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People Who Flipped Their Opinions On Extremely Controversial Topics Explain Why They Did

People Who Flipped Their Opinions On Extremely Controversial Topics Explain Why They Did

People Who Flipped Their Opinions On Extremely Controversial Topics Explain Why They Did

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People can have very strong opinions on certain subjects. But even though they may think they'll never change their minds about their deeply held beliefs, sometimes they do.

Reddit user morieu asked "People who 'switched sides' in a highly divided community (political, religious, pizza topping debate), what happened that changed your mind? How did it go?"

Here are the insights into people who jumped from one side of the fence to the other.

Union Dues

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My family used to be middle income. I used to be super pissed about those "damn unions" when they were striking, called thise taking gov support "leeches" etc.

After the 2008 financial crisis ,my family lost a huge amount of their income due to no fault of their own, and my career took a huge downturn. Meanwhile workers rights were completely dismantled, trying to turn the country more "competitive" and as a result I had shitty wages and almost no protection from bosse's predation. The phrases "Just be happy I even pay you" or " There are thousands waiting at the door just like you" become the norm in pretty much every job. Work rights that are absolutely standard everywhere dissapeared overnight.

Since then the only thing that allowed us to keep our head above the water have been government support with health plans, free training trying to get back to the work force, protection from eviction etc.

I am hardcore social democrat now, and I can see were communists come from, even if I don't agree with a lot of stuff the philosophy entails.

TP Orientation

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Toilet paper over or under. I used to be in the IDGAF camp until I realized under was Satan's work.

Over all the way now.

Nothing Fishy

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Fishing. I used to an very avid catch and release angler, fished with some of the best, was in a few magazines etc etc. I started to look a bit closer as to what I was doing, how many fish survive after catching and releasing them and came to the conclusion that though it's fun for me (at the time) it probably wasn't all that much fun for the fish. My regular group of fishing friends who were a fun and very talented, knowledgable bunch, mostly conservation minded guys just couldn't understand my change of heart. I now fished only to keep, which they thought was wrong but I never over harvested and always kept to the limits allowed or just a couple for supper, freezer, whatever. I'm not sure what changed my mind but I just started feeling bad about how I was hurting another living being for nothing more than essentially bragging rights and my own pleasure.

Leaving Bigotry Behind

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In 2006 in Tennessee I voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and I deeply regretted that later, and was very glad when SCOTUS overturned it.

The reason I voted that way is pretty simple though, religion. At the time I was a Christian, and thought being gay was a sin, and that as a result they shouldn't be allowed to marry. Later, when I deconverted, there wasn't any struggle about the gay marriage issue at all, because I never actually had anything against gay people, even when I was a Christian, but I was just following my belief system.

Without that belief system it was sort of a no-brainer that they should have the same rights as everyone else, and that there's no logical argument against being gay, and that I was the one who did that wrong thing when I helped to take away their rights, not them.

No Mo' GMO No

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GMOs. I used to feel that they were "unnatural" and therefore bad. After getting a chemistry degree and spending a lot of my personal time studying food science, as well as working on farms and gardening, I think that genetic solutions to farming can be great.

I still think that big farming is rife with horrible practices, and some companies exploit GMOs and patents on GMOs to the detriment of humanity, but I can no longer subscribe to the GMOs=evil point of view.

Regrets

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Wisconsin had an election in 2006 where a ballot item called Referendum 1 would decide whether marriage between a man and a woman would constitutionally be the only legal form of marriage accepted and allowed in Wisconsin. It passed with 59% of the voters voting yes and the state Constitution was amended. I voted yes.

Shortly afterward, I started thinking. A lot. I started to realize that many of my friends were gay and I was friends with their partners. They were happy. They adopted kids. They volunteered for the fire department. They were nurses. I started realizing that their homosexuality didn't define their being. I was foolish and ashamed.

By 2011, I deeply regretted how I voted. Who was I to judge how people were supposed to live their lives and who they could marry? Within a 5 year period of time, I completely changed my mind. A new movement to get the amendment ruled unconstitutional was formed and I found myself supporting the group. In mid-2015, the US Supreme Court declared the referendum was illegal.

6,000 Years

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I was raised to believe in creationism. Specifically, young earth creationism. That's right, my parents taught me that the Earth was something like 6000 years old, and that concepts like speciation or human evolution were not true. I had the whole nine yards: Sunday school to reinforce it, the Discovery Institute to tell me science was wrong, pastors to re-enforce it.

The degree to which they controlled the information that I consumed was pretty f---- up as well. I remember my great grandparents giving us a bunch of those old Time-Life books, one of which was the Life Nature Library series. One of these books happened to be on evolution (my parents did not review the books before letting me at them), and being a 7 year old science geek I read it. I remember showing it to a friend of mine, and explaining the patterns associated with human evolution, and when my mother overheard this, she snatched the book from my hands. My parents later told that everything in that book was completely untrue, and I believed them.

Unfortunately for my parents, being a science geek, I eventually ended up in AP Biology. In that class I was totally ready and fired up to argue against the teacher whenever human evolution came up. What ended up happening was a reasonable explanation regarding our origins, with piles of evidence to back it up. That course changed my mind about evolution, and once that happened I started to question God's existence.

My conversion to atheism was a long and drawn out process, that ended with me moving out of my parents place. Things are better now, as my parents have decided that having me in their lives is more important than me believing in god.

Live & Let Live

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I'm a conservative and used to be really homophobic until I realized I live in a country founded on personal freedoms and we shouldn't decide whoever someone wants to marry. Still a conservative but couldn't give 2 bits if you are gay or not.

Dungeons & Denominations

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I used to be an active member of my church. (I'd experienced a near death experience when I was a child and was reaching out to try to better understand what happens to a person when they die.)

One thing my youth pastor was adamant about was that D&D was a gateway for the devil. He used to talk about his younger days when he was a teen and he tried D&D and how the devil would reach through him and act through him and his friends. He says he stopped when the devil tricked him into thinking his friend was a demon, and he tried to kill his friend.

My brother was getting into D&D at this time, so this was particularly worrisome. It lead to a great deal of fighting between me and my brother.

Over time I kept watching for signs of the devil in my brother and never really found any. I started taking a closer look at the books and trying to suss out what the threat was. But couldn't find one.

Then I started pressing my youth pastor and people who knew him for more information. Eventually my youth pastor slipped up and mentioned that he'd frequently drop acid while playing D&D.

Suddenly everything made a lot more sense.

The Last Straw

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I've pretty much stopped using straws at/from restaurants.

I know it sounds stupid and small, but the plastic pollution stuff is getting to me and I am not a "green" type of person at all... so it's a big deal to me if for nothing else than personal growth. As time goes on, and pretty much every time I take out the trash, I'm reminded of how utterly wasteful everything is. Baby steps I guess...

Right to Life and Death

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I used to think that it was awful that people ever died, or wanted to die. I thought that it was normal and natural to want to fight for ever last moment, every last breath, even if it wasn't quite great.

Then I got into medicine and nursing. Now I understand how valuable death is in life, how important it is that we have that choice and that option. There truly are some times where the life you are living is truly awful suffering, and it's cruel to expect people to continue on with it. It's cruel to ask somebody who will never move again to continue living that way just so we don't feel bad. Death is important sometimes. It saves us from when life goes very very bad.

Disconnect

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I grew up in an uber-religious family. Church 3 times a week with classes and meetings in between. Everything we did was for the lord. When I started getting older, however, I started realizing that what was being taught wasn't quite what I believed in.

Love thy neighbor turned into Love thy neighbor as long as they're not gay.

Help the needy turned into I've got mine, so politely go f yourself.

Only God can judge you turned into everyone judging everyone about everything and church politics took over.

Do unto others? Lets go tattle to the preacher and complain until someone is kicked from the church.

Most people fell in line and never really looked into what was being taught vs what the bible said. It was seriously like a cult of like-minded beings and since I was critically thinking about it, they turned on me as well.

I couldn't see how horrible things were until I was away from it all. Its like getting lost in a maze and not being able to figure out where to turn. Once you get out, climb that cliff, and look back down, you realize every corner and wrong turn made and you can't believe how caught-up in that mess you were.

I moved out of state and married a wonderful guy. I don't talk to part of my family anymore.

Fission Revision

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I used to be against nuclear power, so I then decided to research it for school and it turned out it might be the best we've got until renewable resources get further in their development.

I don't think it's the best long term, but I don't think it's the devil no more. My parents who were green wavers during the seventies are very mad at me for this.

Important Issues

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Certain themes of conversation

Resonate around the nation -

Small contentions oft repeated

Make for altercations heated.

Let us talk of all religions -

Add a dash or half a smidgen's

Pinch of doctrine hard to swallow -

Watch the chaos shortly follow.

Let us talk of state and power -

Add a drop of Donald's tower,

Daily news and contradiction -

Settle back and watch the friction.

Soon you'll find you're off debating,

Ranting, raving, raging, hating,

Never ending,

never stopping.

... let us talk of pizza topping.

Respect Gained

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I was a hardcore anti-theist since I was a teenager, basically a rebellion against my strict religious upbringing. When I was in college an older family friend of ours relapsed into drugs and started f*ing his life up, losing his family and house. My parents invited him to their church and he gradually turned his life around thanks to his spiritual "rebirth." I'm still not a believer, but I have a greater respect for the social utility of religion after seeing what a turnaround that dude made.

Herbal

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Cilantro. I absolutely could not stand the soap-like flavor for 20+ years. Entire stalks slapped on my Thai entrees, bits in the guacamole, haunted my dreams and damn near ruined Thanksgiving one year. Then one day, like magic, the soapy fog lifted. I have no idea what happened. I absolutely love the stuff now.

Reprogrammed

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I used to think programming was dumb and computers were ridiculous for not being more intuitive. Then I spent 11 years working with people and realized they're worse. Now I'm stressed and can't remember how to program anymore.

Grammar Police Retiree

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I used to be a die hard grammatical prescriptivist. There was a right way to talk and that was that. THERE ARE RULES!.

Over time I realized the rules are more or less arbitrary and the point of language is to communicate ideas, not follow strict rules. Whether you follow every rule in the MLA handbook or u talk liek dis all da tiem is irrelevant, as long as the listener understands the speaker's intent.

Anti-Vax No More

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Used to be extremely anti-vaccination. Now quite in favor. What changed my mind? I had a baby and had to make that decision for someone other than myself. I dove into the research and did a lot of soul searching. It was really just a problem with ignorance on my part. We are all fully vaccinated now.

Expanding the Playlist

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I used to hate country but then I discovered the banjo and bluegrass and turns out what I hate is modern country.

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.