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Teachers And Students Answer: What's The Most Creative Way You've Ever Seen Someone Cheat In Class?

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, it's art. Sometimes, it's mathematical prowess and the ability to see the world in numbers. Sometimes, it's the answers to your French quiz that you wrote on the bottom of a coffee cup. 

Here, teachers and students alike share epic stories of ultra-creative cheating. If you'd like to read more, check out the source link at the end of the article. 

Comments may be edited for clarity.

I would write down notes in pretty handwriting on bright post-its and blatantly stick them on the wall near where I would be sitting to take the test. The teachers who taught the class would be out in the halls in case there was a problem with the exam, so the observers would be unfamiliar with the subject, and assume the notes were someone's project that got put up on display. I did this for every single exam in year 11 and wasn't caught once.

nakedbrownie

I had a teacher who would grade part of your exams based on your lab partners exam grade. The girl I was paired with just didn't get chemistry.

It was multiple choice, and I'd signal the answers to her through pencil clicks and finger taps. Written portions were more difficult, so I just learned to replicate her handwriting, would fill out her answers and mine simultaneously, then substitute the exam book I filled out as she was turning it in.

She aced chemistry, I aced chemistry. Still friends to this day.

WaywardGinger

There was a girl in my high school who graduated ranked 3rd our class. She was always the first one in the room on test day. Every time she'd finish a test, she'd erase her entire desk top. I did not notice until I had to sit next to her, but she'd write notes/answers on her desk before the test and then erase them after she handed it in. No one ever believed that she'd cheated because she was always so well behaved, would snitch on anyone out of line, and was such a quiet little mouse that they thought it impossible that she would do such a thing. Bullcrap, I was on to you.

Gonzostewie

About 10 years ago, during a final exam, I noticed an LED board attached to the wall was scrolling math formulas. Students had installed the banner-board under the actual scoreboard in the gym. Even though it was large you could barely see it. The only reason I was able to notice it was because I was walking around squinting (I left my glasses in my office). The board was very dim, but when you squinted the numbers/symbols just jumped out.

We never officially caught the person that installed it. The entire class had to redo a 4 hr exam.

MrFluke

During high school none of my teachers spoke or knew Spanish, but almost everyone took Spanish class. I would write down notes in Spanish in a notebook with a clear cover and title the page "Spanish homework" and just have the notebook on the floor right next to me. Never got caught.

lauraaac

When I taught fifth grade, I caught one of the kids trying to teach his friends alphabet sign language. He learned it from his high school aged sister, who apparently used it with all of her friends during exams.

I thought it was clever, and encouraged the kids to learn it - but I was a little more careful of seating placement during the couple of multiple choice quizzes they did that semester.

charmedistheone

At the university where I used to study, the court transcripts of every academic major offence is made available to the public.

While I was bored in class, I went through a lot of these. Best one I found:

There was a guy maintaining 3 serious relationships with 3 different girls. Those 3 girls were covering 1-2 courses each - they would write essays, exams, attend lectures, attend tutorials, do everything on his behalf. He would tell each of his gfs that he was under a lot of stress and he would have more time to dedicate to the relationship if they could help him out. After almost the bulk of his education was completed (this guy literally almost got a degree), two of the girls finally found out and eventually discovered the third girl, and all three girls disclosed the extent of the cheating (suffering academic penalties themselves) in court. The guy was expelled and had all his credits turned over, but damn I can only imagine how much dedication he put into this scheme.

PikachuOnCrack

In math: creating a program on a ti84 calculator that consists of nothing but answers. The program doesn't do anything, but if you go into edit, it's just essentially a notepad you can type into. Need to memorize equations? No problem! Bonus points for archiving the program and then pulling it out of archive after the test starts, so it looks like their are no programs in the calculator.

CotesDuRhone

I had a clear mechanical pencil. Part of the body was shaped so that a portion of it acted like a magnifying glass. I inserted a blank piece of paper with just a narrow slit that lined up with that side. I'd then print the answers in super small font and attach it to the eraser. Just rotating the eraser would pull a different line up.

Wyld_1

I had a class in which the teacher always gave tests from the back of her "Teachers Edition" textbook. Some bright kid orders the same teachers edition book from the internet. He shared the answers, too.

jackrack1721

I was TA that helped the professor during tests. The student brought in a vitamin water. No big deal it was a final. Halfway through the test, the professor noticed it was weird that the student kept look at the bottle, twisting it around but not really drinking. The student had printed a vitamin water label but with all of the texts parts in the label being helpful reminders for the exam. The professor thought it was so ingeniously creative that the student was not reported to the academic board but received a 0 for the final.

Macabalony

This one kid spent the entire night before reading over everything he'd learned. When he showed up, he already had all the info stored in his brain. There wasn't anything I could do about it. Can you believe it?!

01988864622

Not a teacher, but my teacher gave us index cards once that we could put all our notes on.

I found a pair of 3D glasses and two pens that were the same colors as the lenses. If you put on the glasses and closed one eye, the marks from the pen that was the same color as the open eye's lense would be filtered out. It effectively doubled the space I had to write on.

Miraculously, my teacher was A-okay with it.

cryptologicalMystic

When I was in grade 8, we had a math test on Halloween. I went to school as a cardboard box and wrote a whole bunch of notes and formulas on the inside. My plan was to turtle when the teacher wasn't looking and it worked like a charm. I also won the classroom costume contest!

blag49

Each corner of the desk represents a letter...a, b, c, d...multiple choice test. We'd signal the number we needed help with, and my friend would place his hand near a corner to signal the answer. True and false was open hand palm down for true, fist for false.

four29

In the 90s, a student I knew set the address book in his digital watch with the test answers and set it to scroll.

TooMad

Not a teacher, but in one class, someone put answers on the actual wall in the classroom. People got up, looked at it, and then sit back down to write them down. This happened repeatedly.

Teacher never noticed.

bawlzes

I'm a teacher, but this is MY cheating method. At GCSE languages you could have a dictionary, mine was on the list of allowed dictionaries but it had a few sheets of explanation in it. I used the schools computers to print mock letters, key answers, descriptions in the same font and format and then I unbound it, slid in my new pages on top of the explanation pages and then rebound it. It just looked like everyone else's battered dictionary.

bornleverpuller

I went to university with didn't finish his essay on time, so he stapled 7 blank pages to the back of the 2 actual pages he'd managed to write so far and handed that in. He then went to the library that afternoon, smashed out the rest of the essay, waited until the department had closed for the evening, broke back into the office and filing cabinet, found his essay and replaced the blank pages with the finished ones.

Got away with it too, the clever dude.

blowholeburns

In high school a few friends and I tried to learn morse code to help each other on test but it didn't work out how we wanted it to. We found more success placing math formulas around the room in plain sight about an hour or two before a test.

DedicatedPrnProfile

I'm a proctor. It's literally my entire job to ensure that students don't cheat. You can't have a drink at your desk because of that printed-out-label-with-answers one. You can't use your own calculator unless I've inspected it first. You can't wear a hat or baggy sleeves without showing me if you've got anything in there. If you're too fidgety I can investigate you. If you're not fidgety enough I can investigate you. There are some exams we proctor where they're so gung-ho about making sure cheating never happens that we have to look at your ears, your tattoos, the inside of your glasses. It's ridiculous.

All that being said, I'm vigilant about all of this. If someone still managed to sneak a cheat past me, knowing that it would absolutely get them expelled from school, maybe I'd be willing to look the other way. If you're that desperate to cheat, you clearly need it more than I need to uphold some weird moral code.

haphazardmalady

In 7th grade I found that the way my teacher graded scantrons was by putting a clear projector sheet with the correct circles filled in on top of our copy. If there was a wrong answer there would be two circles and she'd mark you wrong. For whatever reason everyone else in the class was bent on answering every question but Id just leave the ones I wasnt sure about blank. Since there was only bubble filled in I got a perfect grade on every test!

koolaidman0423

For the first 3 weeks of school I did random things like stare at my sleeves for 15 minutes during tests, stare at my desk for 15 minutes straight etcetera. The teacher thought I was cheating at first but when she came to look she couldn't find anything. After a while she stopped checking and just assumed I was weird. THEN I wrote my answers on my sleeves and desk and nobody noticed.

LORDCHANKA

To the students looking for ideas in this article nice try. 

Do your homework!

ShadowPuppett

This was not necessarily creative, but intelligent: I had a few classmates who knew Morse code. The teacher never caught unto what was going on. They all got bad grades because none of them studied for the test. It still is the biggest question in my life, if you're dedicated and disciplined enough to learn Morse code, why not just study for a geometry test???

undertakersarmpit

Writing the answers on their nails

karinamtzx2

Stretch an elastic band over a big book and write useful info on it. Then place it around your wrist, it looks like a grubby rubber band but when stretched out contains loads of information.

I did this a few times....

iamjacksbladder

We got a copy of our 100 question multiple choice history final out of our teachers desk. We went home and got all the answers laid out in ABCDBBDCCAA etc. format. At the time "Got Milk?" was a big advertisement campaign and one of our friends had a silk screen machine for an art project (this was a rich kid school). We were all really into surfing as a hobby and the teachers knew this, so we made several shirts that said "Got Surf?" on the back of them in large font then right underneath that wording just rows and rows of the letters "s, u, r, f" where "s" corresponded to "a" (as a multiple choice answer) and "u" corresponded to "b" etc. So rows of "SSRFFRUUSFRRU" etc. 

We all wore these shirts on the day of the final and sat in a row behind each other in class so we all could just look at the person's back that was seated in front of us. We just gave an extra shirt to the guy who wasn't in cahoots with us who sat in the first chair of the row. We were kinda seen as the "cool guys" so we gave it to him and got him to wear it as though it was part of this "cool shirt thing", since we were all wearing the same shirt too. We all agreed to just get like 5 random questions wrong, so it wasn't too shady........ I know this may seem kinda far fetched but I swear it's true. When I snagged the copy of the test, we had like a week to answer all the questions and devise a plan that was fool proof. It was a bit of work, but we were stoners and surfers and idiots who put more effort into this rather than just studying. Oh well. Needless to say we all got A's.

definitelystrgaight

I made a system with my friends in 8th grade, my teacher then would format his tests where it starts out with a page of multiple choice, then in the back some short answer questions and maybe a diagram or something (Science).

We made it so we would move our foot up and down and the amount of times ='d a number, 1 up and down = A, 2=B etc. If no one knew the answer no one did anything.

We did it a few times and made sure to got one or two questions wrong and it worked well. It only works if all of your friends who are in on it sit close together.

Also my brother once was wearing his Apple Watch and had sent notes or something to it. It was pretty new at the time so at the start of an exam the teachers took his phone but not his Apple Watch. He went to the bathroom and got all his notes and read them, then went back.

One girl also took some masking tape, similar to the colour of the desk and would tape it on the desk and write formulas on them, but she got caught since she's an idiot and used duck tape one time.

Nitr0s0xideSys

One of my fellow students literally brought the entire answered exam into class with her. Our teacher told us the two or three written exam questions a few days in advance so that we could study/prepare, and we were to regurgitate our best answer to each in essay form in about 2 hours. Each student was to bring in a blank 'blue book' notebook to write in. This girl just wrote hers the night before. She sat there for 90 minutes fake writing and then turned it in when enough other students had done so. I noticed the fake writing, and was more mad that I hadn't thought of it than mad about the cheating - she did as much prep work as any of us, and took a risk of getting caught just because she didn't trust her short-term memory to write the essays again. I didn't turn her in, but I told her I knew. She felt really guilty about it and I thought that was punishment enough.

toocleverbyhalf

For German class in high school, I invented my own sort of Runic character set to replace normal letters, and then before a test I would draw an elaborate fantasy/scifi scene on the cover of my notebook (which would just be sitting on my desk during the test), embedding all the German words I needed to have memorized into the scene using my Runic characters. So all the verb declensions would be written on dudes' swords and shields or tattooed on the dragon etc.

The teacher never had a clue, and neither did I, really - I now don't speak German fluently.

Garfield-1-23-23

This is a story about my friend and I.

I was terrible at math (probably have undiagnosed dyscalculia), but was pushed into advanced classes regardless due to my mom- she taught at my high school and insisted. Plus, I had to start cheating in math around late elementary or get severely punished (swearing at me, yelling for ages, no computer for months in the golden age of IM, isolating me from any friends), because I just could not make the grade. Mom insisted on not even a B+ being good enough. So, my grades were decent enough once I figured out workable systems to cheat.

I was in waaaaaay over my head by age 14 or so. But I couldn't stop or I would wreck my GPA for college in a non-math field. Around that time, I also had a problem with my brother constantly trying to read anything I wrote (I did fiction and poetry and sometimes journaled).

I grew up bilingual and so I looked into what languages have different alphabets. Passed over Arabic and Hindi because they lacked some letter equivalents common in English. I chose Russian.

I started writing anything I could in a simple cipher. I replaced each English letter with the approximate Cyrillic equivalent, modifying slightly to make letters that fit "c" and "w", which don't exist in that alphabet. It took maybe two weeks, until I could write in it fluently.

I realized the cheating potential, and taught my best friend. We would either look up math answers and formulas online for similar problems as would be on the test, as close as we could get them, and use that to answer, or she, who was a solid A- student, would have the same class before me, use scratch paper to cipher down the answers. Shove it in her bra, then pass it to me in passing period.

I would then relabel the paper as "Russian practice", write some extra nonsense on and around the page so it didn't look the same, and drop it on the floor by my desk.

She is a first generation immigrant, so she needed help in spelling and grammar tests. I am freakishly good at those. Same method in reverse.

By the time precalc rolled around, we even modified the hell out of the alphabet to accommodate mathematical symbols. Nobody at the school even taught or could read Russian. I was known for being smart, math aside, and would just tell people, "Oh, we are learning on our own." I even got some exchange students to teach us basics because we loved languages and needed to look legit.

SchnarchendeSchwein

I programmed my calculator with equations. Eventually, I taught myself the programming language for my calculator and instead programmed it to solve the equations for me.

I'm now a professional programmer.

wenadin

I was unable to remember all the trigonometric formulas, so I decided to put up a chart with trigonometric formulas in place of binary codes (which was already hanging on the wall) chart in my class.

Guess what, I got away with it.

whoop_dee_doo_

This is a story from someone I know. He told us that in university, he knew people that would go to the bathroom midway through an exam where they had hidden their notes or stuck them on the back of the door.

DontTouchMyEyes

People in my school would write answers on an index card and tape it to the back of their ties.... it worked really well.

MusicTravelWild

I got the inspiration from Pokemon Emerald. I Taught myself Braille, poked the letters through a line of tape and then stuck it to the bottom of the desk. Would just read it under the desk with my eyes on the test the whole time.

Seto_ing_Kaiba

Not really a cheat, but a amusing story: For the dynamics and vibrations course in my final year engineering, we were allowed to bring anything. One guy brought in a bicycling wheel, which he used to verify his answers by conducting rotational torque experiments at his desk during the exam.

khendron

Thanks for reading!

Source

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.