AIBU to be very, very pleased with myself for being Not Overweight for the first time ever?

[Elsvieta]

Well, since very early childhood, anyway. Too early to remember.

Today was the day. Last pound gone that took me to BMI 24.9. Not Overweight. Normal Weight. I keep checking it again on the NHS calculator, just to see it. (Had been about 12.5 stone, BMI 32, from mid teens to now, age 48).

Went about my business at work all day, being Not Fat. Felt like strangers should be noticing, and be impressed. Watched the eclipse, thinking "This is great, and also happening while I am Not Fat". I think for the rest of my days I will associate eclipses with being Not Fat. My first-ever Not-Fat memory.

Does it ever become just normal?

Still look a bit fat, though. Too much stomach, too much upper arm. I think another half a stone and I'll feel OK about how I look.

Life has been on hold, in many ways, since I was about 12. The things I'll do... when I'm Not Fat. I thought I would be more confident. I am, in a way. The ways that relate to looks. But not in much else, really. That's been a bit of a shock.

Your brain changes its idea of what's normal in your body, somehow. I don't feel like I'm a whole 2.5 stone thinner. You just shift to getting pickier about what you're unhappy about. Some of the time. And then you go back to feeling ecstatic.

I wish WLI had been invented about 30 years ago. I could have had a whole other life.

People treat me better. This is very awesome and also very depressing. People should not be treated with more or less respect based on body mass. But I want to be the person people see me as now.

I have actually achieved some stuff in my life. But this feels like the best thing. This is also, if you stop to think about it, depressing. Whilst also making me very happy.

I'm sad that I will never know what it's like to be thin and young at the same time. There was a lot of youth wasted.

I might be able to go to the doctor now, if I need to. For the first time in several years. I might even not refuse (for the first time since age 20 or so) if they want to weigh me. Imagine it - no patronising lecture. (Or do they just find something else?).

It'll need to be Wegovy tablets for maintenance, I think. Does anyone know what dosage to start on, if you're coming off 15mg Mounjaro?

I feel like somebody should be throwing a party. I also do NOT want my body mentioning, by anybody, ever.

It's a weird thing.

Congratulations!!! I am 6lbs away from a BMI of 24.9 and like you, have been obese or overweight for the whole of my adult life. I get alternately cross and sad when I think what my life could have been like if WLI had been around 40 years ago, but we are where we are, so I try to focus on the positives!

What an amazing feeling to have finally got there! Enjoy - and I hope you have some kind of celebration planned? You deserve to really mark the occasion - and have a wonderful rest of your life being 'normal'! 😊❤️😊❤️😊❤️

Congratulations on taking medication. Keep it up

That's how the injections work. By making it easier for you to stick to a healthy diet. And that's how the weight is lost.

It's terrible advice! Stating the obvious just annoys and alienates the person you're giving advice to, as well as encouraging bullying. Other people can then come in with their own agreement with the bloody obvious and implication that the person they are berating didn't know that grass is green and feel superior about themselves.

It does fuck all basically, apart from making other people feel smug.

Congratulations 🎉 I also reached this milestone this week, I’ve done 3.5 stone calorie counting and only added in the tablets the last two weeks after a six month plateau. I will loose another 2lbs and then come off them but I suppose you’d start at the highest dose?
loosing weight has been life changing for me you should be really proud

Congratulations, well done! What a brilliant feeling.

Congratulations! I am, for the first time in years, Not Obese, with my BMI of 29.9. Yay us!

Well no because a T1 diabetic would be dead within the week. I couldn’t care less if people use / stay on WLI for 1 month or 100 years personally - but please don’t conflate it with insulin that literally keeps diabetics alive.

You need to go and do a quick search on the physiological effects of obesity (which apparently affects approx 1 billion people worldwide). It may not have the immediacy of removing insulin from a type 1 diabetic but, over time, will have the same result.

As the research continues, and these medications become more sophisticated, I honestly think it will be looked back on as equivalent to the discovery of insulin as a treatment. Probably more so, because of the quantity of people affected.

I remember not being fat for the first time ever too. It is mindblowing in particular how differently the world treats you.

I had always been the girl 'with the beautiful face'. It was 'a shame about my weight problem.'

It was before the WLI but everything else you've described is exactly the same down to the amount of weightloss.

All of a sudden everything I said was very interesting to people - people who had been downright rude to me before. I was more valuable at work. I was a more important customer when I walked into a clothes shop.

I remember giving myself a lecture repeatedly to stay grounded, I was more than my appearance; their response was amusing but ultimately nothing to do with me. I think i did ok.

Years later things went the other way when my appearance dramatically changed with illness; baldness and heavily obese nearly overnight. That attitude that I wasn't my appearance etc got me through as I noticed random men treat me with actual contempt.

Now I look like myself again, smiles, random jokes and offers of help from random strangers coming my way.

People will say you're imagining it but you aren't. I've felt it both ways. You're still you, amazing as you ever were. Congratulations on improving your health, have fun shopping for clothes and remember the important people love you at any weight.

How long has it been available for there to be long term studies?

i am just a stranger on the internet but your post has made me smile. Congratulations - and no, you are not the least little bit unreasonable!

From Google. And there would have been years of trials before approval.

“The original class of medications developed for type 2 diabetes that later became famous for weight loss is GLP-1 receptor agonists. The earliest specific drugs in this family include exenatide (Byetta, approved in 2005) and liraglutide (Victoza, approved in 2010), which doctors first noticed helped patients drop pounds while lowering blood sugar.”

Well done op! I’ve been not overweight for 3 months now and I’ve been overweight/ obese my entire adult life. I think it will take a long time psychologically to feel like I am not fat, I saw a photo of myself my dh took on holiday and my legs aren’t fat! It’s really weird. Not many people know I’ve been on wli, mainly because people are so judgemental. But I would massively recommend if dieting doesn’t work for you.

Congratulations, enjoy every minute of it. I’ve been really heavy and it consumed my every waking thought, tbh.
WLI helped me lose 6st and I feel and look great.

(I was lucky enough to be young and thin.)

This post upsets me a bit. When l got married 40 years ago l was 9 stone at 5/6 and gradually with babies, menopause and too many biscuits l am now 12 st. I don't give ita thought. I am too busy. No one treats me any differently. No one ignores me. I attend a circuit training class twice a week, golf 18 holes up to 3 times a week and feel great. Actually l get more compliments now than ever before. Only yesterday someone said l genuinrly want to know how you look so young for your age..l want to be on what your're on!! At 66 that is absolutely nothing. There is far too much pressure to waste your life worrying about size..at 12 st you should be enjoying life , having fun ,exercising for strength and the same now for a lighter weight.
Just go out and do whatever you want to do . Life is too short to put off doing fun things until you are the right weight. I could understand 8f you were much heavier but 12 st shouldn't stop anyone.

@junebirthdaygirl that’s very dependent on your height, build and where you carry your weight. I’m same height as you with boobs and hips and would be delighted to be 12sf again as know I can carry that well. But if I was 5ft1 with a different body shape 12st could look and feel very different.

That is true. I have barely any boobs..never had and carry on my hips but l just want to move the focus from weight to just enjoying life. For me exercise is my feel good factor. The more l move the happier l am so l just want to impress..don't wait to do that until you are lighter just do it now for fun.

Well done on the weight loss and enjoy your new weight. It’s probably not people treating you better now that you have lost weight but more that you feel more confident interacting with people.

I put on weight over the last few years and have lost it this year, 20lbs so not a huge amount really but I can tell you that if feels so great. Feeling more me now that I have lost weight. Not starting each Monday with a new resolve to diet. Looking in the mirror and happy with my reflection. Carrying those extra pounds didn’t stop me enjoying life and getting out and doing things and I always dressed as well as I could but knew I could do better and had done so, not so long ago.

Try and not dwell on the past and what could have been - instead focus on the time ahead and appreciate you are now at goal weigh and and not to have to start the weight loss from scratch or to spend more years being over-weight and unhappy with it.

Weight is a funny old thing and we are our own worst enemy with regards to it and how we feel pressurised to be optimal weight when it isn’t linear - different heights/body build/generics/emotions can make weight gain easy and weight loss difficult. It’s not always a case of just eat less and you’ll be fine.

"It’s probably not people treating you better now that you have lost weight but more that you feel more confident interacting with people."

@TheJoyousHiker This often gets said, but I find it very dismissive of people's personal experiences. I know that I get treated better now that I am not obese, it is startlingly different day to day and it's got nothing to do with my confidence in interacting with people.

Well done OP! What an achievement. I’ve lost almost 4 st on WLIs. From a size 22 (almost 24!) to 18 so whilst I’m not small and would like to lose another 2st, I am SO MUCH HAPPIER. I am no longer morbidly obese, just good old obese 😂 No more BMI in 40s. I wear shorts now. Shorts! I do so much walking, my legs are getting super toned, and I lose it from my face first. I carry more in my boobs and upper body, but working on that and back on track after 6 months of not putting loads of effort into it.
I feel the same as you. I spent years on various diets, feeling and being fat as fuck and never feeling good enough. People do treat you nicer. Men smile at me as I’m out on a walk, they didn’t when I waddled about.
I am 100% more confident and now want to concentrate on weights and getting stronger.
Well done again, it’s life changing and a huge achievement 👏👏👏👏

As another recently “not fat” person I get it and I am so happy for you @Elsvieta
It does take some getting used to! The point about Drs finally taking problems seriously and not pinning everything on weight really resonates and was a major reason for me wanting to lose it. BMI 24.9 was such a moment! I also feel everything is easier now I’m lighter, movement is easier, exercise is easier, buying clothes is easier, the list goes on.

I agree completely with this. I know exactly how people treated me when I was obese and when I was no longer obese, and the difference is stark. No strangers took time out of their days to mock me when I was a size 12, but they did when I was size 24. I had people shouting ‘fat bitch’ and ‘hippo’ at me out of car windows. I had someone make ‘Beep beep, wide load’ noises and gestures at me. I’ve been jeered and called “team X’s BIGGEST supporter” at a football match. I’ve had a guy text me and tell me he didn’t like fucking elephants. I’ve been pointed at and jeered by groups of people. I’ve had personal experience in shops where I’ve been ignored or overlooked in favour of others. It is incredible how differently people treat you when you are obese. Men hate obese women. They hate that these women are not trying to be attractive to them. Other women hate obese women. They view them as failures and I dare say some are afraid it’s catching. (Before anyone jumps on me, not all men and not all women)

But any time someone says this on here, and talks about their personal experience, there are posters who pile on and tell them it’s all in their imagination and just reflects their own self-esteem and confidence. I don’t know why they can’t accept what posters are telling them is their actual real life experience. If I’m being charitable, I think it may be well-meaning posters who have maybe been at most 1 or 2 stone overweight and for whom it largely was about how their confidence improved, not those who have been very obese.

That’s genius. I wish I had thought of that. You should take that advice and inform all the overweight people to observe their calorie intake, I bet that they hadn’t considered that 🤦🏻‍♀️

Doesn't matter how you've done it.

You've done it. It's a great achievement.

Be proud.

Well done.