Just seen my neighbours…. They must have shed 50% of their body weight!!

[ThatZippyFinch]

I’m guessing WLI
I imagine they’ve massively improved their health and energy levels in so many ways
but…

he looked a little gaunt
and she looked so gaunt it was unreal. Also her hair…. Well her hair had been her crowning glory but it looked so lacklustre

It was such a shock. I really see now how these WLI are no golden bullet like sometimes the media would have us believe.

I thought that most people knew by now that skin only has limited 'ping back' powers so someone can be a healthy weight but have extra skin from when they were bigger which gives a slightly odd illusion, as opposed to them actually looking 'gaunt' ie underweight...
I and many other people who have lost weight have the experience of being told you look gaunt when you are very much just in a healthy BMI range... (not that I put lots of stock in BMI, but as an example...)

These threads are tedious now. OP, you are not original. Try harder.

I know what you mean by gaunt, OP, and it is a side effect of rapid weight loss. The sudden loss of fat/ collagen in areas like cheeks creates a hollow look due to the skin not having time to adapt.

JFC, if someone obese loses weight, looking "gaunt" and having dull hair is entirely irrelevant and utterly stupid to point out. Hair quality can be improved, is temporary and does not affect their health.

Looking "gaunt" is your opinion, and is because you are accustomed to them looking obese, rather than them looking significantly different to other people of that weight and age. And it's also totally irrelevant to health. So what on earth is the point of starting a thread to inform people about this and to tell us that WLI are not a "golden bullet" when anyone with half a brain would never have though that in the first place....

I definitely looked a bit hollow (gaunt) until my skin reattached itself all over my face and neck.

I look the picture of health now.

You don't lose collagen when losing weight. Skin elasticity depends on age, genetics and previous damage from the sun/smoking and so on.

I have lost almost 50% of my body weight. My face has totally changed, I have a jaw line, cheekbones and so on. I don't look "gaunt", just different. I appreciate that anyone used to my morbidly obese moonface with the multiple chins might think I now look "gaunt" but it's their skewed perception, not reality.

Kelly Osbourne sure looks gaunt.

It is ridiculous to say no-one looks gaunt after using WLI.

I've been on the injections and yes, I look gaunt and aged. But my blood pressure is down, I'm no longer prediabetic and my BMI is now at a healthy level.

Do I care that the neighbours think I look older? DGAF. Possibly my neighbours are obsessed with their own looks. I'm not obsessed with mine (or theirs come to that). All is good.

Were they overweight to begin with or normal weight and so look gaunt? Either way I’m not sure what responses you expect because what is your AIBU? No YANBU to be pleased they have more energy and better health. Yes YABU to start a thread about people we’ve never met just to tell us they look gaunt

Rapid weight loss does make you look gaunt. I guess the skin has been stretched, like when you have a baby and the skin is baggy after. My BIL did it and has aged a lot. However it can be improved with exercise and its small price for pay for huge health benefits.

Oh great Kelly Osbourne again... who knows what she has or hasn't taken, plus she's had a load of plastic surgery etc etc on her face. Ditto for Sharon, before she gets mentioned. Judging the results of WLI via celebrities who may or may not have taken them in the first place, but certainly have had many other plastic surgeries and lifelong weight issues is ridiculous.

Of course some people look "gaunt" if they lose weight. That is still a matter of personal opinion as to who looks "gaunt" and it is not an inevitable outcome of using WLI. I really don't understand this desire to scare people off using what is a very effective medication to treat obesity in this way.

What's the 'AIBU' here?

It depends on your BMI, if it is over 30. Otherwise you won’t be eligible unless you have other conditions

Have they publicly stated their thoughts on your weight and appearance? Seems only fair.

I was going to say this. All of dh family except him are obese - every time we see MIL she has a go at me that he looks ill. I finally told her he’s fine his bmi is healthy she’s just desensitised am thinking obese is normal as it’s what she sees most ! She was acting like I was starving him !

Why is it any of your business?

Weight loss CAN (and just can) become addictive - many many users of WLI use them to reach the correct healthy weight where the health benefits and looking good are perfectly balanced

others take the weight loss to another level and don’t exercise properly

without seeing them we have no idea how aged and gaunt they are it may be the OPs perspective or it maybe they have crossed that line into losing too much weight

we all seem incapable of recognising what is a healthy weight on BOTH sides of the coin

I didn't say it was an inevitable result of using WLI. But more than 15 posters told the OP she was imagining things and that her neighbours did not look gaunt!

PS: Sharon has spoken on TV about her experience of using WLI, going to far, and not being able to regain a few pounds she would like to. Have you seen a recent photo or video of Kelly? That is gauntness personified.

Blimey 😲

It’s because once you are the wrong side of 40 it really is face or figure! Fat people have less wrinkles and younger looking faces, once the weights gone particularly if it’s lost quickly, they are going to look very different if you don’t see them regularly. Not much you can do about it though unless you also go down the fillers and Botox route!

How the hell do you know that they don't look gaunt? 🙄

This really isn't true of the majority of people. The people I have seen who have been that age and lost lost of weight look so much younger, the extra weight IMO ages people such a lot and makes them look middle age and frumpy

Did you not point out that a bigger problem is her acting like he's not a grown adult who can make his own decisions about what to eat or not eat, so why the fuck is she blaming you instead of taking this nonsense directly to him?!

Not the point of the thread I know but JFC.

The Osbournes pop up on every single one of these threads. It's so tedious. Kelly has not ever publicly stated she has taken WLI. Sharon got Ozempic in the US at a weight where no one would be prescribed them in the UK and stayed on them until she was dangerously underweight. So this is someone who has misused a prescription obesity medication. Not a normal properly prescribed UK-based user of obesity medication to treat obesity. What has Sharon Osbourne and her abuse of medication got to do with a typical obese person who uses WLI to lose weight? Nothing at all.

When you are accustomed to someone being obese, when they are no longer, people seem to think that they look too thin. It's a perception issue not a reality in nearly all cases.

No, bmi is healthy, but top of scale. I’d just like to be 10lbs lighter - to have more energy etc. Tried dieting / more ex which all worked in 30s but post 50 diff story!