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People Whose Non-Disclosure Agreements Have Expired Finally Spill The Tea

Secrets - everyone has them, not everyone has secrets worth actually legally protecting.

Essentially, that's what an NDA is - an agreement not to disclose secrets. It's the grown-up no snitching pinkie swear. Except with an expiration date - and that's where things get interesting.


One Reddit user asked:

People who have signed an NDA that's now expired, what's the story?

So like, all I'm saying is that I worked as a security officer in a wealthy community and we all knew about the "authorized vehicles" that you were supposed to just wave and open the gate for, no questions asked, no need to see the driver or passengers, no checking any vehicles they bring along with them.

Just sayin'

Authorized

I worked security for a gated neighborhood of extremely wealthy people. Like, fortune 500 CEO, Senator(s) (sometimes both), etc.

We got to know which cars were "authorized" without being authorized. Because we weren't allowed to stop them, question them, or log them in in any way.

Because they were dealers selling to the elite.

The resident would call down letting us know they had a guest coming, we'd get a name. Guy would pull up, give us a fake name, we'd refuse, he'd make a call, the resident would answer and have a small fit that we aren't letting them in. They'd then give us their real name and we'd let them through.

Later that report would be edited and we'd get a directive that that car was considered authorized but no documentation was to be done.

Same cars, same guys, always the same residents, always a short visit. The entire crew was either former military or former cops, it didn't take a genius for us to figure out what was going on.

Same thing for the minivans that'd come in with one guy and several scantily clad women, leave 20 minutes later minus one woman, then a cab would come a few hours later for the woman that stayed.

- Emperor_Cartagia

The Secret Ingredient

pretzel GIFGiphy

I worked for a mall pretzel stand about 25 years ago and had to sign an NDA about the secret pretzel ingredient. It was baking soda.

- Thatsnotatrashcan

Had a friend who managed one over a decade ago, and he liked to mess with people and tell them that the secret ingredient was a chemical compound called "sodium bicarbonate" to gauge their reaction. So entirely truthful, but people who either knew that it was just baking soda or pressed for what that meant in layman's terms were fine, but I watched him freak out a few "scary chemical" paranoid people.

- raccoonpissgolfcart

Sweet 1999 Technology

The Nokia 7110 will have a scroll-wheel.

There it is. So glad I could finally talk about it!

Also the release wasn't delayed because of "problems with the operating system" but rather because the entire development team caught a rather bad flu. Probably from me.

I'm so sorry :-(

- saschaleib

Library Statues Bring World Peace

I had an "artist" (he told me he was known all over the world) have me sign an NDA when I was a young website designer. He wanted a site to promote his new sculpture idea. I recall it was a group of kids holding hands in a circle, it looked ok but not unlike any sculpture you'd see outside a public library. This guy was saying it would lead to world peace and such.

The requirements for the website were CRAZY detailed, like 40 pages of instruction. It had diagrams of how I should use the mouse to make blur effects and similar bullsh*ttery. I remember we were going over his 'vision' after I signed the NDA and vividly thinking "oh, this guy is just plain crazy." After 10 minutes I said I had an emergency and had to go and just never talked with him again.

- stop_selling_drugs

In The Family

As Security Chief, I found that my boss, the Region Security manager, was stealing.

At that time, I thought to keep things "in the family'; imagine the scandal that, in the security branch of a nationwide mobile phone company, one of the people in charge of security was caught doing what he was supposed to prevent. Naive me.

So I reported directly to the CSO who, after getting a confession, ask the culprit to resign.

After that, he placed his 24yo niece (or something, family related) in the Region management, then, after 2 months fired me.

A year later, I found out that the first boss was indeed the CSO cousin who ordered his niece to fire me in retaliation.

Wiser me knows now to bring those things directly to HR.

- eddiefive

The Phone Had A Security Guard

I did an advert for what was at the time HTCs biggest swing into ultra high end phone technology. I was allowed to hold the phone during filming and a guard put it in a suitcase at all other times. I was not to talk about the phone until it was on sale to the general public.

Pretty lame now, but I had tech friends who knew I did the ad grill me about stuff. I wasn't even allowed to say what color it was.

- TheColorWolf

Contactors and Contracts

I was previously not allowed to tell you that the company I used to work for did white label work for BT, and that if you ever have a BT Openreach engineer come out to your property, they very rarely actually work for BT themselves (basically if they have a BT van) and are in fact one-job contractors with next to no knowledge of what they're actually repairing.

I was also not allowed to tell you that while it's standard practice to have sales people not take their contacts with them when they move companies, and that my business would enforce that by suing leavers who did, they also would not employ sales people who said they were not allowed (or not willing) to poach their previous clients and contacts from their previous company.

- ASLane0


I can definitely confirm this.

A few years back I was having major broadband problems. It eventually turned out to be a simple fix at the exchange (a wire had come loose) but prior to having the engineer out who actually did something about it, the two prior engineers were both from "Openreach" and when they arrived they had no idea my broadband was even offline until they walked in to my flat.

- supergodmasterforce

Fortnite

Mello GIF by MarshmelloGiphy

I got into a super small alpha test of a game in... 2013? It was a new survival game, one of those where you build during the day and try to survive the night, and let me tell you, the game was so, so meh. I played in a small server for about 4 hours and was so bored I just stopped playing for the rest of my access time.

There were all kinds of issues, not with the tech, but just glaring flaws in how the game worked. Some resources were way too abundant, some were really rare, there was practically no music, and the guns were dull. We also completely broke the enemy AI by building a jump pad to get up to a floating platform that required using your air control, so the zombies couldn't get up to us.

The game was Fortnite. The feedback on that alpha we played was so bad they basically took the whole game back into development until the version you know came out. What we were playing was a pretty early version of Save the World, except it was more like a typical Survival game. No BR back then, as you might expect.

- paradigmical

So Much Nothing

I did some IT stuff for a state government (a couple actually, but only one had me sign an NDA).

Nothing terribly interesting other than there is so little for tourists to do in the state that they photoshopped people kayaking in the super polluted river that no one would dream kayaking in

Even worse, they listed attractions from the next state over as something tourists could do while visiting them.

- PowerofPinsol

Walmart Wheels

I was hit by a Walmart 18-wheeler. I was on the freeway minding my own business, almost done passing him, when he decided to merge into my lane. The rotation from his tires between my door and the frame welded the door closed, and completely destroyed the rear axle, which ripped off the frame (fwd. Engine still kicked over, and drove it up on the trailer at a decent angle) Took everything in my power to stabilize the car and keep control. The trucker just kept driving. I was fortunate a car behind me witnessed the whole thing, stopped, checked if I was okay, then drove up to find the dude accessing the damage to his truck at a gas station a little further up. They got the license plate for me so they could come back and give it to the officer for the report.

I know I could have sued for a pretty penny, but my only requests were;

a.) My medical bills be covered (only had whiplash, other than that, I was unharmed thankfully)

b.) I wanted to know, for a 100% fact he lost his license, and would never have the capability to do what he did to me, to someone else.

Received a call about a month later letting me know my hospital bills had been paid, my check for my car should have arrived, and that he was in fact fired and had his licensed revoked.

- Thepumpkinking92

Pepto and Antibiotics

In the early 80s, I was a struggling theatre person trying to make ends meet. I knew a lot of production so most of my gigs (in the pre-gig economy days) was a day here and there doing corporate production, like conferences and meetings. They paid amazingly well.

I was hired to do sound for a top secret meeting at Smith-Kline. NDAs were routine so I didn't think twice. There was a group of video guys to manage images and such and a couple of us audio guys whose job it was to run the mics of the people in the meeting up and down, and we were all hidden behind the screen.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss recent research they had which showed that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacteria called "campylobacter pylori." Smith-Kline's #1 drug at the time was called Tagamet, and it was an ulcer treatment that worked by inhibiting the production of stomach acid. It was going to go out of patent in the next few years.

The top secret meeting was to discuss the fact that they had discovered that the most effective treatment for stomach ulcers, with this new information on campylobacter pylori, was antibiotics supplemented with the use of bismic salts - which just happened to be the main ingredient in pepto bismol, the big over the counter stomach medication in the US at the time.

They had to decide whether to release the studies they had which showed their #1 drug was not as effective as an over the counter medication, or suppress their data and hope they got to the end of their patent on Tagamet to get as much money as possible before the truth came out.

I don't recall any decision anymore. I DO know the info did not come out for years, and I remember telling the story as soon as ten years had passed, and saying they voted to suppress the data, but I cannot swear to that.

The point is, they knew and years passed before it became common knowledge that stomach ulcers can be treated with pepto and antibiotics. It was my first introduction into a world where people's health is secondary to profits.

The bitter irony was I HAD stomach ulcers and took tagamet, so was a real victim of their decision. I started using pepto bismol right away in the 80s, but my doctor did not have the necessary information to prescribe an antibiotic for my stomach infection until 1996. So I had to treat my symptoms for a decade until the actual infection could be addressed. I suffered until the mid 90s when I was finally cured.

- Mrmidhoratio

Best Of

Those "best of" professional lists? Whether it's national ("Best Doctors," "Best Lawyers," "Best Dentists") or local ("Best Local Florist," "Best Place to Grab a Beer") most of the time you can scam your way onto it. You can either buy your way on, or you can stuff the ballot box.

I worked on one that you COULDN'T game, and it pissed people off, because they were so accustomed to buying their way into first place. It was ridiculous. I got cussed out by business owners who couldn't buy their way on, and I got cussed out by business owners who didn't try and didn't make the list.

Later, I worked for a national list. It took me two weeks to figure out how the company was encouraging their clients to game the system. So disheartening.

- Mamapalooza

That Marketing Plan, Tho

Some dude was going to revolutionize the world by building Google Calendar, only somehow better. His marketing plan was, tell his friends about it. And when I say he was going to build it, he wanted me to build it. But he wanted me to sign an NDA before he told me what he wanted me to build.

Yeh I politely declined, trying to stifle my laughter.

So the story isn't exciting or big like some of the others ITT. Just a funny example of some really unwarranted self importance.

- future_echoes

Background Art

dog painter GIFGiphy

A friend signed an NDA when she did an art portrait of a family. She has a pretty unique style. She never broke the NDA, but then a year or so later, the celebrity has a random candid Instagram post in her home and the art was in the background.

So I guess it is now public and okay to share?

- Holanz

Chat Box Not-Bots

If you ever go to a car dealership's website, most have a chat box where you can talk to a real person. 99% of the people you are talking to do not work at the dealership, they work for a 3rd party company whose sole purpose is to get your name and preferably your phone number (though we took email addresses, too, if they didn't want to give us their phone number), so they can give it to the dealership's sales team and a salesman can contact you about buying a new car. Also, 90% of the stuff you guys ask about is easily found on the website, you just have to spend more than 10 seconds looking.

The company I worked for handled chat for about 60 or so car dealerships from all over the United States. Most of the dealerships were located in the Bible belt, but we did have several in South Carolina, and a few in Hawaii, too. Each computer was the same avatar. So we may have six computers, and number one is the avatar of 'Mary', then #2 was 'Peggy', etc. you get the idea.

No matter who sat at what computer each day the name of the avatar didn't change. Studies have shown that even when bluntly asking for information, people are more comfortable talking to women than men, and are more willing to give up information that they may not give up to a man. We also were never to tell the person on the other end that we didn't work for the dealership, but if they ever asked we weren't to lie but tell them we worked with the dealership.

I and everyone I worked with all had our own google docs or Microsoft word pages where we kept answers to commonly asked questions, such as what is the phone number, what are the hours of operation, and our signature "I'm having trouble finding that information right now, but let me get your last name and your phone number and I can have someone find out and contact you about it." Like I said before, the sole purpose of our chats was to get your contact information, so even if we knew what the mileage on a certain vehicle was, we were supposed to feign ignorance and have someone contact you about it so they could push a car sale. Sometimes when you're chatting to people like us, they can seemingly type out long paragraphs much faster than they should be able to. This doesn't necessarily mean they are a robot, but much more likely that someone else before you asked that exact question, and they already had a response ready to be copied and pasted over.

- inevitable34th

Some Chowder-Head

Short term NDA because we were working the roll out of Boeing's newest jet. It was an in-house showing for company big-wigs and assorted vice-presidents before the actual roll out for the public a couple days later. Massive signs everywhere "NO CAMERAS" "NO CELL PHONES" It was laid out to us verbally in our briefing "NO CAMERAS" "NO CELL PHONES" They couldn't have made it any clearer.

First thing one of our chowder-heads does once we get into the hanger is snap a selfie with the new jet. Security was on him like white on rice. Yanked the phone out of his hands, erased everything on it, and escorted him off the property. Permanently barred from all Boeing facilities. The rest of us just stood by and watched as he got perp walked out. He had to hang around outside the gate until we were done and then flag down a ride from someone.

- Outlander56

The Company Expired First

Worked for an OEM back when Intel's new Penryn with the 1333Mhz FSB came out, and was having ground plane issues because other OEMs *cough*DELL*cough* cheeped out on motherboard components.

The company I worked for expired before the NDA did...

- pocket_geek


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People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

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.