I was in Japan when I had my dramatic weight loss. Japan, as you may or may not know, is literally the skinniest country in the world (based on average BMI). Weight has a lot of emphasis there. As an American, people kind of just expected me to be heavy, which was hurtful in and of itself, and occasionally I would get the comment that I needed to eat more vegetables or such, but generally people kept it to themselves.
After I lost weight, everybody and their grandmother commented on it. It was kind of nice, in that I knew because of their comments that I had made a noticeable difference, but it was also rather embarrassing. It threw into relief that everyone around me was very aware that I was overweight before, that it was a cultural stereotype, and as the only representative of my country around, I was essentially responsible for those cultural stereotypes.
There was one really nice thing about losing weight there, though. I came off the plane back to the States right after losing 57 pounds, and I was a new person! Everyone who knew me made very flattering comments once or twice, and the people who didn't know me... had no idea I was ever overweight, so no unwelcome comments.
Of course, now I've rubber-banded a little (which is why I'm back here, haha), so maybe I'll have to deal with that again. I hope not.