Did you throw out your big clothes as motivation to never return to your pre-weight, or did you keep your old clothes 'in case' you regained your weight?

I am tempted to throw away my clothes as I (hopefully) lose weight post-procedure but I am worried I'll need them again in the future.

What are your thoughts?!

Edited March 5, 20206 yr by Jon7z

21 hours ago, Lily66 said:

Wow! Momof3, What an inspirational post on your journey! Congratulations! and enjoy every moment of your newly healthy, beautiful self!

Our stats going into surgery were/are virtually the same...height/weight. My skinny clothes were always a 6. My closet still has some of the nicer things I was determined to fit into again...yet closet is mostly XL or XXL. I’m determined to be successful with this surgery, yet it’s hard for me to envision watching the sizes go down. Sort of like “this appears to happen to everyone else, but me? Is it possible?...Did you have this mind game?

Again, Congrats and Best Wishes Always!!

I don't know... for me after my 3rd child I lost all my baby weight. Then I hit 40 and my weight suddenly got out of control and spent years trying to figure out why. I had lost a lot of the weight once before... but couldn't keep it off. Yes, my mind played some headgames.... but I think I went into this determined to be successful. I knew I had been skinny before hitting 40. That was only 8 years ago, so I think I went into this with a bit more of a positive attitude than many. My doctor told me his goal weight, and I just responded... I will get below that lol. And I did! Hang in there, it is definitely possible to lose it all for those of us who started with lower BMI's!

On 3/5/2020 at 2:49 AM, Jon7z said:

Did you throw out your big clothes as motivation to never return to your pre-weight, or did you keep your old clothes 'in case' you regained your weight?

I am tempted to throw away my clothes as I (hopefully) lose weight post-procedure but I am worried I'll need them again in the future.

What are your thoughts?!

got rid of them.... No looking back. My better more expensive clothes, i too to get taken in

I am getting rid of mine. I am in 42 pants down from 50. I have clothes down to 38 pants. When I get to 36, I will shop thrift stores until I get to my goal weight. Then buy some nicer items.

I gave away all my large size clothes to charity- someone else can use my tops and pants

I kept 1 or 2 items for a photo

My weight has fluctuated so much over the years that I had clothes in essentially 4 different sizes:
XXXL, XXL, XL, and L

Over the past 10 years I kept all of them because I always worried about going back even when I had successfully lost lots of weight and was comfortably wearing an L.

This time, however, has been different. I *did* get rid of all my clothes XL and above once I got into an L. I finally had my surgery 3 days ago and I expect I’ll probably be in a medium when all is said and done. I’ll plan on getting rid of my Ls once that happens.

Like others, I am donating.

I started in 24 pants (should have been 26 as they were all getting too tight) and 2X (and probably would have been in 3x shortly if I hadn't made the decision to have the surgery). I had 1 tub of smaller size clothing down to 1X and 20 that I am now in and that for the most part are getting too big. I am trying to keep wearing them until they are WAY too big to keep costs down. I have also bought just a couple of items: my jeans were all 24's and literally falling off, so I bought a pair of 18s and I bought a few XL shirts as my options were getting limited.

I did keep 1 pair of my larger dress pants. Just for the before and after.

Well I’m in a different sort of predicament. We have been working on becoming somewhat minimalist and I don’t have any more of my “too small” clothes to wear as this process goes on. My surgery is next week so I’m also starting to cull my big winter clothes that shouldn’t fit this time next year. On the plus side, I work in recreation and we have a closet full of tee shirts from past programs and events that I can wear so at least my work and casual tops are covered free of charge. I’ll just need to size down bottoms and undies from time to time.

This thread encouraged me to clean out my closet (last time I went through it was right after surgery). It took 2 hours and I ended up pulling almost half of what I had in there. I did keep a bunch that were big but didn't look bad so I should be good for a bit longer.

I sold some of my nicer clothes on Poshmark. It created a savings account to buy clothes that fit! It’s a pain but there ya go!

I dropped from an Aust size 18 to size 6. The smallest size I’d ever been in the past was a size 10 so I’ve well passed the point I can wear the smaller clothes I’d kept from that time too. I have noticed my body shape is different from when I’d lost weight previously. Always was very hour glass shaped but am now more up & down now. Could be because of my age & the impact of menopause but also because the last kgs I’ve lost have totally come off my hips, butt & breasts.

I donated bags & bags of clothing to St Vincent de Paul (keep finding more pieces to donate as I work through closets & cupboards) but did keep my high end clothes. Sold a few high end pieces to off set the cost of my new wardrobe. Also donated some of the high end to a fundraiser for fire relief here in Aust.

Fortunately I only went down a half size in shoes. I offered the few that are too big for me to some girl friends but they wear larger sizes so they’ll be going to some cousins.

I have been getting a lot of my clothes second hand (resale shops or thrift)and am loving the smaller sizes!! When you have to clear out your entire closet and drawers buying second hand has helped a lot. Also I donated all my “big” clothes.

I am from a size 22w/24w down to 14w and I kept some of my smaller clothes! Donated my larger ones to my cousin's prison ministry for ladies transitioning out to have decent clothing for interviewing or just to have!

8 hours ago, Arabesque said:

Fortunately I only went down a half size in shoes. I offered the few that are too big for me to some girl friends but they wear larger sizes so they’ll be going to some cousins.

Ah yes, smaller feet! That was unexpected but so true. Depending on the type of shoe I'm down a 1/2 size to 1 1/2 sizes. At my highest weight I was wearing a 10 1/2 (women's) for pumps, but now I'm a size 9. For ankle boots I need a 9 1/2, though. Most of the time I'm in athletic shoes and dressed casually - it was funny the day I was going out dressed up a bit and my dress shoes wouldn't stay on! Had no idea they'd become way too big. Had to stuff some paper in the toes to make the event since there was no time to get new shoes.

Part of this may be because I'm much healthier now and am no longer retaining water in my legs and feet. Most of my shoes got donated if they were in good shape. Luckily I was never an Imelda Marcos-type person with hundreds of shoes.

On 3/15/2020 at 2:11 AM, Arabesque said:

I dropped from an Aust size 18 to size 6. The smallest size I’d ever been in the past was a size 10 so I’ve well passed the point I can wear the smaller clothes I’d kept from that time too. I have noticed my body shape is different from when I’d lost weight previously. Always was very hour glass shaped but am now more up & down now. Could be because of my age & the impact of menopause but also because the last kgs I’ve lost have totally come off my hips, butt & breasts.

I donated bags & bags of clothing to St Vincent de Paul (keep finding more pieces to donate as I work through closets & cupboards) but did keep my high end clothes. Sold a few high end pieces to off set the cost of my new wardrobe. Also donated some of the high end to a fundraiser for fire relief here in Aust.

Fortunately I only went down a half size in shoes. I offered the few that are too big for me to some girl friends but they wear larger sizes so they’ll be going to some cousins.

I love giving to St. Vincent's..... I NEVER give to Goodwill anymore... I stopped buying there also. I prefer paying a little more at a consignments shop.
Last time i cleaned out my clothes.... i gave them to a fellow WLS patient..... Posted on the site that i had stuff to give away.... bam... gone