My brother, who just turned 20, lost a great deal of weight over the past few years, like over 100 lbs. It's great that he did that and I'm happy for him, but he is a really vain guy (he's a 20 year old male, afterall!) and he loves to talk about how much weight he's lost at every given opportunity. Plus, not to minimize his effort or anything, but he wasn't fat his whole life, just a few years, so it seems like him returning to that state is easier than for me, becoming thin when I've never been thin. Whenever we see my extended family, his weight loss always gets brought up (often he brings it up himself), and he glowingly tells everyone about it, and they gush... and I sit there feeling like the *hugest* person ever.

Anyway, I saw a friend of mine last night, he said he had seen my brother and he noticed how much weight he had lost and blah blah blah. I've lost almost 50lbs but it's obviously not noticeable yet to most people, and not to this friend. And it just made me sad, like am I ever going to not be the fat girl? fat sister? fat friend?

In May, I'm going to a big family reunion type event. And I know, no one is going to notice my weight loss... it just isn't dramatic enough to notice at this point. Everyone's gonna gush over my brother. My older sister's gonna be there too, and she likes to brag about how much weight she's lost, even though it's not really noticeable on her and she's not a very healthy person. I don't want to bring up my weight loss unless it's noticed, and no one's gonna notice.... so I'm gonna be the fat loser again.

Anyway I just needed to vent about this!

Aww im sorry your brother rubs it in your face. My mom, about 3 years ago, lost a bunch of weight becasue she hasnt been eating right and she was out here a few weeks ago and everytime she put on pants she was like "Look, there too big!" and stuff like that and just rubbing it in my face that shes skinny.. I flipped on her once and felt bad but i dunno...
What matters is that you know your loosing the weight.. Sometimes people just dont realize, maybe its the clothes you wear or something.. who knows. But keep your chin up!

I know this would be really difficult but I would try to be as positive as possible. You could say something like "oh yes, we're all trying to get healthy, I've lost x pounds myself!" That way you're not seen as bitter or catty and when you reach your goal you can really enjoy it. I know it's got to be hard, but if you can find a positive way to frame it maybe all the get togethers will be easier versus leading to depression/anger and possible emotional over eating.

Thanks marineswife and happydaisy. I know if I keep going I'll get to the point where thay notice, and I think you're right that I should just try to stay positive about it. I don't think I'll bring up my weight loss though... I'm just not comfortable doing that, for some reason.

Don't worry one day, it will just click for people. The other day I showed up to work and my boss finally noticed I lost weight. It caught me totally off guard and I felt great.