Tuesday, November 08, 2005

"Neck Rolls" Sounds Gross

So, as has been noted before, I have no TV at home. Thus, once a week I trek up to the Upper West Side and engage in some serious TV watching with some friends of mine who have Tivo. Our shows include Lost, Transgeneration, America's Next Top Model, and The Biggest Loser.

Watching The Biggest Loser with thin(ish) friends is sort of traumatizing. Especially while eating dinner! TBL is now at the point on the show where you can really see differences in peoples bodies and faces, and the before and after photos are really amazing. I LOVE BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES!!!!!

While watching this weeks episode, my friends kept making comments about how the participants look like different people now and how they look like 15 years younger. Honestly, they do look like different people. Bodies aside, their faces look soooo different. The after pictures have neck rolls, chins, and cheeks missing where there had been stored fat before. I noticed one friend of mine sneaking glances at my fat ass (or belly) sitting on her couch as we watched the picture transformations. It was like she was mentally cutting off my fat and wondering what I would look like if I lost all that weight.

It is an odd thing to realize that you don't know what you really look like. What if I am really ugly under all these layers of fat...it could go either way, but I can't seem to put the effort into finding out ... again.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Transgeneration! A girl... now boy from my college is on that show.

I've noticed that most younger people who lose weight look younger but people who are over 60 sometimes look older because the fat was filling in their wrinkles and what not I guess.

Anonymous said...

I wonder that all the time. I suppose at some point I'll find out...

Anonymous said...

Eve is right.
My mom lost a lot of weight and she's 75 and she ended up all shriveled looking. Now she's put on a little weight, and looks much better (and younger, too)
My mom is a very pretty lady,tho

Christi Nielsen said...

I gained a lot of weight after my divorce, and it got to the point where I didn't recognize my face in the mirror as I passed by. Now I'm hoping to start seeing myself again.

I'm 36, and people think I'm about 24. I always say that it's the fat that is pushing out my wrinkles. I hope that as I lose this weight, I don't look older. We'll see.

As usual, I watched the show while drinking a bottle of wine. Somehow I've convinced myself that I'm not eating while watching. Am I really that stupid?

Laura Bora from Bufadora said...

Having once lost 90 pounds, I remember staring at my face and freaking out -- because I did look so different. My eyes seemed HUGE as did my nose...and where the heck did I get those cheekbones?

Now that I'm fat again I stare at my face and think, "Fuck me, are those JOWLS???"

I am often told that I look like I'm in my early 20's even though I am 37. I am sure it's because I'm taking up all the skin I have, stretching it to capacity, stuffed like a bratwurst, and if I lose the weight I will suddenly appear old and saggy like a sharpei.

Anonymous said...

That show's a lot of fun but those crying girls, and guys, are getting really annoying. We're such a country of whiners!!! Seriously, those guys gotta get a set of b@lls! If Matt cries one more time I'm throwing my TV out of the window.

Anonymous said...

I've lost about 100 pounds in the last 9 months, and I'll tell you this, I LOOK OLDER. Every pound seems to have added a 6 months to my face. There isn't a single person in my group that looks younger after losing the amount of weight we have. But hey, that's life. I'd rather look my age than be unhealthy I suppose.

Regina Rodriguez-Martin said...

I doubt we can make generalizations about whether weightloss makes people look older or younger. It probably depends on a variety of factors so that someone can't know what she'd look like until she actually loses the weight and finds out. I'm 39 and have lost weight slowly over the past three years, and I'm discovering that yes, I CAN be too thin because at a certain point my face starts looking gaunt and old. And yet I still have extra poundage around the waistline. Ah, middle age...

Anonymous said...

Yes, I've noticed that when the face is fatter, the eyes look smaller, & the nose doesn't look as big. I've also noticed when a woman gets "too thin" her teeth can start to look bucky! That's a sign you've gone too far! (unless you really do have buck teeth, of course). I'd love for my eyes to look bigger, & I'd love to have a defined chin & girlish neck again, being fat from chin to throat is very aging in profile.

As for the women who look older after becoming more slender, that perhaps could be due to age (eg they're over 40) - or perhaps it's the unhealthy way the weight was lost? Being fat doesn't mean one is unhealthy, by the way, that's an individual thing.

Anonymous said...

I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago and HATED the way my face and neck looked - I was all eyes, chin and cheekbones. And my neck became really scraggy. I've got some pics of myself at that time and while the body looked better, the head was a skull. (but I am a woman who is over 40, perhaps that makes a difference?)