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People Share Historical Facts That May Sound Fake But Are Completely True

It might surprise you to know that the last Civil War widow died not long ago.

Wait, what?

Yes, you read that correctly. Her name was Helen Viola Jackson, and she married James Bolin in 1936 when she was 17 and he was 93.

"He said that he would leave me his Union pension," she later told historian Hamilton C. Clark. "It was during the [Great] Depression and times were hard. He said that it might be my only way of leaving the farm."

Jackson never remarried and kept the marriage secret for decades. Wild, huh? Hard to believe, but it happened. Here's the report from Smithsonian Magnazine.

After Redditor TropicalNuke22 asked the online community, "What's a fact from history that sounds completely fake?" people shared their favorite crazy historical facts.


"They were displaced..."

The Germans and Russians once called a temporary (unofficial) ceasefire in World War I because of wolves invading the battlefield. They were displaced from their normal hunting grounds and looking for something to eat, which turned out to be local livestock, corpses, children, and unwary or incapacitated soldiers. It got so bad that everyone stopped shooting at each other for a while so they could hunt them down, proving once more that the threat of being eaten is stronger than any political ideal.

Arafel9162

"With the passing of years..."

The Judo Chop

If you ever watched a spy movie or TV show from the 1960s to the 1980s you probably remember "The Judo Chop." A maneuver spies used to kill or incapacitate people, it looks like a karate chop to the head or neck. Its latest appearance was in an Austin Powers movie. Anyone with even a cursory Judo knowledge knows that there are no "chops" or kicks or punches. It's a body manipulation combat method to unbalance and throw your opponent. And that's true. Yet the Judo Chop is not a fiction cooked up why Hollywood writers.

The UK's MI6 adopted basic Judo techniques in their hand to hand combat training. During WW II the Special Operations Executive (SOE) incorporated it into their training. It also incorporated other "quick and dirty" combat maneuvers from other British combat experts such as Colonel Fairbairn. All were published in a text classified secret for many decades, though much was also taught to the US Office of Strategic Services.

With the passing of years, the loosening of lips, and fuzzing of memories, one of the other combat maneuvers for taking down sentries got conflated with the Judo maneuvers. Perhaps the biggest culprit could be found in the Stafford Hotel bar in St. James' Place, London in the early 2000s. This tipsy old lady, if you were nice, would tell you of her extensive Special Operations Executive WW II exploits. One of the stories included attacking a German sentry with "this judo-chop stuff." She, and presumably other spies, told journalists this story and similar for years until it made it into espionage writing and finally to Hollywood.

The old lady was Nancy Wake, a.k.a. "The White Mouse." Already accomplished WW II spy when she fled to England to join the SOE, she went on to have a legendary career. With her reputation it seems nobody ever questioned her story. Which was good. Secret WW II files declassified in the past 10 years provided testimony by two of Wake's SOE comrades, one of whom was her commander. They, but not Nancy, were spotted by that Waffen-SS sentry on a covert mission. Per their debriefs, Nancy Wake did indeed walk up and strike the sentry with a single violent blow with the edge of her hand. She snapped his neck.

Eric_da_MAJ

That was a TRIP.

Wild, huh?

Let's continue.

"Bunch of nobles..."

Erfurt latrine disaster

Tl;dr: bunch of nobles gathered in a room. Floor could not support weight and collapsed. People drowned in poop which was underneath the room.

blueberrisorbet

Gross.

Did we mention that that's just... gross?

Let's continue.

"In Anne Frank's original diary..."

In Anne Frank's original diary, she openly talked about her changing body, periods, and her questions about sex but they were edited out of the final print.

AlienationsYT

"John Tyler..."

John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president, still has a living grandchild.

Boi_inc

"You might be interested to know..."

You might be interested to know that the last U.S. civil war widow (as in widow of someone who fought in the war and gained a pension) died last month.

saywherefore

"But the word..."

Thomas Crapper actually did invent the first reliable modern toilet. (The kind with a raised cistern.) But the word crap/crapper was already a very old slang term by that point. It was just a coincidence. Or maybe he felt like he had no choice. But crap and crapper have nothing to do with Thomas Crapper.

SoldMySoulForHairDye

"Scrawled on walls..."

There are penises everywhere in Pompeii.

PENISES

EVERYWHERE.

On walls, streets, posts, carved into wood and stone, arranged in tile mosaics. They're all over the place. You can't swing a cat without whackin' a schlong. They're used as arrows to point to brothels. Scrawled on walls in graffiti about how good the women are in the city. When you went to the baths, you'd put your clothes in little cubbyholes, and you'd remember which column of cubbies you left them in by the mosaic of a particular sex act above said column.

Lil-Bugger

"After swallowing a golden fork..."

There was a man named Tarrare, a French soldier who was known for his unusual appetite and eating habits. Because of this, general Alexandre de Beauharnais decided to use his abilities to military use. He was intended to swallow documents from opposing countries, and those documents were intended to be recovered from his stool.

However, Tarrare also was filled with infamy during his later years. He was blamed for the disappearance of a 14-month-old baby in a hospital, and he was chased all around the hospital before he fled.

After swallowing a golden fork (which was never found) Tarrare soon contracted Tuberculosis and diarrhea before dying shortly after. Because his corpse rotted quickly, surgeons refused to dissect it. But a surgeon named Tessier decided to do an autopsy, which revealed that his digestive system was extremely large; pus was all around his body, his liver, esophagus, and stomach were abnormally large, and ulcers covered it.

Jay21-1-10

"Finally..."

After the Dravlians killed Igor of Kyiv, his wife Olga took revenge when she was Regent.

First, Dravlian messengers, who were tasked to inform her that she was to marry their king, were carried by the people of Kyiv and were thrown into a trench that was dug the first day, and the messengers were buried.

Second, she invited Dravlian dignitaries to Kyiv, by telling them that she would return with them to accept the honor of her betrothal to the king. She invited them to a bathhouse, had the house locked, and had the house burned with them in it.

Third, to mourn the death of her husband, she told the Dravlians to prepare a quantity of mead at the site of her husband's death. The Dravlian's got drunk on the mead, and she ordered her people to kill them.

Finally, she drove the survivors back to their city. She ordered tribute and would let them go in peace. The tribute was three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. She received the tribute, tied a piece of sulfur on the bird's legs, and attached a piece of cloth to the sulfur. She then had the birds released, having set the cloth on fire. The birds returned to their nests and subsequently burned down the city.

In AD 950, she went to Constantinople and converted to Christianity. She Christianized eastern Europe and was later made a saint.

KhunDavid

Get ready...

...because this next one's a wild ride.

"A few years later..."

Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett was a hatmaker who lived in Troy, New York. As a part of his job, he was often exposed to mercury, which resulted in some noticeable mental health issues. His wife and child died, after which he moved to Boston, where he became a homeless alcoholic and eventually joined the Methodist church and started preaching enthusiastically in public. He attempted to imitate Jesus by growing his hair long, and was soon known locally as the "Glory to God Man." If someone cursed in his workplace, he'd loudly sing or pray for them in response.

In 1857, he was approached by two sex workers on his way home. He was apparently deeply disturbed by the encounter, and went home to consult the bible. After some light reading, he decided to cut his balls off with a pair of scissors to avoid temptation. He then ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting (where nobody apparently noticed an expanding red stain in the crotch of his pants) before seeking medical attention.

A few years later, the Civil War kicked up and Corbett decided that his lack of a sack did not mean he was short on fortitude, and he enlisted in the Union Army. He immediately got in trouble for all of his behavior, including carrying a Bible at all times, loudly reading scripture, holding unauthorized prayer meetings, and arguing with superior officers. He regularly condemned his superiors for violating God's Word, and at one point he verbally reprimanded his Colonel for taking the Lord's name in vain and using profanity, which landed him in jail for a few days. The military eventually had enough and court-martialed him for insubordination. They sentenced him to be shot, but his sentence was reduced and they just discharged him.

Having learned absolutely nothing, a couple of weeks later Corbett re-enlisted in the Army in a different unit. He was captured by the Confederates in 1864 and sent to Andersonville Prison. On the way there, he risked his own life to get a wounded Union prisoner water despite repeated threats of being shot by their Confederate captors. At Andersonville, Corbett picked up scurvy, malnutrition, and exposure but recovered after being exchanged for a Confederate prisoner after five months. Corbett was promoted to Sergeant and later testified against the Commandant of Andersonville Prison after the war wrapped up.

Come to 1865, and President Lincoln was assassinated. Corbett's regiment was sent to apprehend John Wilkes Booth, the assassin. The regiment tracked down Booth to a farm in Virginia and surrounded the barn where he was hiding. Since Booth insisted he wouldn't be taken alive, they set the barn on fire to try and persuade him to leave. Corbett was stationed at the back of the barn and, seeing Booth through a crack in the boards, promptly shot him in the back of the head with his revolver. Ironically, Booth had been hit in a very similar spot to where Lincoln had been shot, but there was a big difference in their reaction to it. Lincoln had fallen into unconsciousness immediately, while Booth screamed in pain, was paralyzed from the neck down, and suffered in agony the entire time he waited to die for over two hours as his repeated requests for someone to please finish him were denied.

Secretary of War Stanton's orders had been for Booth to be taken alive, so Corbett's commanding officer was a bit pissed off that Booth had been killed on his watch. When Colonel Conger asked Corbett why he had shot Booth, he claimed it was because Jesus had told him to. Corbett was promptly arrested again. When personally interrogated by the Secretary of War, Corbett agreed that he had violated the order, but suggested that Booth looked like he was going to try to shoot his way out of the barn. Corbett maintained that he was trying to inflict a disabling wound, but that his finger must have slipped and he ended up shooting booth I'm the back of the skull instead. Stanton basically said "F**k it" at that point, gave him a pat on the back for avenging Lincoln, and had him discharged again. On his way out of the War Department, he got cheered by a massive crowd, and went to have a portrait taken at Matthew Brady's studio down the street as he signed autographs and told stories to the horde accompanying him.

After the war, Corbett was plied with offers, but declined most of them. People offered to buy the gun he shot Booth with, but Corbett turned the offers down as the pistol belonged to the government. He declined the offer of one of Booth's pistols, since he didn't want a reminder of the shooting. He went to work as a hatter again, but was fired from pretty much every job he had for his habit of stopping work to pray for his co-workers. He moved around a bit before settling in Camden, New Jersey, where he tried to earn money by giving lectures at Sunday schools about his role in avenging Lincoln. He was never asked back, since his behavior was quite erratic and his lectures were pretty incoherent.

Over the next decade, Corbett became increasingly paranoid about people in Washington hounding him for denying them the pleasure of prosecuting Lincoln's assassin. He also got a lot of hate mail for killing Booth, which did nothing to help, and took to carrying a pistol at all times. He ended up brandishing it frequently at friends or strangers he deemed suspicious. While attending a Civil War Reunion in 1875, he nearly shot 3 conspiracy theorists who accused him of faking Booth's death. In 1878, he got some land in Kansas and moved there, living in a dugout home.

Because he was sort of famous, the Kansas state legislature appointed him Assistant Doorkeeper in January 1887, a somewhat cushy position where you get paid to really not do much. A month later, he convinced himself that officers of the House were discriminating against him, and he chased several of them out of the building with a revolver. Corbett was arrested yet again, and the next day a judge FINALLY declared him insane and had him institutionalized. He escaped from the Topeka Asylum for the Insane in 1888 on horseback, and crashed at a friend's place for a while. When he left, he said he was heading for Mexico.

Rather than heading to Mexico, it appears that Corbett moved to Pine County, Minnesota where he lived in a cabin in the woods. He is believed to have died in the Great Hinckley Fire on September 1st, 1894.

"She screamed..."

Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, once snuck up on his own wife, Marcia Winslow, as they were getting out of their car after a party and began to strangle her. She screamed and tried to fight him off until she realized it was him, at which point he stopped and tried to convince her that it wasn't him strangling her, it must have been someone else. She stayed with him for several years after that incident.

rubyredrising

Jeez, Marcia.

We hope you're okay now.

Let's continue.

"She was henceforth..."

Chevalier d'Eon was a French diplomat and spy in England and Russia. Once he retired he revealed to the public that he had been a woman the entire time. She was henceforth made to wear gender appropriate clothing for the rest of her life. She went on to write some books and support the American Revolution. But here's the kicker. When she died they found out she was actually a man the whole time. He was double crossdressing.

d5345543

"This guy was a super incompetent..."

There was this guy in the early days of aviation named William Christmas. He created what is often considered the worst plane ever. He designed the wings to be super thin sheets of metal because he thought it would be better if they flapped like a bird. He had another engineer working with him, Vincent Burnelli, who tried to make changes, such as strengthening the wings, but Christmas wouldn't budge. He pitched this to the U.S. Army during WWI, claiming that they could abduct the Kaiser with it, as it would be able to outrun any German aircraft. Instead, the wings predictably broke off in its first test flight, killing the test pilot (and they didn't tell the Army about it). Then they tested it again, and the same thing happened. The Army withdrew their support after that, and no new prototypes were made.

This guy was a super incompetent aircraft designer, but apparently, he's often credited with inventing ailerons, which has been the default method of controlling airplane roll for the last century.

Choose-water

"One night..."

Henry VIII had a mace with a concealed pistol built into it with which he used to patrol the streets of London at night, looking for ne'er-do-wells like some sort of fat, ginger syphilis-riddled Batman.

One night he was caught by a guard and thrown into jail for a night before he was recognized. Upon returning to court he sent for the (by now extremely worried) guard to appear before him.

Despite the man's understandable terror, Henry congratulated him and rewarded him for his diligence. He had also got on well with his fellow inmates during his brief stay and ordered that conditions and rations for prisoners be substantially improved.

benrsmith77

History is fascinating.

It's a shame that they don't seem to teach it all too well in schools and that so many students seem to find it boring. Here's something interesting for you to think about: One day people will think studying us will be boring (but we hope school cirriculums are tweaked before then).

Have some cool historical facts to share? Feel free to sound off in the comments below!

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.