ReillyJ (Susie)..... OH MY GOD....

"totally down to earth and doesn't read into things."
He is like that, I wish EVERY DAY that I were more like that. Haha! Work in progress over here. :)

You have not lost a ton Elvis. You've lost one-sixteenth of a ton.

Anyway, well dealt with. I get comments like that a lot now. The last time someone asked me if I had had surgery. Not that that would be a problem if I had of course, but way too personal especially as this was asked at work in front of other colleagues.

Originally Posted by IanG:
You have not lost a ton Elvis. You've lost one-sixteenth of a ton.

Anyway, well dealt with. I get comments like that a lot now. The last time someone asked me if I had had surgery. Not that that would be a problem if I had of course, but way too personal especially as this was asked at work in front of other colleagues.

LOL. Reminds me of the "what have you lost" thread. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to contribute to that thread that I had lost the equivalent of a baby giraffe! :) (Ok, maybe "excited" isn't the word I was looking for. But it was cooler than some of the other milestones, such as cinder block, etc.). Anyway, I believe Elvis can say the same too!

Aww hun I would accept that as a compliment and be really proud of myself if I were you. And your husband sounds like he's so supportive of you on your weight loss journey.

I'm indian and we're not really known for being subtle in my community. I went to the temple the other night and I was wearing my work clothes and my friend's mother-in-law was demanding to know how much I've lost because it looked like my clothes were hanging off me. I mean how rude! but my mum was like "She's lost more than 15 kilos"... by the next day word had spread among my community. Now I just smile and say "Thank you" and change the subject when someone asks.

Hilarious! I think you have a great attitude about this - a sense of humor can take us far.

I teach English as a Second Language here in the States. My students are all adults, but language barriers and cultural differences sometimes add up to awkward moments. When I was losing weight and people started noticing, my students made some great comments. My favorite? One day at the beginning of class, when everything was in total silence, a student looked at me and said, "Teacher, you have lost your weight. Before, you were fat. You look better now." The words were blunt and at the time stung a little, but after reflection I accepted it as the compliment it was intended to be. :)

My 82 year old cousin yelled "Boy, did you get fat!" across a crowded restaurant! I just laughed and said "Now the whole restaurant knows" and the people around me laughed. I did not want to show my embarassment to everyone so I joked about it. You would think that would make me start a new diet right away, but no, I am still fat. LOL

My mother was very big. She was only about 5'1 and probably was wider than she was tall. After having a heart attack the doctor told her to walk every day and put her on a diet. She followed it faithfully and lost about 100 lbs. One day she was outside sweeping her front walk and an old man from across the street came over and said "What happened to the fat lady who used to live here?' She said, "That was me....I lost weight." He said "Oh, no, she was really fat. Did she move?" My mother replied "I have lived here for 20 years." Sometimes the elderly have a way of just blurting things out. LOL

Originally Posted by IanG:

Anyway, well dealt with. I get comments like that a lot now. The last time someone asked me if I had had surgery. Not that that would be a problem if I had of course, but way too personal especially as this was asked at work in front of other colleagues.

With bariatric surgery being so common nowdays, many people just assume if you lost a lot of weight you must have had surgery. It's very rude to ask. What are people thinking? Some people may need that surgery as a tool toward their weight loss but it's not a walk in the park. It is possible to lose a lot of weight through diligence and hard work.

I think it would be much better to say "You look very nice, today." and let the person choose to tell you that they lost weight or just say "Thank You." Everyone likes to get a compliment, but it depends on the way it's done.

I've gotta that comment a lot and I've taken to saying "Well, not quite a TON - I wasn't THAT fat!"

LOL

Thanks so much for the replies, everyone!

I have to go find a baby giraffe stuffed animal that I can put on a leash and walk around the neighborhood with my dog! The next time someone says I lost a ton, I'll just straight-faced say "No, just a baby giraffe!" :D

The more I thought about this man and all the replies here, the more excited I got that he noticed and was kind enough (in his own way) to mention it and give me credit for my hard work. There are people in my life that haven't acknowledged my weight loss (and it's ok with me, I'd prefer not to talk about it) but seriously, it's definitely noticeable now. :)

In the past I have received some blunt comments about my weight but I always held the tears back as they were from people who are from a different culture like some of you mentioned above. And I know they were just being honest (but ow, that hurts!).

Thank you all for sharing your comments and stories. I'm feeling much better today about my 1/16th of a ton weight loss!

Some people are very direct, it was probably meant as a compliment

Sometimes I find it is the people closest to you that don't comment on your weight loss. Weird.

Originally Posted by IanG:
Sometimes I find it is the people closest to you that don't comment on your weight loss. Weird.

Yes!!!

like my best friend. She hasn't said anything really positive or negative, well she did reassure me that i look good when i lamented over rubber face, looking so different etc but over all not really any words (which can actually be GOOD) and i don't think it's from jealousy, either, in her case.

I saw my father last week for the first time in 8 months. He said, "you look a lot better than you used to."