In looking at all the before/after pics, everyone looks so much younger in their after pics. This wasn't always my experience in looking at before/after pics on other WLS forums and maybe other WLS procedures. I see very few people looking 'ill' or 'old'. I don't know if we are just all so damn cute or what it is. I think the after clothing styles are also younger as we get more confident in our bodies. Keep posting those pics!! I love seeing the changes!!

I don't know if we are just all so damn cute or what it is.

I like to think it's a combination of both.

One of the first compliments I got when I was 2 months out was that was looking younger! People noticed that before they noticed the weight. my skin has been really clear and nice and now you can actually see my jawline and cheekbones. Maybe I smile more?

I LOVE before and after pics too! Soooo inspiring! And I agree everyone looks sooo much younger

I completely agree! I feel younger too lol!

Fat faces hang. It's gravity. Faces are one of the first places most people lose, so it's pretty normal to appear younger. UNLESS you lose weight at a really old age, and the fat is what was keeping your skin from just hanging. That happened to my grandma... ugh... not pretty. I was always amazed at how youthful she looked for her age, until she lost weight and her face started to hang. (I don't mean that in a cruel way, but it's just how it is)

The one thing I noticed right away when I first started looking at before/after pics was that everyone, even people pretty far from their goal, had very prominent collar bones.

Having now gotten (at least once) close to my goal, I think it's two things. I do, and it seems most do, lose weight from the upper half of my body first. So it makes sense that even only halfway (or less!) collar bones might be unusually prominent. I also find myself sometimes trying to look skinnier in pics, and the "turtle neck" (you know - extending your neck a bit to get rid of any excess chins, and to emphasize the bones/tendons/etc around the neck to appear slimmer) is a great way to do this, but also tends to deepen the indentations around collar bones.

Soeither it's real progress, or faux progress, but either way it's great.

my mom, bless her heart, came to visit me when i was almost 1 year out. . . she confessed way later that her only intention of the visit was to see how wrinkled the surgery had left me . . . she stated that she was shocked to see that i looked younger then when i was in my 20's . . . MOTHERS. . . .

I have to agree, all the pics I have seen on here of before/after everyone looks younger. I went to lunch with a friend the other day, who hadn't seen me in months, and she told me I looked younger, and healthy, not "sickly" like people she had known that had gastric bypass. So, I think it does have to do with the surgery. And like you said, the clothing choices too. There are so many more cute clothes at a size 16/18 compared to trying to find clothes at my biggest, in a 32 and 4-5X. I just feel cuter now too, so it reflects in the clothes. People already thought I looked young, so if I look even younger, I will take it!