I think that’s it. People are used to seeing you heavier, so seeing you thinner looks “off” somehow.
Do you think lotion is going to get rid of the excess skin? That is pure hokum. No moisturizer on earth is going to shrink your skin. Take it from someone who knows about this topic intimately. Building up muscle mass can fill out some of the sag. Also, if you are young and haven’t lost any elasticity, in time – a year or so – some of it may bounce back and snap to. For most cases, however, the only cure for excess skin after weight loss is plastic surgery.
I’m just chiming in to say that I come in at 6’1" and I weigh 177lbs so I’m pretty sure that you don’t have anything to worry about. The US is getting fatter so those of us who are in good shape are increasingly outside of the norm.
Well, this is well past a year, and being 22 I hopefully have not lost skin elasticity. One of these days!
(But when I read it, I had assumed it was a Silence of the Lambs reference, and Alex was curious as to how moisturized my skin was so that he could use it for his own illicit activities :p)
Just one thought - I know that when I lose weight, I lose it off my face first, then downwards. So, when I’m in the process of losing weight, I can look a little off-balanced as my shape has changed, rather than simply shrunk. That’s when I’ve had those ‘you don’t look well’ comments.
Yes. I was definitely interested in making a full-body skin suit out of chaoticbear’s flab. But in a way that does not require serial murder! If only everyone was as considerate as me.
Ditto. One week it will be my butt. Then my arms, legs, etc. Once you settle on a final weight, it will eventually even out but in the middle, there can be some weird shapes, I will tell you. (Though only those close to you will probably notice that.)
This. Even when I was running cross-country and swimming competitively (to the tune of 3 1/2 hours/6 days a week), I was “overweight” according to my BMI. But my % bodyfat was very low. BMI isn’t accurate, as it doesn’t take muscle into account nearly as much. Another congrats on the weight loss!
Also, something to consider is where you live. While visiting San Francisco, boyfriend and I noticed people were remarkably thinner versus our home of Pittsburgh, even in the wealthy/liberal effete/gym going sections of the city. Normal becomes what you (and others) see daily - not what is healthy necessairly.
When I lost about 35 lbs three years ago, I got a lot of this…most people said I looked great but a few expressed concern that I was getting “too thin,” or that I was doing something awful to get thinner. (Drugs, bulimia, etc…)
And these negative comments were almost invariably from, I am sorry to say, female clients and co-workers.
Since I am completely within normal parameters for my height, I can only surmise that these comments came from jealousy. I would like to chalk it up to ignorance but it was too pointed, particularly the “Are you on meth??” or “So did you just run to the restroom to throw up dinner?” type of remarks.
Never underestimate the pettiness of some peoples’ minds.
You need to think in terms of movie references… Clarice.
Been there, done that, had the ill health. I’m currently 100 Kg / 220 lbs. I’d like to get down to 85 Kg / 199 lbs.
While a 6’ guy could easily look good carrying 210 pounds, I can’t imagine him being described as “too thin.”
6’3" 200lb
I have never considered myself thin, and the height/weight charts all want me to be ~180 or so.
One day I stepped on a fancy glass bathroom scale on display in a store at the mall and watched as “202” came up. A woman passing by looked down, did a double take, and said “Where is it? That’s not possible!”
I guess we don’t see ourselves as others do.
BMI tells a sedentary, small-to-average-size person what they should weigh. It tells little of what a muscular or large-framed person should weigh.
I xxrd the fact that people no longer see ideal-weight persons and therefore have a skewed view of what a normal person should look like. I study ethnography among other things and look at lots of rural pictures from 60 - 120 years ago. The average shirtless workmen of yore tend to look like the professional endurance athletes of the 21st century. Very little body fat and not that much muscle, either. They have ideal body mass in terms of function and longevity. We don’t. (We do live longer than those guys, but not because we have better mass/muscle/fat ratios).
Jealousy is a part, too, since most overweight people would really like to be thinner and more toned. Yeah, what everyone said.
That is so true and it applies to animals as well. I once had a client tell me that she thought a recently rescued dog was emaciated because you could see where the ribs ended. I assured her that you are supposed to be able to tell where the ribs end and that is a normal healthy weight. Pets and people aren’t supposed to be round. 
I also agree with the second paragraph. If the OP didn’t look extremely overweight prior to losing the weight other people may just perceive it as too much weight loss.
I’m about 6’ 230 and while my BMI says I’m obese, I can assure you that that is far from the truth and that I am in excellent physical condition. The lowest I’ve been since I’ve stopped growing taller was about 205 after an injury. I felt and looked horrible, and was not in good shape; but as I got more active again, I very quickly gained a lot of weight
There’s several problems with BMI, some of which have been mentioned (like frame and muscle mass), and at least one of which has not been mentioned which is height. Simply put, the taller you are, the more skewed towards looking fat BMI will become because your height grows linearly, but your mass grows roughly at the cube of your height (to give some more exaggerated examples, Michael Jordan in his prime was “overweight” and Shaq in his was “obese”). So, BMI is a nice “rule of thumb” for a majority of people who are around average height, average muscle density, and average frames.
If you’re trying to lose weight, especially a fairly large amount (and I’d put 40 lbs in that category), I wouldn’t recommend using BMI to set your goals, especially if any of those 3 problems describe you (and 6’ isn’t exceedingly tall, but it is tall enough to start skewing BMI). Consult a doctor, or at least a specialist, who can do more accurate testing like body fat percentage and various fitness tests, and they can help give you a much more accurate goal weight which may, in fact, be considerably higher than BMI would indicate.
Also, consider your goals. Why are you losing weight? Do you want to feel better? You’re the best judge of that, not some magical number. Do you want to be healthier? You can probably tell that pretty well too based on energy level, and a doctor can help a lot there. Do you want to look better? Consider how you think you look, especially since most of the people you’re talking to probably don’t see you naked or even with your shirt off; see how your clothes fit too.
Anyway, don’t concern yourself too much with the BMI number, focus on your goals general goals, and if what you’re hearing raises concern, see a doctor.
Yep, a big part of it is definitely this. The default “normal” person is heavier than it was 50 years ago. I’m fat and I see this all the time. When I first started losing weight, I was talking to some people at Lane Bryant (I hated working there :)) who said I looked good, and asked what my goals were. I said nothing extreme, just to be fit and healthy and maybe around a size 10.
WELL!
You might as well have told them you planned to get down to 80 lbs. “Oh HONEY, no! That is TOO SMALL. That is UNHEALTHY!”
Um, no. No, it’s not. Especially when I’m 5’4". :rolleyes:
True. I have a very naturally high metabolism and I pretty much eat whatever I want and don’t gain anything extra. People often seem to think I’m too thin/need to eat more. Though that hasn’t happened lately, luckily. But when I was a teenager, my pediatrician did think I was totally anors.
I like the BMI better than I do the weight charts, because the BMI loves me just the way I am, while the weight charts want me to lose 15 lbs. 