Mortified - what do you mean if you say someone "looks well"?

[munemema]

I say it a lot. And I mean what it says, a genuine compliment.

I might mean that they seem happier or less tired than usual or that the haircut/make up suits them but I haven't been able to put my finger on the change, maybe they've lost some weight and their clothes fit better or perhaps they have a bit more colour in their cheeks.

Someone has just told me it's a universal euphemism for "you've gained weight"

Used without any irony or hidden meaning where I live.

My dad used to say it when I’d lost weight.

I’m with you OP. There are days when I look in the mirror and think that I look well that day. Those are the days when I’ve had enough sleep, I can think straight cos I haven’t got the usual brain fog, I’ve got plenty of energy, my skin is bright, my hair stays the way I want it, etc.
Don’t get the correlation between looking well and putting on weight at all 🤔

It means you have gained weight

Not always, as people on the thread have been saying.
I said it to a performer last year after his show. The previous year, when he was in the uk, he had a lot of personal stuff going on, gained weight and wasnt quite there. When I saw him again, he was fitter, happier, lighter and issues sorted and he did indeed look well!!! He took that as a compliment and gave me a hug!

I mean it as it sounds. A compliment. You look well. That's it!

How extraordinary. I would never say it other than as a compliment and if anyone ever says it to me, I always take it as one.

I've never heard of it being used in a negative way.

I use it to mean what it says. Nothing to do with weight.

When I use it, it means "you look healthy"... You don't look unwell.

Never heard of the "fat" euphemism... Surely even if it were short for "you look well-fed" that doesn't mean "you look fat", but rather "you look healthy", as I use it... A good diet. "Well-fed" isn't the same as "overfed".

I grew up in the horse world, and "Looking well" usually means "Looks like it's getting fat" it's normally accompanied by a slight frown, sarcastic tone and hard stare 😆 so when any of my horsey friends say I'm looking well, I take it they're doing the same!
Anyone else, I think it depends on the tone and expression as said above and take it how I think it's been put across really. Can usually tell if it's one or the other by tone and expression.

I’m having it said to me quite a bit lately, it definitely isn’t being said in the you e gained weight kinda way as I’ve lost over 4 and a half stone

I've always used it as 'you look well' as in you don't look unwell!

Why would anyone tell another person they looked fat? In any hidden or unhidden message? That's weird! And bloody rude. Plus, if you can't say it out loud you're just being an arsehole saying it at all.

People have been telling me I look well for a couple of years now! I’m in a healthy weight range but at the upper end and I went from an 8 to a 12...maybe they meant I’d put on weight!

One was a Dr that I saw a year apart when I’d gained a stone. She said “You look so much better now. Far healthier, you’d got far too thin and looked gaunt.” I thought I looked amazing before (at the time she was commenting on) and was well into a healthy weight range when she said I looked unhealthy. I was gutted about the weight gain.

People are strange.

I say it to people honestly when I think they're genuinely looking bright-eyed and well. I have had it said to me, usually when I'm a bit tanned or have washed my hair and put make up on! Had never ever thought of it as meaning "you're look chunky"!

When I was 6 months pregnant I went for a heart scan at a place in the US. They did height and weight measurements and I noticed on my notes that the nurse taking all the personal info had put "37 year old well-nourished female".

I asked her if she was aware I was 6 months pregnant. Now that's basically telling someone they're chunky! "Well-nourished female"......

I've never heard it mean 'it looks like you've gained weight'.

If I say someone looks well, I mean they look happy, healthy, content in themselves.

Some people can find an insult in anything.

"You're looking well" means it looks like you've had botox as your wrinkles are no longer as prominent but on further inspection we all know this is really because the weight gain has padded them out.

I've heard the 'fat' meaning, long before I ever came across MN, mostly from older people. I think the PP who said it harks from the days when having put on a little weight was a good thing as it was a general indicator of better health rather than being a porker has it right. I only use it to mean healthy / radiant / better than last time I saw you when you'd just had flu and looked like death warmed up.

Someone has just told me it's a universal euphemism for "you've gained weight"

Not in South London it doesn't! I take it to mean you are looking on top form, full of health and vitality.

Oh crikey, I say this when someone has lost weight. I always thought it was a less rude way of saying 'you've shifted your excess weight, I'm both impressed and jealous.'

I hope the people I've said it too didn't think I was calling them fat. No wonder I'm so feckin' unpopular

Keh? Always taken/given it as a compliment. But then a person's weight does not factor into my appraisal...I think some people will take anything as a slight (terrible pun I know, couldn't resist...they're so thin on the ground these days...no stop me now....).

I've always thought it means you look fat.

Even if it's meant nicely it's hardly a great compliment is it. If you think someone looks great or lovely or whatever then why not just say that? Why leave people wondering what you actually meant?

I use it, my family use it so i got it from them.

It means you look well! Healthy, happy.

I've only heard the fat thing on mn

Could it be regional?

It’s not regional, as I’m from the south west and know the phrase to mean ‘put on weight.’ I think it might be just old fashioned and has gone out of fashion. Looking ‘well’ did probably mean healthy and not too thin.

Why are so many people so hostile that other people understand/use a phrase differently to them?

Why all this talk of deliberately taking offence and twisting?
I see someone earlier even started raging that the "well=fat" people were in a minority so ra ra ra.

Why on earth are you so angry about it?

What is ra ra ra?

'It’s not regional, as I’m from the south west and know the phrase to mean ‘put on weight.’'

So maybe other regions use it differently?

Am a bit lol at that tbh 😁