4 Unexpected Side Effects of 35 Pound Weight Loss

At the beginning of 2022, I was going through major changes in my life. The upheaval of a major move, selling my home, and health challenges caused me to begin to consider some of the advice that I’d been giving to others for many years and begin to take a hard look at all of the New Years' Resolutions I’d allowed to slip by time and again.

In April, I jumped head first into reclaiming my health. At a whopping 5'2" I weighed 160 pounds. Each of those pounds was like a lead weight on a back injury I’d received in the military. Everything hurt. My mid-thirties had caught up with me. But adding the weight made me feel like I had blown past my actual age and skipped straight into my sixties.

And not the cool sixties like my mother where you get to visit your kids, drink all of their wine, and give loads of sugar to your grandbabies and go home. Nope.

This was the kind where your doctor reads your latest blood test results and gives you a disapproving look.

As of September 15th, I now weigh 125 pounds. I still have roughly 10 to go, plus adding some muscle for good measure. At the start of my journey, I looked at my weight loss in an ideal light and as something of a fantasy concept. There are several things I have discovered along the way that I didn’t expect after losing so much weight.

If you’re at the beginning of your journey, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. WEIGHT LOSS IS LIKE A PAPER TOWEL ROLL

At the beginning of my weight loss, a lot of weight came off fairly easily, especially water weight. My body wanted to shed the first bit of it. That’s the motivational part initially. But what I began to realize over time is that not all fat is created equal. Actually, there are two main kinds to consider.

The first is called Visceral Fat. This is the kind that is wrapped around your organs and is behind your muscle wall. It’s also the most dangerous. When you lose weight, you do lose it from a bunch of places, but you are more likely to lose visceral first, but not likely to see a lot of that progress since it’s harder to see.

That’s because the second kind, Subcutaneous Fat, is the one you’re more familiar with. That’s all the pinchable stuff that sits on top of your muscle and the source of the dreaded muffin top. It’s harder to lose and could take the most amount of time.

Think about losing weight like taking sheets from your paper towel roll. It’s all the same size sheet. You don’t notice how much you are taking at first while the roll is still kinda big. But as you get closer to the end of the roll, it is far more noticeable.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re losing weight, but not from the places you were hoping to lose them from. With time, you’ll get closer to the end of the roll and start seeing all of the really enormous changes.

2. BODY DYSMORPHIA IS A REAL THING!

Holy moley! This one hit me so hard within about 2–3 months! After losing nearly 20 pounds, I found myself looking in the mirror and having a hard time seeing any actual changes in it. That was despite wearing jeans one or two sizes smaller, going down 2 bra cup sizes, and getting loads of compliments. When I looked at myself, I simply could not get the old image of me out of my head.

It actually threatened to completely derail all of my progress. It nearly had me in tears. My husband, who has also lost over 40 pounds now, also experienced this same phenomenon. He experienced it more recently. This can hit at any time. It’s always important to keep in mind that it could happen to you.

Take pictures of your progress as you go. Take consistent measurements. Keep a diary of both scale victories and non-scale victories to come back to during these times. Your brain has a certain image of you. It’s trained to recognize self. And it’ll even supply an image of you that no longer exists. Especially when you’ve changed so quickly.

Over time my brain has settled out and has learned to recognize this newer me. As I get closer to my goal and I begin to have more and more periods of consistent weight (aka the dreaded plateau), I’m able to mentally catch up to this new version I’m seeing in the mirror. These dysmorphic moments happen with less and less frequency.

3. PLATEAUS HAPPEN… AND THEY ARE OKAY!!!!

My first plateau was in June. For three weeks, my weight stalled. It seemed like no matter what I did my weight would not budge any lower than 135. I had more cravings during this time too. I experimented. I prayed. I paced. I argued with my scale (which remained frustratingly obstinate).

Through this time, I somehow managed to maintain my sanity and stayed consistent, even increasing my workout regimen. Then to my surprise I suddenly dropped five pounds. I learned two things. One, inflammation in your body from working out can increase your weight as you heal. Two, when you lose fat, water can fill in some of the space for a short time in anticipation of laying down more fat, but it’s just temporary and your body will eventually drop it.

I’ve gone through several cycles of this 3–4 week plateau then drop nonsense. Maintaining consistency through it and making sure it’s not due to a slip up in my calories, slow down in exercise, or increase in overall stress/cortisol levels has been critical to powering through these little periods. And the closer you are to your eventual goal, the more likely you will experience them.

Keep a good diary and be honest with yourself. Tell yourself it is okay that the scale isn’t moving right now, because it’s just a temporary moment on your journey. Most of these plateaus don't last long.

4. NOT EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY FOR YOU

This is one I hate to say, but wish someone had prepared me for earlier in my journey. It’s nice to imagine all of the wonderful compliments and keep motivation by thinking of people’s positive reactions to your weight loss. Sometimes the people we hope to see this positivity from don’t meet our expectations.

Especially if those people are used to having a certain relationship with you. These people include enablers and profiteers. Let me explain.

Enablers may not be doing it for selfish reasons or think that they are harming you. Some may say they are concerned that you are losing weight, offer you bad food, say you’re too thin, tell you they’re worried when you reach for a salad, invite you to highly caloric restaurants, or appear upset that their relationship with you has changed. They are used to interacting with you in a certain way.

This doesn’t mean your friendship is ruined or that you cannot be around your family. It does mean being honest and open with them about the kind of relationship you are hoping to see from them in the future. One that is supportive of your new goals and maybe even joins you in them.

Now, profiteers are the ones I’d say to steer clear from. These are different than enablers, though there can be some overlap. These are people who literally benefit from your obesity. And it’s absolutely a selfish relationship and one that is born of greed and will remain that way.

As an example, these could be your skinny friends that aren’t actually glad for you to be losing weight because suddenly you don’t make them look as good in photos. These could be your overweight friends who need you to enable their own bad behavior (the overlap with enablers), but are not at all interested in seeing your side. They generally aren’t happy about your success but delight when you share your struggles.

Just as there’s such a thing as fat-shaming, there’s such a thing as skinny-shaming too. Be prepared to accept that not everyone will be happy for you, but that’s okay. Your success is worth it, and you are worthy of it. That’s what matters.

There are loads of online weight loss support communities available to help give you a boost when you need positivity and encouragement. Join a Reddit Forum, a LoseIt group, or even a local MeetUp to develop a supportive network if you find that your current community isn’t as supportive as you’d hoped.