Someone Asked "People Who Lost A Lot Of Weight, What Surprises You The Most Now?" 31 People Answered

In this list, you’ll uncover all the hilarious, weird, and surprising things that happen after shedding a lot of fat that people only realize once they do it. To understand more about the fitness journey and how to live a healthy lifestyle, Bored Panda interviewed certified personal trainer Sudam Shelar. He shared different insights about people’s approaches to losing weight.

“More than 100 years ago our lifestyle involved a lot of physical activity in the daily routine. But today’s lifestyle of people has a lot of mental involvement and very little actual physical work. This has increased stress and anxiety in life, leading to the risk of metabolic disorders like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension, osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, etc. occurring at an early age,” he said.

As people on this list have shared, they noticed many physical changes after shedding a lot of weight. For some, it included fitting into their old clothes, for others, it meant seeing their bones, and for a few, it meant not experiencing meat sweats anymore (this is what might happen when a person consumes a diet that is way too high in protein).

According to Sudam, “fitness cannot be seen in the mirror, you can feel [it] from deep within yourself. The person you see in the mirror is responsible for your life. Your fitness, your medical problems and the extra weight you want to lose. Nature has designed our body to be active for our entire life but we have reduced our physical activities a lot. End result is fatigue, cold, flu, acidity, backache, going overweight and other medical problems.”

Another thing that people realize after losing tons of weight is that society treats them differently or makes disparaging comments about how they looked when they were heavier. Researchers working in the public health sector state that when we only compliment people about shedding pounds, we might be affirming that thinness is inherently good.

This can be problematic, especially if someone is dealing with an eating disorder or body image issues. As one commenter shared, their friends and acquaintances began talking badly about how they used to look while commenting on their massive weight loss.

Losing a lot of weight is good for your body because it means you will experience fewer aches and pains. We asked Sudam about the best ways to go about losing weight sustainably. He shared, “cardio is very good for losing weight fast but weight loss is not dependent on cardio. It is all strength training, balanced nutrition food as per your requirement, quality sleep and stress management.”  

Fitness and workouts might also vary for men and women. According to the trainer, “women do not process the hormonal profile conducive to substantial muscle growth. Women have estrogen hormones that build fat. Lifting heavy weights can actually have so many health benefits. Like improve bone density, increase muscle mass, strength and power and tone physique.” He states that women should pay more attention to strength training while working out.

A longitudinal study on the contestants of The Biggest Loser found that they experienced severe hormonal changes from losing weight too fast. Their hormone leptin (which signals to the brain that they’re full) and their metabolism levels don’t go back to what they were before. This hormone imbalance continues long after losing weight, which can make it harder for people to keep the pounds off. That’s why many commenters shared that they had gone down the weight loss journey multiple times in their life.

Research on obesity isn’t as promising. Studies state that men who have a BMI over 40 have a 1 in 1,290 chance of getting to a healthy weight, while the statistic for women at the same BMI is 1 in 677. But Sudam shared his experience as a trainer stating that it was possible for anyone to reach their fitness goals as long as they got proper guidance.

Here are a few tips he mentioned: “proper exercise routine, good nutrition, good sleep, and managing stress are four pillars of fitness. Yoga, meditation, strength training, weight training, resistance training, functional training, kettlebell exercise, cardiovascular exercise, and many more exercise routines you can do as per your fitness level. If you follow the right way with the right guidance 100% you [will] achieve your fitness goal.”