Being treated better after losing weight - how true is it?

[ButIloveher]

I’ve read it on here, and elsewhere one social media many times. Women say that they are treated better once they’ve lost weight.
I want to understand what’s going on with this. Is it that rude or abusive behaviour (like being stared at or laughed at) stops, or is it that positive behaviour increases (eg being complimented or flirted with). Or are people just low-level nicer all the time?

I am not fat enough to be particularly noticeable or a target for stares, and I am also not young and pretty enough for men to be interested in flirting with me, so it’s not like if I lost weight there would be a big change in my physical desirability.

So I’m wondering whether bog-standard-overweight, average-looking middle-aged women like me really notice a change in how they’re treated? Or is it just that young pretty women suddenly get noticed or very large women stop getting abuse?

I had a bmi of over 40 so morbidly obese. I was abused in the street, stared at, tutted at, had comments made behind my back and to my face

im now a size 14, still shrinking, and I’m treated totally differently on transport, in shops, restaurants etc. I can sit in Starbucks without pointed comments (and God forbid I’d be eating something). People actually talk to me as if I’m a human being now. I don’t get sniggered at or pointed comments made behind Yes I get totally different treatment

im knocking 60 so def not young and attractive!

Not sure about treated better but it definitely changes the way some people react to you.

When my marriage ended I lost a lot of weight: over two stone. Not deliberately but through a combination of nervous anxiety and going out a lot and not eating much at all. I wasn’t anorexic but I wasn’t in a good place and my eating was very disordered.

I was quite shocked at how much people complimented me, while knowing full well I was in turmoil and depressed. Even at the time knew that my eating reflected my own feelings and the weight loss was not healthy and it shocked me that others saw it as a sign of health.

It shows how biased people are in favour of thinness.

Lost 8.5 stone. Still overweight, but a size 16 and under 13st and continuing.

Yes, some people treat me differently. Mostly men.

Women are predominantly the same, although I do get the odd comment about it, mostly from women who would have been considered smaller than me before but are now either the same or larger. Mostly around not losing anymore, or something just ever so slightly off. Women who haven’t ever chased weightloss (that I know!) are much the same.

Men is significantly different. I see it mostly in work or business related areas and I work in a male dominated industry. Some are just more respectful and pay more attention in a polite way. Some men who I always had more of a platonic and jokey relationship are absolutely more serious with me - sometimes it feels like deference, some it is outright more flirtatious.

I would never ever have believed it before it happened to me though! And I do think my own confidence in myself makes a difference to how people react in response?

I have put on weight recently for various reasons including chocolate grief burn out and generally not caring etc. I’ve probably got two good stone to loose . However recently for my own pleasure I’ve bought nice new clothes , have my hair done and coloured, wear make up and nice lippy and look more put together than I have for a while I smile alot it’s my personality anyway and people treat me just fine and even at 60 I still get a few looks I think.