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Thanks for the kind words. That's a fair point, it might be warped, although the micro-optimizer in me is leaning towards just losing more weight and seeing if

Thanks for the kind words. That's a fair point, it might be warped, although the micro-optimizer in me is leaning towards just losing more weight and seeing if I notice the change after some more progress. One thing your comment reminded me of -- I was surprised to see a lot of my sense of weight loss came not from a mirror, but just feeling my old fat body parts. It used to be more dense, due to the fat, now it feels a lot more like excess skin. The skin is almost as big as before, but much lighter and more hollow, if that makes sense. [edit: added "sense of"]

kcplate 4y ago
I completely understand. I lost a total of 170 lbs. While that put me into “I am not the fattest person in the room” category, I am still in the group of “fat people in the room” at least visually. The reason is excess skin. So even after four years of being at the lower weight, in reality the only way to get rid of excess skin is surgical. I am not willing to do that, so I have come to accept that even after all my efforts, I am never going to look svelte.
- PeterStuer 4y ago
  FWIW, The skin reduction surgery is completely benign, especially compared to the invasive stomach reduction/clamping/bypass surgeries common in this domain. While this has been some time ago and I have not met her for years, an acquaintance confided that the skin reduction gave her the confidence and joy that kept her from relapsing into old bad habits.
scohesc 4y ago
I can relate to the feeling of excess skin. My inner thighs always felt chunky, large, - literally, full of fat. After starting to work out a couple months ago - I felt my inner thighs randomly one evening and I stopped myself because they felt so _different_... Better than looking in the mirror honestly - more tactile feeling of accomplishment rather than visual.
nyokodo 4y ago
> it feels a lot more like excess skin That’s exactly what it is. When one loses a lot of wait after holding it for a while the skin may not be able to shrink back down. There are various remedies for that from supplements to surgery but you should talk to a medical professional about your options.
bobthepanda 4y ago
The issue might be that you live in your own body constantly, so you see that there isn't much difference day to day. Someone who only sees you, say, once a month or a few times a year hasn't seen all of that, so the change is much more drastic to them.

kcplate 4y ago

I completely understand. I lost a total of 170 lbs. While that put me into “I am not the fattest person in the room” category, I am still in the group of “fat people in the room” at least visually. The reason is excess skin. So even after four years of being at the lower weight, in reality the only way to get rid of excess skin is surgical. I am not willing to do that, so I have come to accept that even after all my efforts, I am never going to look svelte.

PeterStuer 4y ago
FWIW, The skin reduction surgery is completely benign, especially compared to the invasive stomach reduction/clamping/bypass surgeries common in this domain. While this has been some time ago and I have not met her for years, an acquaintance confided that the skin reduction gave her the confidence and joy that kept her from relapsing into old bad habits.

scohesc 4y ago

I can relate to the feeling of excess skin. My inner thighs always felt chunky, large, - literally, full of fat. After starting to work out a couple months ago - I felt my inner thighs randomly one evening and I stopped myself because they felt so _different_... Better than looking in the mirror honestly - more tactile feeling of accomplishment rather than visual.

nyokodo 4y ago

> it feels a lot more like excess skin That’s exactly what it is. When one loses a lot of wait after holding it for a while the skin may not be able to shrink back down. There are various remedies for that from supplements to surgery but you should talk to a medical professional about your options.

bobthepanda 4y ago

The issue might be that you live in your own body constantly, so you see that there isn't much difference day to day. Someone who only sees you, say, once a month or a few times a year hasn't seen all of that, so the change is much more drastic to them.