The Weirdness about Weight Loss

Weight loss. We all want it. Many of us need it. Speaking from personal experience, achieving your weight loss goals can be difficult to one degree or another, but anyone setting out to shrink themselves expects that. What we don't expect is what happens after we manage to get the weight off.

Two Enormous Weight Loss Myths

I recently shed about 35 pounds. Along the way, I learned quite a bit about myself, the way I view food, and the physical feelings associate with being a tubbo. I also discovered two myths about weight loss that people either don't talk about or don't know about until they experience them for themselves.

Myth 1: Weight Loss is Hard

Well, it's a quasi-myth. Weight loss can be difficult, but it isn't the torturous, miserable, bamboo-under-your-fingernails experience that people think it is. Sure, monitoring your calories, carbs, protein, and fat intake isn't like a trip to Disney Land every meal, but it's not the worst thing either.

One of the great misconceptions of weight loss is how difficult everyone thinks it is. The truth is, unless you have some sort of metabolic problem, it's all a mind game. I ate around 900 calories a day, and it only took about 2 days for me to acclimate to it. I can honestly say, the hardest part of the weight loss process is the frustration that comes when you get close to your target weight. I have about 15 pounds to go, and it's getting more difficult. My body has gotten used to the calories I'm putting into it, and therefore has gotten really good at holding on to the last few pounds I want loose. It's kind of like being banished to porker purgatory. Other than that, it's been a relative cake walk considering how much I love the taste of food and the volume of it I used to consume.

Myth 2: Weight Loss Will Make Your Life Better

That is a total myth. It's a bigger myth than teenage abstinence. Weight loss absolutely does not make your life better. In fact, that's the weirdness of weight loss that I mentioned earlier. For example, look at this before and after shot of me. As you can see, I lost a ton of weight. Observe the shrinkage of the man-boobs. Note the belly, which has gone down substantially. “That's great,” you say. Well, yes it is. Here's where the weirdness of weight loss really comes into play. I don't feel different. When I look in the mirror, I don't look all that different to myself.

This is where the myth that weight loss makes your life better is in full effect. People will tell you how great you look. They'll say “Oh, you're so thin!” You'll also get comments like “You've lost so much weight!” The thing is, when you look in the mirror and still see the same chubby chubkins you were 30 pounds ago, it just makes you feel like the fat kid in class that the thin kids are picking on.

People don't mean to do it. They genuinely mean what they say, and in reality they're correct. Unfortunately, when you've been a porker your entire life, it takes some time for your perception to catch up with reality. That's the time when the weight loss actually makes you more uncomfortable than you were when you were rotund – at least for me.

The Weight Loss Weirdness Continues

This trend of weirdness will remain for a long time. The good thing is that the weirdness becomes more pleasant. You see, you go from an uncomfortable weirdness to a disbelieving weirdness, until you finally arrive at an amazed weirdness. Again, another picture of me. Not too shabby, eh? I've reached a point where I can see myself and appreciate the fact that I've lost some major weight. However, I'm still amazed by it. I have flashes of feeling like I'm not a bad looking guy, but they quickly disappear into a sort of mental embarrassed silence. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll ever actually feel like a normal sized human being. Maybe normal sized people feel just like I do?

The Wonderful World of Weight Loss

The main thing to remember about weight loss is that it will change your life. It'll just take you awhile to catch up with yourself. Loosing weight is great for your emotional and physical well-being; it just takes time. After three months, I'm finally able to see myself as something other than a fatty fat pants. Maybe one day I'll be just as self confident as anybody else.

If anyone reading this has taken the weight loss journey, please post comments here about your experiences. I firmly believe that other people feel the same way I do, but they just don't want to admit that loosing the weight didn't magically make them super confident studs and hotties.

Ben Butler, President and CEO of gentlebim.com, is a professional writer, copywriter, and editor with over five years experience. His clients range from mom-and-pop internet stores in England to multi-million dollar companies in the United States.