I would love to hear what your close friends and family have said about your weight-loss success. I love the recognition moment.

I have lost about 34 pounds so far, going from roughly 200 pounds to 166, but only one or two close friends have even said anything. I'm sure some others have noticed, but have just not spoken out for fear of being rude (which I'm sure I actually should be thankful for to some degree.) Actually, more of my friends have expressed their intentions of keeping my dieting habits in line and healthy. Again, one of those mixed blessings. They care, but their concern is not necessary (I trust that I will not spontaneously develop an eating disorder.)

Parents: My mother noticed as soon as I lost five or ten pounds and started gushing about how thin I looked. Mothers are the best (or the worst, depending on the mother.) I'm still most happy about her reacton.

My dad has not said anything directly. He did give me a call a few weeks ago, and it went...

Dad: I'm delivering food your mom is sending over from home.
Me: Okay, I have a fridge. I can store it.
Dad: Well, it's a lot of food. We don't want you getting fat.

Okay, that SEEMS kind of negative, but he's literally never commented on my weight before, so I think that this is his way of telling me that he's noticed. Logic being that I have the ability to get fat not that I'm not... thanks dad. xD

Friends:

My closest friend at college noticed around the five or ten pound line (like my mother did), and said something immediately. Another friend was distracted by the fact that I was wearing my hair down that day and wearing new clothes, so the comment about the weight loss came as a secondary realization. But I think that was the source of her actual amazement. She was very expressive! Which I needed.

My mom's best friend went to dinner with us and was also very impressed. Now if I could just read the minds of all the other friends I know. haha

What about you guys? What was your favorite reaction?

I was at a Halloween party last month and a friend I hadnt seen in a few months said "you look like you've lost weight!" My boyfriend has also said he can definitely tell I've lost weight. Its great to get these comments

My parents live less than 10 minutes away from me but I only see them every 2 weeks, sometimes longer. A month ago, my mom came up from behind me and said "are you on drugs?" That caught me by surprise. LOL. I was just shocked at the question.

My family has been overwhelmingly supportive, although only my mother has really commented on my weight loss. She apparently likes to tell her friends and show me off now!

When I hit the 50 pound mark, she told me not to lose anymore weight. I thought about stopping but in the end I didn't listen to her. She hasn't said anything like that now.

My fiancée hasn't said much about my weight loss unless I ask him about it in fact he's said three things without my prompting:

"Now that you're slimmer, it's less fun to poke you."
"I have to get used to seeing your ribs"
"It's weird seeing you cold all the time."

You don't get the tone reading those, but none of it was said maliciously. When I ask him what he thinks about me losing weight, he just says that whatever makes me happy is fine.

His family comments all the time and is pretty positive.


My friends (with the exception of one) have all bee positive as well!

Everyone has been positive about my weight loss, especially my family and in-laws. Of course, I'm not yet half-way there so we will see what comments I get about losing too much (which I don't think will happen... Maybe if I decide 160 isn't my "ideal" weight and I need to go lower).

@Mommywannabe, I agree! I remember the little comments, even though there haven't been many (or maybe BECAUSE there haven't been many.) I kind of assume people think it, haha.

@Ryler832, Haha, if she ever says something like that again, you should be like: Yup, I'm high on health. But it could just be me.

I know it's bad, but when someone says something really left field, I like to agree with them for a while first.

Sister: Are you a lesbian?
Me: Yes.

@sontaikle, That is actually a very sweet reaction from your boyfriend. That seems to mean that he loves you for you, and not just your weight. That's great! (Because, let's face it, our weight will change, and so will our ages.)

@KatetheAmazon, w00t! Congrats on the 40 pounds! That is terrific. I too have been considering whether I will stop at 145. I suggested to my friend (my kind of weight-loss buddy) that I might go for the 130s, and she said that if became one of those "I'm so fat" girls, she will kill me. I don't intend to starve myself, but you don't know what you look like at your goal weight until you actually are your goal weight. At some point though, you just are what you are. If you keep fighting to get to 145, and your body is constantly slipping up to 155, it might be worth it just to be healthy, and not to push it.

I recently went to an in-state conference and I was saddened and confused that I was being shunned or ignored. People weren't talking to me! At lunch, a woman turned to me and introduced herself. I said, "I know - I'm ____ ____, I've known you for 15 years". She went nuts and then the rest of the day, people were telling me that they didn't recognize me. It happens pretty often now.

I am a pool player so I hang out with lots of guys. One guy, last fall, said "Are you losing weight?" When I said yes, he said, "Good!" (I'm sure he meant that better than it sounded. LOL) when he saw me recently, he said, "that's not Rie - it's her younger skinnier sister!" He is forgiven. LOL

I have stopped answering questions about how much more that I want to lose because even the nicest people feel compelled to argue with me.

Sometimes people open their mouths without thinking. I f you see someone everyday it is hard to notice a change in weight. Sometimes people do not want to say something that is to personal, it just depends on the person. Sometimes a person just looks good, but they cannot figure how why.

@Riemontana, Like the comment from my dad, some of these mixed-bag remarks are meant to be taken lightly (or we can just choose to take it that way, hehe.) How odd that they didn't recognize you, though, since facial features don't change so drastically. I bet they were embarrassed!

@WannaBeLoserAgain, Very true! They notice something, but they can't figure out what it is. *On a side note, I want to just point out that we're almost weight loss twins. I started losing weight at 200, but I went full-on, exercise & diet at 190, so I kind of consider that my starting point.

all my friends supported me
most of them just tell me i look much better

my mom noticed after like 35 lbs!
now she gets angry and tries to feed me stuff lol

Everybody's been positive so far... but I'm the kind of person who get excited over things... like... OVER excited over little things. I told several people when I got under 200... (my 20 lb point, or my 10 lb point since coming to college). Or when I finally fit into a size 10 pair of jeans (and now I'm in a solid size 10... I have a couple size 10 pairs that are already starting to get a bit big).

But for my family members... I haven't seen them in a while... same with my older brother... haven't shared photos... so I'm hoping they'll notice when I see them at Thanksgiving... but... who knows? I'm 33 lbs down... but I also started bigger... so... I dunno. I've decided to stop mentioning any of it to anybody... and just see if they notice...

But everything I've gotten so far has been positive.

All of my friends that I see on a weekly basis know that I'm trying to lose weight. Most of them are too, so we talk about it a lot (Even the guys!). I have not told my family because I am curious to see how much weight it takes before one of them notices. I haven't lost much yet but I think my little experiment will be fun. I'll be seeing them about 3 or 4 times in the next two months so I've got plenty of time to make a difference.

Looking forward until people can tell!

I haven't really had any comments out of the blue yet.
I am hoping though that another 10lbs and it will be more noticeable enough to get some comments!!

My friends, especially the ones I haven't seen in a while, all sort of did the excited "Did you lose weight???". They've all been great. Compliments from my mom are the backhanded kind so I just ignore her, haha. But my dad has been really supportive and has asked me to help him lose weight too. For me that's been the best compliment I could get.

I haven't gotten a ton of comments out of the blue because we moved half way through my journey so nobody here has seen me at my highest weight. My parents will be visiting soon so I'm curious to hear what they say. They're bringing some clothes for me and they seemed really skeptical about the sizes so it was pretty clear they have no clue about how much I've lost.

I don't really expect a ton of comments unless we have a chance to go back and visit my old friends (probably won't happen for almost another year). Most people here saw me wearing a size 12 and even that was for a fairly short period of time so they're probably used to me more in a size 10 or 8. I figure I don't have that much farther to go so maybe they won't notice at all? I also lose really slowly so it's not like it would be a dramatic difference in a short period of time either.