WPeabody 

...when my weight dropped below 200 lbs, which it did about a week or so ago... thanks to pedalling a lot more than driving and a much improved diet. That is, not dieting, but changing eating habits permanently due to the needs of my age.
It's funny, someone recently came up to me and expressed their concern. "You have lost so much weight, are you ill?" I'm still not at my ideal weight for my light-boned frame, though I'm 5'11". They're just used to seeing me overweight!

Just wanted to thank this section of Bikeforums for helping me stay on track, just from my reading other peoples' advice, and so forth.

youcoming

Good for you, wish i had the same problem...lol

cplager

This. Except that it isn't really age dependent. My wife and I are trying to teach our kids to eat well now (and by eat well, eat much better than I do ).

Dieting doesn't work. Changing how/what you eat does.

Nicely done.

Rootman

Congrats! And a job well done. Isn't it strange what we consider THIN nowadays? Back 25 years ago you would probably be on the large size, now you're considered thin, just goes to show how we put our standards on a sliding scale.

And again, bravo! Keep up the good work!

garethzbarker

Congrats to you! I'm having the same problem. I just left the clyde club as well. People are so used to seeing everyone overweight they misjudge now. I'm still overweight but my in-laws think I looked too small. Keep in mind I could lose 20-25lbs still.

AerobaticDreams

10 years ago I dropped 80 pounds (OK, 50 came back as a result of an injury and forgetting the habits that I lost the weight with...I'm working on it again...) and everybody treated me very different.A number of friends I knew well hadn't seen me in half a year and did not recognize me. I finally asked somebody why everybody seemed so touchy around me and the answer wass, "We don't know what to do. You've lost so much weight we all figured you must be fighting cancer, and didn't want to offend you by asking about it."

WHAT?!?!?!?! I agree, it is a weird time when getting yourself into shape is first veiwed as proof of an illness or other PROBLEM, instead of a healhty choice.OP keep on rocking!!

cplager

O.k. That's just silly. People are just goofy.

ksisler

Isn't it great to be that kinda of ill! Good on you and keep pedaling.

BTW when that first happened to me I responded "it's my new girl friend..." and just let it hang in the air.

vesteroid

" are you ill?"

Yes, I was sick of being fat!

IBOHUNT

I usually get the 'are you ill' bit when I tell folks that I haven't seen in a while that I spent 370+ hours and 5500+ miles on a bike this year.

RobertL

+1 I'm looking forward to that day.

Beachgrad05

We often go to a local pizza place on Tuesdays as it is half price on any pizza...there are regulars we see most times we go. In early 2011 I got really sick and ended up in the hospital but the Tuesday before I landed in the hospital my husband went and picked up pizza to bring home. One of the regulars asked about my absence. EVER SINCE than this guy has been overly concerned for my health.

Beginning of 2012 when I decided to finally do something about my weight...I stopped sharing pitchers of beer with my husband and instead had ice tea or light lemonade...this guy became concerned that I was ill because I wasn't having beer. Now I am not only not drinking beer but am nearly 40 lbs lighter and yep...he is still overly concerned for my health.

My husband jokes that he is my "boyfriend" and teases me about the odd attention he pays me.

WPeabody 

LOL Thanks for all the great replies. Yeah, it was something I had to do, given I was concerned about diabetes, and arthritis/joint problems due to too much weight on my bones. Also, I have a problem with my stomach that if I eat too much at a time, even what seems like reasonable amounts, I get GERD. So, if I eat really small meals, I don't have to rely on meds for the GERd any more, which were causing me even more problems. Also had to cut way down on wheat, starch, refined and processed everything, dairy, red meat and sugar. I take vitamins and herbal supplements and so forth, working through that after many years of research and advice. So, what is there left to do? Go ride. The cardio also kills the appetite... but the focus is for optimum health, not vanity. I just want to be functional as long as possible.

Another important factor was, I was an emotional eater until I finally addressed some unresolved problems from my past. The emotional eating habit ended.

Agreed on young people also needing to watch what they eat, they will not have to do damage control when they are older. Both my kids (now adults) are health conscious, my daughter because of her needing to address her significant weight problems are starting to cause health issues, and my son because, though he has no weight problems whatsoever, he wants to stay in the best condition possible.

mprelaw

Get used to it. You haven't seen anything yet.

I went from 235 down to 155 at 6'2". I swear, people that knew me for a long time wanted to take my pulse every time they saw me.

Neil_B

I went through this too. After losing 40 some pounds I began to 'show' and people began to gossip. I had one of my bosses join in a conversation on my weight loss. She had noticed but couldn't comment because she was concerned I might be offended to be complimented on weight loss if it turned out I was ill.

SeanBlader

I told some extended family that I wanted to get down to like 160, from 205, and I'm 5'10" and they looked at me like I was crazy and that I would disappear or something. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. I'd be riding daily now, but I don't do cold. I am slowly investing in more cold weather gear, but still I'm just not a fan of being cold, so that's going to be a problem every winter, well at least until this global warming thing starts to really kick in, then I just hope we don't get Pacific El Nino's every year, hate those.

WPeabody 

It was definitely cold this morning, I wimped out on riding today. Creaky knees.

This is also a hard time of year to avoid eating my fave foods, like pie. I could eat pie forever! Therefore, I have to keep it out of the house as much as possibe. Christmas can't be completely avoided, people will probably give us cookies and things, my weakness as well. Like I said, my kids are also on the better route for healthy eating, so they aren't complaining too much on the low sugar-starch-meat dairy routine, either. Thing is, when I absolutely must eat something verboten, I'll got ahead and eat it, then go on an extra long ride. I have to earn that privilege... haha. The reward was seeing that first number on the scale go from a 2 to a 1. I was ecstatic...