An interesting phenomenon

I've noticed an interesting thing lately.

This past year and a half I've lost quite a bit of weight, more than 80 pounds at this point.

I am just now into the top of the range that a doctor would consider an acceptable weight for my body. I still measure between 16 and 19 percent body fat, which is higher than I'd like. I'm aiming for 10 percent, and according to the charts that will leave me at about 140 pounds.

The point being I am still about 40 pounds away from being underweight.

Now I've been getting the deprecating remarks about my weight loss for a while now, "You're not the man you used to be,"  or "He's a shadow of his former self." But because of the laughing manner in which they're delivered I'd always assumed they were actually compliments.

But in the last week I've had two separate people express concern for my well-being because of how much weight I've lost. And that's had me rethinking those supposed compliments from before.

When I ballooned from 200-260 over the course of a summer about six years ago, there was only one guy who said anything about my increased weight. In fact thinking back through my life my weight has fluctuated quiet a bit. And the only time I can remember anyone expressing concern was when I was losing pounds.

Most everybody says they believe being overweight is unhealthy. But perhaps that's just another of the myriad things I've discovered people say but don't really truly believe.