Omg, dehtripper, the idea of a heavily modified appearance cracks me up. I live in a part of town where it's pretty normal to be heavily modified, but I still caught myself STARING at some guy a couple of days ago whose face was HEAVILY tattooed, but jeez, if he's gonna make it so interesting to look at, doesn't that make it ok to stare? Alright -- that has nothing to do w you, except that I could see how your meter could get wonky, especially if its out of the norm where you are.

I had the same exact cross-walk experience of some guy making eye contact and giving me a big smile. It was so strange! And that sort of thing never happened to me when I was bigger. I walked away feeling kinda pissed at the guy who smiled at me bc you know if I was fat, he would not have done it. But of course, as far as I know he was not one of the millions of men who never smiled at me back then. Seems somehow wrong to be mad at him.

One thing that's been on my mind lately that's related is that I'm going to be looking for a job sometime in the next year or two (been staying home w the kids) and I know that would be much more difficult if I were at my heaviest. And it kinda makes me furious that I have to consider that sort of thing. My career has nothing whatsoever to do w my shape, but I have no doubt that I'd do better placement-wise and go farther if I was thinner. In some ways, the idea of being attractive to do my job -- I'm a criminal defense attorney -- makes me feel kinda vulnerable. But it's not the clients who will be hiring and promoting, that's just other lawyers who should know better.

Strangers seem nicer...but that could also be because I am more outgoing. I used to be so embarrassed I would kinda rush wherever I went. I also have a baby on me now, and everyone smiles at you when you have a baby, ha ha. The last time I lost weight though, I definitely noticed a difference in attention from men and kinder store clerks and there was no baby then :)

All I can say is, women and men sure react differently to attention from the opposite sex as a result of weight loss. I've read more than one post in this thread of women getting angry at this new male attention, whereas if a man loses weight, gets trim, and women start "noticing" him he sees it as an hard-earned reward. I guess we're made differently in this respect. But if all the men in the world were suddenly sucked off the planet, I think a lot of the motivation for women to lose weight would go, too, and that goes double for men (er, from women in our case). Let's face it, motives or no, a box wrapped in plain brown paper doesn't look nearly as pretty as one wrapped in rainbow colors.

Yes, I started getting noticed. Not that I wasn't "noticed" before, but people started going out of their way to talk to me. Men spoke to me. Women shot me dirty looks. People said I looked sooooo good.

Fast forward a few years, I get pregnant, have a baby. I'm still hanging onto about 13 pounds I canNOT seem to lose. And now the cattiness comes out.
"Oh, you look GOOD. You were too skinny before!"
"You looked sick before. Much better now."
"I prefer you with more meat on your bones."

So either people lied before or they're lying now. Can't figure it out...

I'm tall so I've always got noticed even at my heaviest weight, but now strangers are much nicer to me (holding doors, making small talk, smiling at me etc.)

I get a lot of male and sometimes female attention with the stares and trying to flirt with me, but I pay it no mind although in my head at times I'm thinking "who...me?"

With people I know I have lost some friends. Particularly those who have been trying to lose weight and haven't succeeded for different reasons. Others I've had to dump because their continued to attempts to sabotage me, or got jealous and kept saying I should stop because I became smaller than them.

This weight loss thing is something else!

Haha, yea. I'd have to imagine you'd go into getting a face tattoo knowing people are probably gonna look. I don't consider myself actually heavily modified at all. But for my small-ish, industrial city its not super common, especially for women... and people have no tact. I find myself often checking that my fly isnt down nor do I have food on my face before I realize why people are staring.

Though I have noticed that people seem more open lately to asking me about my tattoos. I don't know why that would have changed with weight loss though... not like I really have more than summers past.

It is very strange the way you are treated by others when you lose weight. I wasn't invisible before because I've always had a very strong personality with forced outgoingness at times. Now, it is just ridiculous the attention and thought people give me. I make more money as a waitress. I join the league of girls who are both flattered and angered by the new attention from gentlemen. It isn't the strangers I get upset with, but the ones who knew me. My ex-boyfriend who wasn't attracted to me anymore when I was at 350lbs definitely tried to speak to me again and that was shocking, made me feel good when I got to embarrass him by pulling a Taylor Swft a la "We Are Never Getting Back Together"!

yes. I was over 200 after each baby (I just had baby #3) and lost it both times. Men were nicer. Women, mainly over weight ones were ruder.