How Losing Weight Affects Friendships

Source: Igor Alecsander / Getty

When you set out to lose a lot of weight, you really only think about how it will affect your health, your self-esteem, and probably how members of the opposite sex treat you. Losing a significant amount of weight is so all-consuming—it takes up your time and your thoughts—that you have a one track mind while you’re at it. All you can do is focus on the end goal. You’ll only lift your head up once you get there, to see how things have changed around you. But when you do reach that goal, you’ll be surprised to find that losing a lot of weight affects more than you’d expect. You had no idea how your weight penetrated every layer of all of your interactions and how it played a small—or large—role in a lot of your relationships. You see life through a new lens. Sometimes you like what you see, but sometimes you don’t. It’s an adjustment. Here are ways losing weight affects your friendships.

Source: electravk / Getty

You’re accused of being “too good now”

You’ll learn that certain friends wanted to keep you down. They liked that, when you were overweight, you were insecure and a bit depressed. They felt better by comparing themselves to you. Now they’ll accuse you of being elitist or acting too good for them. The fact that you worked on yourself only makes them realize they need to work on themselves.