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People Share Their Absolute Worst Roommate Horror Stories

Always live alone.

Ever since moving to New York to acquire fame and fortune, I've had to make sacrifices. For the first year I was able to live alone but I was stationed a little far from where all the action happens. Quickly I learned that in order to be in the thick of the action, I was gonna have to move in with people and share my space to save some coin. Now some thirty roommates later.... I should've just stayed with the commute. The book I could write. I wouldn't know where to begin. The roommate who had a two year old that he forgot to mention? The roomie who liked to dance nude in the kitchen while intoxicated? The guy who would have pornographic sound level intercourse? Oh the stories. Imma live alone forever.

Redditor u/epic-yolo-swag wanted everyone to unload about the worst choices we've all made by deciding to share a home by asking..... Redditors, what is your roommate horror story?

College Fiend

disgusted new girl GIFGiphy

In college, I had a strange suite mate who kept a Tupperware container in the corner on the floor of our shower.

One day, my roommate (who was my childhood best friend) came into our room from the bathroom all distressed. She had stepped on the container and it came open. It was apparently full of dirty underwear. For some reason, the first thing out of my mouth was, "They aren't mine, are they?" Her reply, "No. I checked." lol. Apparently, we both got the same weird underwear-stealing vibe!

HereForLNM

While on Tour

Lived with two very bogan girls for about 4 months. Went away on tour for a few weeks, came back to find the house trashed, all their stuff gone and most of my kitchen appliances missing as well. They still owed about $600 in rent between them as well.

Four years later I'm at a pub with some friends and this big footballer-type dude I'd never met comes up to me and grabs me by the neck, yelling about how I used to hit his sister. Turns out he was the brother of one of the girls that did a runner and before she moved out she'd been showing up at home with the occasional black eye and bruises from her new boyfriend. But so her family wouldn't hate her new man that was touching her up, she told them it was me.

I eventually settled it out with the brother and he apologized, turns out when I was away on tour he and his footy team all showed up to the house and were planning to belt me up. When I wasn't there they decided to trash the house and break/steal a bunch of my stuff.

HappyTimeHollis

The Gem

She stole my underwear (she was at least 4 sizes larger then me), gave her boyfriend a key to our apartment and he would stay there 6 nights a week and not contribute to rent. On the night her boyfriend was not there she would bring random guys home and cheat on her boyfriend with them, LOUDLY. She'd complain I "never took out the trash" because I found it pointless to do it once a day when there was maybe 3 things in it.

Would put dead stink bugs in my coffee water tank, and when she moved out locked her bedroom door and left her sink running for 3 days until I was finally able to get it open to find her bathroom flooded. She also talked so much crap about me to my boss at the time (who happened to be a family friend of hers).I had no choice but to quit a find a better job because she cut my hours. What a gem.

vogonpoetryprof

Uni Hell

Look Whos Talking Now Reaction GIFGiphy

First year of University in halls, one of my flatmates would:

-use a tray in the oven that had holes in it so any fat or oil would drip onto the oven not clean it up and there would almost be a fire everytime anyone else tried to use the oven if they forgot to clean it because he never cleaned up after himself, he even tried to blame it on other people when we caught him doing it multiple times (one of our other flatmates was a vegan so she basically didn't use the oven the whole year because of it).

-he would have his Iphone alarm going off for hours in the morning (used to start at 4am-8am).

-invite people round at like 2am and they would be screaming and shouting (on multiple occasions I had to leave my room to tell them to be quiet).

ChaoticTinkerer

Never Again

This is more of an annoyance than a horror story. My roommate had people stay with her for several days to two weeks, about once a month. She also ran her tutoring business from the house. Unfortunately, we didn't have a guest room, and my roommate didn't want these people in her room for some reason, so these guests stayed in the living room.

As a result, it was impractical for me or the third roommate to use the living room and sometimes the kitchen. Apparently the area outside my bedroom door was a particularly comfortable sleeping space, and people lack common sense. It got really annoying having to check for and step over a sleeping person if I came home late at night.

The worst was when her parents stayed over. Her father was old-school Chinese and expected women to do all the housework. He constantly left the toilet seat up, and he dribbled pee around the toilet. My roommate wouldn't do anything about it, on the grounds that he was old and set in his ways.

I talked to him and his wife about it, and my roommate blew up at me for embarrassing her dad. They stayed with us rent-free for 3 weeks. Also, my roommate and her family all throw toilet paper in the bin instead of flushing it, even though the pipes in America are fine, so the bathroom was extra gross. After that, I never lived with roommates again.

Concentrate83

Disgusting

I once lived with 3 guys in a house. There was what I called a "pee ring" around the toilet. As there was dust elsewhere. But the pee would mix with the dust to form this ring around the base of the toilet.

They'd also play garbage Jenga. If it toppled over usually that person would take it out. Sometimes said person was too lazy and would let it topple.

For the next person who had it topple over a 2nd time to take it out. The kitchen sink was always filled with moldy dishes and food. The kitchen counter the same. The stove top had dirty pots and the oven had dirty pans. We had lots of fruit flies, mice and mold.

RipleyHugger

Anger Management

Given a history of extensively crappy roommates, my freshman year roommate was bonkers. Upon moving in together, he found out a was into coffee and (in what I assumed was a joke) brought up starting a coffee shop in our dorm room. Two days later he informs me that he already has investors and he spent over a grand of start-up money to buy blenders, espresso machines, etc. We never used any of them. He was an ex Taekwondo teacher with some anger management issues which was always concerning.

One time he had sex with some random girl at like 3 am, while i was sleeping in the room. He bought a legit blow dart gun and would shoot it at our door without warning, so I always had to knock multiple times before entering (and it still wound up having to dodge some needles). About 3/4 of the way through the year, he started working at a hotel and blowing off his classes, eventually, he bought a house with someone from the hotel and proceeded to live there all while still paying tuition.

Our collective friend group got super worried about him since he wouldn't show up to classes or our dorm for multiple weeks at a time. One day he just showed up, grabbed all his stuff from our room, and said he was moving out but had paid room and board for the rest of the year, so I got a single room for the rest of the year for free. All in all, not a bad deal.

terrelldactyl

The CIG

Oh boy, let me share the tale of Crazy Italian Guy (CIG)

Let's get in the mood, shall we? We were 7 people in a house, in rooms where you could barely fit a bed (2×1m) and 1 kitchen, so no escape.

CIG was always kind of messy/loud. But i mean, you manage right?

One day I come home from work. Stop by the kitchen to grab a bite. And there he was. In all his Glory. Crazy Italian Guy, sitting by the table. He glanced at me shortly with madness in is eyes and got back to his business.

I realize there's a little pile of white powder by his side. 'Ok, so the guy's doing druggs. Explains a lot' I thought, innocently. Oh no, not at all.

CIG was not doing drugs. What he WAS doing is cutting up a newspaper in an obsessive manner until it turns to actual dust. A whole newspaper. In tiny piles. For hours on end.

From that day on, my door always stayed close. I do not trust the Demonic Pasta Man.

electricnymph

"Her" Side

When I was attending uni, had this one crazy roommate. She had graduated years ago but was not searching for a job or anything. She would just sit in her room all day, doing god knows what, only venturing out for groceries and, sporadically, cooking. No friends or family ever visited her, she never went anywhere.

She would also never clean anything in the apartment, not even her own dirty dishes - and proceeded to throw an angry fit at me whenever I cleaned her dishes for her (because layers of fungus in a communal kitchen). She would also get very upset whenever i put stuff on 'her' side of the countertop (which was also communal). I always wondered what became of her.

pqosnfgeidndj_39

Ummmm..... Arsonist?

Season 7 Nbc GIF by Brooklyn Nine-NineGiphy

She set my hair on fire by waving a candle through it.

Balamamama

The Full Experience

Had a roommate who was fully enjoying her college experience, and I'll just leave that there with all the usual stories of how it affected us (her roommates).

Meanwhile I'm actually trying to study. She comes home after a football game and finds me in my books, sneaks up and fires one of those stadium compressed air horns directly in my left ear.

I still don't hear very well from it.

As bad as that was, I think the runner up was a week vacation everyone took. She brought a boyfriend home the night before we left and ate a bunch of seafood. They threw it in the trash and left without a thought.

What we came back to was THE most god-awful stench I've ever had to bear. Hundreds of flies, everywhere. The hate is real, y'all.

Talaraine

WAKE UP

wake up morning GIFGiphy

One roommate always slept through his alarm, so he bought a VERY loud alarm clock that would go off until one of us would turn it off and yell at him.

Grab_Stet

Life Destroyer

I lived in a large house and had a housemate who was barely 21 and a full blown alcoholic. He was a nice enough guy when he was sober, but he was really mean when he drank. He'd destroy stuff, pick fights, stuff like that. He did stuff that he otherwise would have been arrested for, but his family was a prominent group of lawyers in the area, so he got away with the crap he did, and to some degree his parents were enabling his behavior. Eventually he caused too much destruction and my housemates and I voted to evict him.

There was also suspicion that he was getting into harder drugs like cocaine. When he was told to leave, he did as much destruction as he could to my housemates' property. He never targeted me because there was no conflict between him and I, but like I said, he was mean to the more assertive housemates. Eventually he got arrested and his parents had to come to the house to collect his stuff and apologize. I think he was actually left alone to cool his heels in jail. I just hope he got the help he needed.

Ermaquillz

Tantrums

Roommate 1 (nice guy) finished his bottle of peanut oil and accidentally left the empty bottle on the counter. Roommate 2 went completely nuts and started yelling. We assumed it was because she hated the mess and wanted people to throw away their stuff (which would have been fair, though a bit of an overreaction). Finally we could make out enough words to understand that she thought somebody had finished her oil.

No amount of reasoning could convince her that the full bottle in the cabinet was hers. After that, she locked salt and pepper in her room so stop others from using it as she had refilled them last. One of many tantrums... ironically, she would always tell people how chill she was and that they should be chill, too. To this day I hate the word chill.

Hop_thehypetrain

Everything Brazilian

This Brazilian idiot. Ate all my food, I'd wake up and find Brazilians passed out all over the apartment half the week, if ever I had a female friend round, he'd be in there talking about how he's Brazilian 'you know Brazil? Im from brazil, I'm Brrrrazillian'. The worst thing he did was try and claim that Brazilian pizza was better than Italian pizza. But then apparently everything Brazilian is the best in the world.

He did sleep with one of my friends, she told me he lasted 2 minutes and the first thing he said after sex was 'so, is this the first time you had sex with a Brrrazilllian?' NEVER met someone so sickeningly patriotic. Brazil was his only personality trait!

dumbdoogy

The Maggot Man!

Guy moves in to a room in a shared house with my friend. They begin to realize guy is a not so functional alcoholic. Never leaves his room, they hear him groaning and stumbling around a lot.

One day friend goes to do laundry and new guy has just finished a load in the washer. When friend goes to put his clothes in the washer he notices its full of rice. Rice that moves.

Friend screams, take his clothes out of the washer, starts hot bleaching the inside of the machine trying to get all the maggots out. The housemates go to confront the new guy in his room about the laundry maggots and see he is living in absolute filth.

Piles of clothes next to vomit puddles that have now attracted flies and maggots, bottles of pee and garbage strewn around, there is no mattress he sleeps on the floor, the wood on the floor is WARPED from all the puke on it, there is vomit in the air vent...

They ask him if he is peeing in bottles where does he poop. Apparently he was going to the nearby gas station to take dumps because he was worried the house mates would be judgmental. :(

They kick him out less then three weeks after he arrives, clean the room discovering FURTHER maggot and puke piles. They leave all his furniture in the front yard to be collected whenever, while guy stumbles off to find new digs to ruin further.

Anooshka1308

WHAT IS THAT?!!!

Scream GIF by OriginalsGiphy

Had a sleepwalking roommate at university.

One night I woke up with him standing over my bed, his long curly hair flowing down his face... not doing anything, just standing there facing my direction.

The other time he sat on his bed in the middle of the night, shouting other roommate's name and asking "WHAT IS STANDING NEXT TO THE WINDOWS, WHAT IS THAT??!!!" and immediately laying down and sleeping calmly...we didn't close our eyes till morning came.

elaniu5

Feeling Wet

In a big city, expensive apartment, one evening I heard the sound of liquid in the hallway. Went to check and found a roommate peeing in the hall closet, drunk out of his mind. I told him the toilet was the next door down but he continued peeing until he was finished. The next morning I told the other roommate who then checked to find his dress shoes were 'wet'. Over breakfast, I overheard Pee-boy and Shoe-owner - both in their 30s - argue about the the pee. I moved out days later.

Embe007

Meow.... LOLOL

They would wake me up at 6am, no matter the day. They care nothing for Saturday's or Sunday's. They had their own food, yet would watch me eat mine and beg for some. Other times, just taking when I was turned away. I would wake up sometimes and find them staring at me on my bed. So unwholesome. I found their hair everywhere. Bathroom time is no longer sacred if they need something. They would stare at me as I did number 1 or 2, doesn't matter. They never paid rent.

Damn cats.

Wackydetective

Waterworks

Paris Hilton Reaction GIFGiphy

My roommate peed himself in his sleep. Every. Single. Night.

Worst part is it's four of us sleeping AND living in the same room. The smell... I wish I could forget.

He also terribly stinks from constant sweating and leaves around rotting leftover.

angry_cat_no_banana

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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.