No Man's Land

In war, there is a space between enemy lines, a space where no side has claimed as theirs…it merely exists as No Man‘s Land. Funny thing is that weight loss has the same space which up until now, I have been calling weight loss purgatory. This unclaimed space is where people who once were obese but aren’t quite thin yet live. I, having been newly introduced to this weight loss no mans land , am sending you a blog-postcard describing what its like.

I am neither obese nor thin. I spend my time having to find clothing that both fit my slimming upper body while dealing with the massive extra skin that hangs down under my belly but still trying to fit my much more slimmer thighs and legs, which means that I buy both “regular” clothing and plus size clothing depending on the cut, the style and how it fits around my belly flap. Along those lines, ladies in weight loss no mans land, you will find that bra sizes do not exist for you. I have a smaller rib cage measurement and not a lot of boobs left but a lot of extra skin on the sides so you will need to go up a cup size and down a band size and if you lucky to find that they have something that fits, then you will need to find one with wide sides to hold everything in… GOOD LUCK!

In weight loss no man’s land you are treated differently. Your overweight friends look at you differently because you don’t quite look like them any more but your skinny friends haven’t really adopted you into that “club” You can’t swap clothing with ANY of your friends. At any weight, people’s judgment of you hurts but in no man’s land, it can be extra harsh. Being super obese, most people wouldn’t dare say anything to your face about your weight and if they do, its with an understanding that you have an illness. Being in weight loss no man‘s land, people assume that you are overweight because of carelessness or laziness and somehow they have a right to tell you.

I can honestly say that at 426lbs, no one EVER said to me at the grocery store “ oh you shouldn’t be buying that” and yet 200lbs later in weight loss no man’s land I’ve been told not once but twice while looking at the frozen fruit ( which happens to be next to all the frozen pies) that I shouldn’t be buying pies. Why thank you stranger for providing that acute observation! I learned two things, fat people are only allowed to buy certain foods AND when I’m skinny, I too can tell strangers what they should and should not buy! But of all the minor annoyances of weight loss no man’s land, what takes the pie (haha) is telling people how much weight you’ve lost.

Now I LOVE talking about my experience in hopes that it will encourage others to live a healthy lifestyle but things seem to have changed the past few months. Before, I could tell someone “ Oh I lost 50lbs” or 75lbs and the reaction would be THAT’S GREAT keep up the good work. But now, when I tell people that I’ve lost over 200lbs, they get this confused look on their faces which clearly reads BUT YOUR STILL FAT?!?! I often find myself quickly adding that I started out at 426 lbs which leads to an even greater look of horror as they wonder how in the world did you get to 426lbs. Which in a way is understandable, most people don’t have 200lbs to lose and when you do see people that have lost that much, they are on the cover of magazines or on the Biggest Loser finale coming out thin as a rail.. Then there’s me, 200lbs lost and stuck in weight loss no man’s land! Its starting to feel a bit lonely here in purgatory, anyone else here too? If you are, please come find me! I’m the not obese not thin girl looking at the pies in the frozen section of the grocery store!