced myself that it wasn't my business, or that I'd misunderstood, and dropped it. A few years later, her now-husband was revealed to be a serial cheater, with active partners numbering in the dozens. Yes, I still feel like s*_t. Yes, they're divorced.  thegawking

Close Your Browser

Dad handed me his phone and asked me to look up something for him, while we were sitting around the living room at a family get-together. When I opened his browser app, the last page open was porn. The video began autoplaying and I frantically tried to figure out how to close the tab, but all I really managed to do was look at the video for far longer than I wanted to. So I shoved the phone back at my dad and said  

youneedtoclosethetabIcan'tfigureouthowI'msorry 

and we once again did not speak of what had just transpired.  EclectusInfectus

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Always Wipe the Hard Drive

When I started a new job, someone had left a bunch of HR files on the computer I was given. I opened one up, not sure what it was, and I got to see every employee's salary in the company. Even the CEO. The next day, it was gone. My boss realized his mistake and logged in to my system and deleted the files. It was a memorable experience.  cartmancakes

Dinner Conversation

I was in the 7th grade so I was almost 12. I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard my mom screaming. I jump up and get ready to defend my mom. I open up my parents bedroom door and my mom was definitely not in trouble. I didn't understand it at the time, but I wanted to get out of there before they noticed me. However, I fainted instead.

That my friends is something I was definitely not supposed to see.

Forever scarred. I'm 25 now and my dad still likes to bring it up at Christmas dinner.  Grkitaliaemt

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Equal Pay

I saw an employees check stub that he dropped.

He had been there for a month and was making what I made after my first year and was not a very good worker. I got a raise.  rustyshackleford239

Birthday Surprise

When I was 14 a friend hosted a birthday party at his house with all the parents invited. Needed to use the restroom but the main one was occupied so my friend told me I can use the one in his moms bedroom. As I walked up to the door I could hear somebody in there so I decided to wait until whoever was in there was finished. A good 10 minutes later, my friends mom (who was hosting the party) and another good friends step-father walk out and see me standing there all confused. They asked what I was doing there and I just said I was waiting to use the bathroom. Surprisingly they played it cool and just said I can use it now and walked off.  jawnteexbawx

True Confession?

I was bartending and it was slow. I was putting away glasses by the only two people sitting at the bar. They seemed a new couple, very touchy, etc. At some point I noticed that she was wearing a wedding ring and he was not. Right as the music died down between songs, he turned to her and said: 
"You know, they're going to ask you where you were when he drowned." Noped out of there real quick.  PurpleLotus46

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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

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"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.