Has being overweight made you stronger? Are you emotionally a stronger person or more weak? Do you tend to stand up for yourself or let others push you around? Do you use your weight as a protective shield(to make you appear bigger)?

As for me I think being overweight/MO all my life has made me stronger. Not only in the muscle department, but emotionally. Yes I cry when someone says something rude, but I know I am better than they will ever think to be. I tend to stand up for myself and everyone around me. In grade/middle/high school, I always walked away and turned the other cheek. I hated confrontation and fighting. I grew a back bone when I dated my ex boyfriend for 8 years. I learned to say NO and I stood up for myself and told and still tell people what I think. Yes I think I use my excess weight for a shield from problems in my past. I have dealt with those problems/issues and my weight is vanishing. Soon there will only be me and my quick wit and tight butt to protect me. God help me to run if I say the wrong thing! LOL

I don't think that being overweight has made me a stronger person. In high school my friends were afraid to make me mad, because they'd never really seen me mad and had no idea what I'd do. If you got person A mad, you knew they'd slap you, person B would pout, but no one knew what Sarah would do. That's mostly because I was a doormat type back then and just took whatever was dished out. I would defend my friends, but not so much myself.

I think that being over weight has made me a more compassionate person. I think I'm more understanding of people's struggles to a point because I've had my own.

While I don't think being overweight has made me strong, I do think that being overweight, and then taking charge and doing something about it has made me stronger.

Good question, but I have no answers. I've either been MO or thought I was MO my entire adult life, starting from high school. Even when I was the same size as others, I was always heavier than they were.

I am a strong assertive woman, but I think I would be this way no matter what size I was. I think in part it comes from being raised by wolves, and having the curage to stand up against my parents when I was in high school.

Until I got married and started working in an office, I was 5 feet 9 inches and weighed 140 pounds. Then when I started working full time and realized 3 months into my marriage that I had made a big mistake, the pounds accumulated quickly. I don't think it has made me stronger...I'm the same person I've always been. I do know that some unexpected and traumatic events in my life have made me see my own mental and emotional strength, but they had nothing to do with my weight.

Like Sarah, I think my struggles with my weight have made me a more compassionate person. My philosophy is that we are all in this together--we all have struggles and trials. Most of us are trying to live our lives with grace and dignity, and we need to be kind to one another and help each other when we can. Having said that, I am noticing that I have less patience with people who are unkind or unpleasant or fake; and as I get older (I'm 50), I am getting choosier about who I spend my spare time with.

Emily

I am noticing that I have less patience with people who are unkind or unpleasant or fake; and as I get older (I'm 50), I am getting choosier about who I spend my spare time with.

Emily

I totally agree. Life is too short to spend it with negative people.

I am noticing that I have less patience with people who are unkind or unpleasant or fake

I've noticed this about myself too. I'm not sure it has anything to do with age, as I'm 23, but just what you are willing to subject yourself to. Or maybe it's situational, there's been a few things recently in my life that have made me even choosier about the people I'm willing to invest my time in.

Being fat has made me more sympathetic to others.

Oh without a doubt being overweight has made me a BETTER person.

It has always been said that my grandmother drowned the "ugly ones" because my family is full of beautiful women. Honestly, a couple of Beauty Queens, some professional models and dancers. And let me tell you, most of them are sooooo spoiled! I wouldn't want to say some of them are bitches--but believe me, in younger years it would apply.

Although acceptable enough when I was at my low points, for the most part I was always "odd woman out" in that group. While they were talking about shoes and matching purses, I was over with my male cousins talking politics, philosophy--or computers.

Yes, I've got a great smile, but it feels good to know I could still use my head to win at life even if all my teeth were knocked-out--thick or thin!

I do think that being overweight has made me stronger, and certainly influenced my perspective on life. I learned a LONG time ago that taking the high road when other people are acting low and juvenile (which happened a lot in my circles) would always serve me well. Having learned that lesson in high school, it was the only thing that got me through college. I rose above the meat-market fray and made lots of good friends of both sexes.

This ability to detach from the dramas of daily life that other people take so seriously has absolutely influenced my personality for the better.

I have always stood up for the underdog but I think it was when I grew obese, became a grandma at 37, and hit menopause that my backbone really started to become rock solid.

I am the opposite. It has not made me stronger. I was thin until my 20's, hitting 140 at 23 and gaining steadly upward every year since. In comparison to how I felt about myself/life thinner, I am not quite as confident. My self-esteem is not as high. I dont feel as attractive. I dont feel as energetic as I could and should. That all hurts something inside of me. Dont get me wrong, I am a happy, confident, and still attractive person....I just dont feel it 100% and havent for some time. I still had all those qualities in droves at 150, 160 and even 170lbs. I always felt like "I am still ME, just a little bigger"........... Then somewhere in this weight gain I started feeling like I wasn't ME anymore. Pictures downright freak me out, I think "how did I let this happen to myself". It is a little scary how much our outer appearance affects not only how others see us, but how we see ourselves.