I was going to post on the thread about losing weight & getting male attention - that is happening to me, too, except I'm married so while I'm flattered, the increased male attention/compliments also makes me really uncomfortable.
But anyway, it brought up another issue for me that I am having to deal with. I don't work in an appearances-driven industry (software industry). But I do work for a smaller company and appearances have always been really important here. I do remember when interviewing for the job, my job recruiter made a comment about how the managers will like me because I'm "young, pretty, female" in so many words. I was also 185 lbs at the time. After I was hired I slowly gained another 30 lbs and finally topped out at 213. It is NO secret that most of the managers/owners here tend to treat the few women who work here that are attractive differently.
Since then I've lost 60 lbs, but the only part of my weight loss that I am vocal about is the fact that I am a runner (which is how I lost weight). Since losing weight, people are more friendly to me. They go out of their way to strike up conversation, compliment me, include me. People who wouldn't even look at me when I weighed 200+ lbs now are friendly with me. I work in a male-dominated industry so I am mostly surrounded by men and they have no qualms about complimenting me.
I'm sure part of it is that I am more confident about myself. I don't look down whenever I pass someone in the hall. I am happy to talk about my running/weight loss if someone asks me. And since I feel good about MYSELF, I'm sure it reflects in my personality. But I'll be honest, while I am happy for the new "acceptance", it still bothers me that people treated me differently when I was obese.
Anyone else run into the same experience?