I'm fat and I can't float to save my life! LOL

I can't think of a solitary thing that benefits me in any way from being fat. Yes, I have large breasts, but I don't like them. They get in the way, make it difficult to cross my arms, get really sore for a good two weeks out of the month, cause me to wear bras with 3-4 closure hooks which are a strain to hook, cause jr. high boys to stare and blush and I have to buy larger shirts than I would have to otherwise.

I'm not me in this body. I look in the mirror and hate that people who have only known me fat will think I look like a different person thin while I'll be looking in the mirror saying "Yes, there's me again!" My face is becoming my own again.

I still have some favorite sweatshirts I wore in college. I'll probably be buried in them. :D I had one on this morning and just stared at myself in the mirror for a good 10 minutes amazed at how much I look like the college me from fourteen years ago. I think once I've hit goal people who knew me only then might actually say I haven't changed a bit.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this one yet!

Being able to eat ANYTHING you want, whenever you want! Furthermore, being able to do whatever you want to do instead of fretting over what you'll be eating or when you'll be exercising. Of course, many of us would probably continue to gain weight though :p

Hm I don't know about most people but despite being 300lbs I wasn't eating anything I wanted. I did eat way too much and the wrong things, but If I truly ate everything and anything I wanted at the time I surely would have made it wayyyy past 300lbs! Heh.

This hasn't exactly been the case for me. I wrote in another thread about how, since I've reached 200+ lbs, I've suffered from digestive issues like heartburn, reflux and more that are TMI.

I used to be able to down large glasses of grapefruit juice, eat hot cherry peppers on a hero sandwich, jalapeno on my nachos, etc etc ....I can no longer do this. Can't drink orange juice, can't drink diet Pepsi....can't even tolerate tomato sauce sometimes....

I've had days where the only things I could tolerate were saltine crackers, chicken broth and pastina. Simply because any spices or acid would make me hurt.

I know digestion changes as we age, too. But, I feel sure that its in a large part due to my weight, as if things are so compressed in my belly that I'm not digesting properly and/or binge eating is stressing my system.


I haven't gone to a doctor because I'm not insured and frankly a GI series for what, in the scheme of things, is minor discomfort, doesn't appeal to me. If I still have these issues when I'm thinner, then I'll go.

Oh I don't see this as a benefit. Eating anything that I wanted did not give me peace, joy or happiness. I HATED the fact that I had no control, no off switch, no limits, no boundaries. HATED IT!!! I also LIKE the fact that now I actually CARE and though not fret about eating and exercising, but that I put thought into it. That it MATTERS to me. I hated the fact that I was a person who didn't put much thought into their health. I felt I was falling short and not doing what was required of me.


Well I'm STILL able to eat anything I want. Having lost the weight has not changed that one bit. What has changed is what I want.

I find that in comparison to my friends who have always been thin I stress less about aging and not looking perfect. Or the fact that even though they are still thin their body changed after having a baby. Since I didnt look that good in my teens and 20's I dont have this "Oh I wish I looked like I did when I was 18"

So having BEEN fat was good.

This was certainly the main benefit for me. I love food and alcohol. Eating and drinking without being mindful of calories and portions and whatnot is much, much, much easier than what I have to do to lose weight.

Obviously there are ways in which the benefits of being trim and healthy are worth more than that particular benefit, or I wouldn't be here trying to get myself under control.

But when it comes to the pure pleasure of eating and drinking, for me being fat is way easier - and a whole lot more fun - than trying to be thin.

I think that having had the experience of being morbidly obese taught me just HOW AMAZING being in a healthy body feels. If I didn't have the comparison point, think of all the little joys I'd miss...wonderment at feeling hip/collarbones, wonderment at doing hard work all day and not wanting to collapse at the end, wonderment at the energy I have and all of the associated benefits (clean house, more work done, etc).

If I hadn't been obese, these things wouldn't mean as much to me.

The only thing I miss is not feeling vulnerable when I'd walk home alone at night. I'd carry an ice pick with me too lmao... but I also knew I weighed more than most grown men, so that along with the ice pick made me feel relatively safe.

You want a quick, superficial answer? When I was younger, my fat aged me. I was a young woman in my 20s waddling around in a middle-aged body. But as I grew older, my fat made me look younger. It plumped out my face & neck. Now that I've lost a great deal of weight, I see that I'm definitely getting an older woman's neck; in fact, it has begun to look like my late father's.

As a deeper answer, I've said before there isn't enough room on the Internet to write down all the ways my being fat has shaped my life & helped make me who I am today. I am sure that I became more articulate, a more attentive & empathetic listener & a harder-working student to overcompensate for being physically unacceptable. If I couldn't be beautiful, at least I could be smart, friendly & funny. It also made me a better dresser (though I had to work at least 3x as hard as my thinner friends to do it) & fanatical about applying make-up & maintaining personal hygiene, because I was so determined I wasn't going to be a messy, smelly, sweaty, out-of-control fat lady. So all my efforts to dispel those stereotypes have shaped me, and if I had not been fat, I do not know whether I would be who I am.

The skin. When I was more overweight even though I had a belly at least the skin didn't droop disgustingly. Also, I've been freaking out lately about my neck skin looking looser and it finally occured to me that it's probably part to do with my weight loss. And I'm another who gets cooooold regardless of my weight but it's even worse now.

being overweight helps balance out my over large breasts. They are the same size when I was a size 18 as a size 3.

Men still bug me but not half as much as being thinner.

Other than that everything about being fat for me is negative.

Just like oodles said, I feel a lil safer being fat. Who wants to abduct a fat girl? it would take a lot of work for them to knock me out and shove me in the vehicle.lol.

Maybe it's just me, but I find that big people are more approachable. I guess it's like I get a 'friendly vibe' from them. But maybe that's because I feel less inadequate, since they're in the same boat and less quick to judge. Either way, it's nice to make other people more at ease.