Throwing away ALL clothes that no longer fit somehow felt like jinxing myself. ("Think you won't need them? Hah -- just wait and see!") At the same time, hanging on to my very largest clothes felt like implicit permission to use them again. So I compromised by keeping just two boxes of hardly worn jeans, capris, shorts and a couple of skirts -- things I could wear if I gain as much as 20-25 pounds, but no more. How about you?

F.

My loss was 65-70 lbs (not sure of my exact start point) and I got rid of my biggest stuff. I wish I had bought and kept more transition clothes, actually. I bought a bunch of new clothes at my lowest weight. I regained up to 27 lbs at my highest about 5 years after my weight loss and kept refusing to buy new things (finally bought a few pants and shorts), and as a result haven't had a lot that fits. I've lost 14 of those 27 lbs, but don't plan to get rid of things that fit now if I get smaller, unless my smallest stuff just won't fit I'll give that away (I need to settle and accept myself as am!). It won't be a lot, but I'll pack up a few boxes of my clothes that fit up to +15 lbs of where I feel comfortable (not the hugest stuff, that's GONE) and keep them for a few years. I know I won't let myself keep too much because my of my mom's example. She has entire wardrobes from size 8-16 and won't get rid of anything. I will never keep that much! She is over-the-top with saving things.

I know some people say to toss everything, that having bigger clothes is a "temptation". I know for me it wasn't the "temptation" of having a few bigger clothes that I could fit into that caused me to regain the weight. Perhaps this is a self-evaluation situation - if you think having that "safety net" will cause you to mentally allow yourself to go back there, go ahead and toss (donate) the clothes. I am admittedly frugal, but the stress of refusing to shop and then not having clothes I feel good in has been worse than the stress of saving a few more pieces would have been.

I still have a lot of mine because I've been too lazy to get rid of them. I know it's not fear or anything, I'm always too lazy to clean up stuff. I DID get rid of a lot of clothes recently, giving them away to some family friends and a daughter of one of my mom's friends. I just haven't been motivated enough to go through my clothes.

I was a size 14/16/18 for a long time. I have A LOT of clothes.

I plan to sell my Torrid clothes, but give away the others whenever I get around to that. I do plan to keep one pair of pants in 14, 16, and 18 just as a reminder of where I came from. I'm keeping a lot of my t-shirts to use as night shirts and just when I feel like wearing something bigger. Some of my XXL and XL junior's shirts aren't all that big anyway.

I don't have many in between sizes because I didn't buy much on the way down. I was a size 12 long enough for me to have amassed clothes in that range, but they were given to me by my mom. I swear I skipped size 10, and anything I do happen to have in the 6/8/10 range is going to my mom (she lost a bit recently and went down a size).

I kept a pair of jeans in a size 20 that were too worn out to donate and they were the jeans I started out in at my heighest weight.

Everything else I've given to friends or donated - down to size 12. I'm currently in mostly 10s and a few 8s. I might keep a few 12s for times I might gain a little, but only a couple things as STAYING bigger just isn't an option.

I donated everything. I have donated all the intermediate clothes I wore during my process as well. Basically, every time I get a new piece of clothing in my current size, I donate a corresponding item in a larger size. So if I get a new sweater in M, the similar-weight XL sweater from last year is gone. Last year, when I bought the XL, the XXLs got donated.

I'm not keeping anything that is too big on me. I figure, if I start to regain, my clothes getting too tight will be a good first sign - and I don't want to have the option at that point of just putting on bigger clothes. I want to have no choice but to get the budding regain under control.

I got rid of everything but one pair of jeans. I lost 50 pounds.

With that said, I began about 20 pounds above my lifetime "normal" (since the 9th grade) so I wasn't sure how low I would go or whether I would stay there. When I fit into small clothes, I had to buy new workout clothes and such. Then I bought yoga pants. I bought two size 8 pairs of jeans and a lot of knit ls and ss tee's (from Ann Taylor, not just junk t-shirts with graffiti on them). I gained back 20, but when I was at my smallest I could have gone down another size jeans for sure. So it wasn't until after about 15 pounds that I had to go buy another pair of jeans. Everything else, being knit, still fit, though not as nicely.

Now I'm on my way back down to where I was, as I've decided I really did like being there. When I get there, I will buy more fitted clothes at that level so I have more motivation to stay there. We're talking button-down shirts, a pair of khaki's, a nice pair of black pants. Some wardrobe basics.

Oh, and I did keep my winter coat, but only because I want to buy a smaller one than I could fit into now and the one I have isn't bad.

I have pretty much everything at this point still except for the 200lb+ clothes (well, still have a handful left but not much because we had an international move after I'd already lost 25lbs).

However, I figure that some of the items are good to have around. A lot of them are maternity clothes and we'd like at least one more kid. Plus, some of the better pieces I've gotten altered recently to get more use out of them (I posted pictures of them here). Also, as I discovered the first time around, my weight doesn't magically come off immediately even while breastfeeding so it'll be good to have some bigger sizes during that transition period.

ETA: oh, and funny story. My husband is a BIG guy (tall, large frame, muscular, and still just barely in the obese category according to his weight). Anyway, we were organizing our closets a couple of weekends ago and found that a pair of pants that I had (when I was around 215 or so) fits him perfectly! They were men's pants being that the store we had gone to didn't have pants in my size so now he gets a new pair of pants out of the deal (good thing because he's shrunk out of most of his clothes already too!!). It was fun putting them back on and seeing the difference and remember when they were even too small for me to wear!!

How many of my fat clothes have I kept ?
none !

I got rid of most of my clothes that I wore at my highest or near highest weight. I've held on to my winter coat (really a jacket), though, because I didn't feel like shelling out the money for a new winter coat when spring is so near anyway. Besides, once I'm in any building, I remove it anyway, so I don't have it wear it when I'm working or anything like that.

At this point, even clothes that I bought when I thought I was at the weight I wanted to be and thought that I was eating my maintenance calories have gotten too big for me. (I continued to lose while figuring out what my maintenance calories were). I can get away with wearing those clothes, but I just don't want to. One of the pleasures of losing weight, for me, is wearing clothes that fit appropriately. I've gotten quite picky about this. I figure that if I put all this work into losing weight and maintaining it, I want to look my very best in clothes, and that requires that I buy clothes that fit. If I end up gaining weight, my "punishment" (yes, I'm using that word) will be having to buy clothes in larger sizes; maybe that will make me think twice about shoving excess food in my mouth.

Oh, I was so sure that I would never regain that I got rid of all those larger sized clothes. Business suits. Shirts. Pants. Swimming suits. Imagine my sadness three years later when I could no longer wear those smaller sized clothes I had bought as wardrobe replacement and had to go out and replace them with clothing in larger sizes. Oh, I never thought I would have to do that. After all, I thought had it all figured out. I had successfully lost and kept the weight off for two years--and then things changed.

It's easy to think that not having bigger clothes will be an incentive to keep the weight off, but when I started to regain, nothing was an incentive. My regain was slow, and I fought it every ounce of the way.

However, I'm not someone who likes buying clothes, and I'd just as soon be wearing uniforms as looking for new styles. For me to "have" to go shopping is torture.

I now have three swim suits, one in size 14, one in 16 and one in 18. Fortunately I am not worried about being stylish. I wear the 16 at the moment, but I am never again avoiding going to the pool because my suit doesn't fit.

So--this is just my experience. Your mileage may vary. Do what you think you want to do! I am still keeping some of my smaller sized clothing in hopes I can fit back into it again.

Jay

I still have my "comfy" big clothes - like sweats and t-shirts. The downside to this is when I put a few lbs back on I'm living in tees for a couple weeks till I bring it back down...

I get rid of everything that's too big as I go. That way if I start to slip and things get snug I have no choice but to buckle down and get back into them!

<<Plus, some of the better pieces I've gotten altered recently to get more use out of them (I posted pictures of them here).>>

Same here. I spent about $200 on simple alterations (with a fabulous tailor) and it was well worth it.

F.

<<One of the pleasures of losing weight, for me, is wearing clothes that fit appropriately. >>

Same here. I almost feel guilty about it, as though it's a superficial reason to enjoy being slim, but if it helps keep me motivated I suppose it ain't so bad. I probably spent close to $4,000 last year on a new wardrobe. (It was also my best year ever financially, so I could afford it, but it's still a lot. I'm hoping to claim some of it as a business expense as I DID buy a lot of business clothes.)

Freelance

Of my clothes from my highest weight, I kept two skirts, one of which I made myself (finally gave away to goodwill last year), the other was a souvenir of an overseas trip and I keep it for nostalgia but never wear it. I kept a couple pairs of pajama pants, because big comfy PJ's are always good and they had drawstrings so I can still wear them. I kept a few more items from middle-weights -- mostly nice dress clothes that I keep thinking I will get altered but never get around to it. I think I have a nice black halter top dress and pair of nice black pants with a gauzy overlay that are both size 10. Plus a couple old sweatshirts that I keep for the same reason as the PJ's.

I tend to not keep things very long though because I have a bad habit of spilling things on my clothes and staining them, so I need to replace fairly frequently!