I've lost almost 40 lbs and I am not looking forward to sizing out of clothes. I don't have any clothes from my previous weight losses and so far my clothes are a bit loose but since I had recently gained 25 lbs during COVID, they aren't too bad, except for some I bought at my heaviest, and those are just long sleeve t-shirts, so it doesn't matter. I have noticed that my pants start to fall down when I exercise, so I might be getting close on that score...

For environmental/human rights reasons I don't want to buy a lot of cheap clothes and the thrift shops near me are pretty gross. Also, for some reason they are arranged by color rather than size so it's impossible to find anything. I'm wondering how long I can put off buying clothes that fit, since I usually work from home except when I travel, about once a month.

Has anyone done Thread Up? I did Gwynnie Bee (plus size clothing rental) when I lost weight the last time, but it doesn't really work with my current lifestyle of working from home and traveling once a month for a few days.

16 hours ago, Luna Girl said:

I have started to take my clothes that are too big to my local women's shelter. And will start to buy at consignment. All about recycling! ?

I just took some too small clothes to the women's shelter... and then started on this journey and started to lose weight! I will have to see what we have in Boston area by way of consignment.

On 06/10/2021 at 11:54, lizonaplane said:

I just took some too small clothes to the women's shelter... and then started on this journey and started to lose weight! I will have to see what we have in Boston area by way of consignment.

Hey-you’re in Boston? I’m living and working here this summer as a travel nurse. I’ve only found one consignment store here-it was on Newbury St so the prices were insane. $200 for a used dress??? I don’t care what brand it is, I’m not paying that!!! I’ll let you know if I find any others.

1 hour ago, kristieshannon said:

Hey-you’re in Boston? I’m living and working here this summer as a travel nurse. I’ve only found one consignment store here-it was on Newbury St so the prices were insane. $200 for a used dress??? I don’t care what brand it is, I’m not paying that!!! I’ll let you know if I find any others.

Yah, Boston is expensive and Newbury St is ridiculous. I try not to shop downtown, but if you don't have a car you might be limited to that, since the T doesn't go very far outside the city and Cambridge. I live in the suburbs. You could check the Somerville area maybe?

I shop on thredUP! I love it. Their pictures are bad and the descriptions are worse but I’ve gotten some super deals. My advice
1. There’s a promo code going on all the time, so don’t buy without one.
2. There are great and terrible deals- ignore the retail prices listed. Set what you’re willing to pay per item.
3. Shop by brand. I buy a lot of Ann Taylor, loft, limited, ModCloth, stitchfix brands, etc there. I know how these brands fit me.
4. Overall it’s a lot of fun- not every item is a winner but enough are that I have made multiple hauls!

I've lost 60 lbs and I'm confused

There are a few Bariatric Weightloss forums on Facebook that have “stores” for gently used clothes in all sizes. One of them is Bariatric Family. Might not hurt to see if there is one in your area. I have done it a couple of times. The clothes are always super nice

6 hours ago, Imodjin said:

I've lost 60 lbs and I'm confused

What are you confused about?

Update: I initially started this post WAY back. I've gone from a 3x/24 to a M/10! What I did was buy some stuff at thrift stores, and then a few things in stores/online, just enough for a week's worth of clothes in any one size. I have found that I can actually wear things a BIT big, so for example, the pants I just bought (one pair of casual pants and one pair of jeans) are a size 10, but today I am wearing size 14 dressier pants, which are loose, but since they're stretchy, they don't look ridiculous. Also, I have some shirts in every size from S-XL that fit.

I had all sorts of hopes to get everything from thrift stores but in the end, I am too picky for that. I have been donating my "bigger" clothes on Buy Nothing or if no one in my neighborhood wants them, I donate them to the thrift store. Mostly I'm able to give my bigger clothes to my neighbors on Buy Nothing, so they are not going in a landfill just yet!

Quote

You can buy clothes like people usually do in the stores, or purchase them online. And don't waste your money buying thousands of looks and accessories. Buy only clothes you need and really want and will wear. And if you don't already need anything (like a T-Shirt that's too small and short) I advise you to give your old things to charity or recycle them. For example, I use birmingham green waste removal services that help me get rid of unnecessary things.

totally agree with that!
we should throw anything just in bins
better recycle

On 6/9/2021 at 11:35 AM, LaoDaBeirut said:

I suggest getting a couple belts and then when you're choosing new things, get things that either have a belt or an elastic waist that can be cinched in. Otherwise a dress with smocking on the top can stretch a lot.

Agree! I know this is an old post, but it might help people who are newer to the surgery. I still buy dresses with belts. I also took some of my dresses that were size 2X and 3X, and learned some easy Tailoring. Since the arm holes were huge, I folded some of the fabric together under the armpit, and sewed it together. My bigger dresses now fit still, and I wear a size 12/14.

To date, I've gone from a size AU/UK 24 (US 20) to an AU/UK 16 (US 12), so I can now buy from most "regular size" stores. But because I'm still losing, I've been buying second hand jeans and pants off Ebay. I'm able to wear the smallest clothes I had in storage from before my obese years, so it's nice finally giving those (now vintage) items some love before they too start to look too big on me.

I've given a metric tonne of clothing to goodwill, and will be pretty much sticking where possible to buying second hand stuff until I reach maintenance. Then I plan on doing the whole sustainable capsule wardrobe thing, along with thrifting.

You should take all your measurements and find some online size charts. Then look up what body parts you want to emphasize (small waist) and what you want to hide. See what styles work with that criteria. Sounds like a lot of work but for so many years I spent hiding away because of my weight. You might find that shopping is a bit more fun now. More than once as I was trying on clothes long since hidden in my closet, I heard my husband (who I thought was asleep, ask, “Are you done playing dress-up yet?” Lol

On 6/10/2021 at 8:42 PM, blackcatsandbaddecisions said:

I shop on thredUP! I love it. Their pictures are bad and the descriptions are worse but I’ve gotten some super deals. My advice
1. There’s a promo code going on all the time, so don’t buy without one.
2. There are great and terrible deals- ignore the retail prices listed. Set what you’re willing to pay per item.
3. Shop by brand. I buy a lot of Ann Taylor, loft, limited, ModCloth, stitchfix brands, etc there. I know how these brands fit me.
4. Overall it’s a lot of fun- not every item is a winner but enough are that I have made multiple hauls!

I endorse all of these suggestions. I work in a conservative business attire organization. Although the pandemic gave me some leeway in terms of sizing down over time, now that office work and in-person meetings are occurring, I need suitable business clothing (pun intended). ThredUp is part of my arsenal.

I’d add to the above the following suggestions:

1. Filter clothing by “excellent condition” or “new with tags” — I’ve found anything graded below that to be rolling the dice.

2. I don’t buy final sale items unless they are dirt cheap (<$5). I haven’t tried ThredUp outlet; maybe that’s an exception.

3. Batch orders so it makes sense to return items.

4. Even though they say they don’t accept clothing past 5 years old … they clearly do carry a number of “vintage” brands, and fit by sizing has changed over time for many brands.

5. Don’t buy designer labels without price-checking against designer resellers (RealReal, etc) — sites that specialize in premium labels have more thorough vetting info available and often better prices. I haven’t invested in designer, but I have tried a few fine-fiber fabrics — cashmere, merino — via ThredUp and again would not suggest doing this unless it’s New with Tags and returnable.

6. The app and the web interface have different functionality. I find searching refinements to be easier to do online. Their e-commerce platform is constantly tweaked, so mileage varies.

7. You will (not) grow to love the frequency of black clothing put on a black mannequin for photographing so that little-to-no details can be discerned. ?

This thread is older but for anyone still browsing: also check local Facebook support groups. I’m in a St. Louis one and Kansas City one and we exchange clothes all the time for my local. The KC one is my surgeons city and they have a clothing closet for patients. I bet a lot of major cities have Bariatric Facebook groups.

My way is to go to a local secondhand shop and find something nice there. Clothes there are usually of much better quality than in the shops, and you can easily find famous clothing brands there. I buy new very seldom and only when I need something specific like this Drawstring bags bulk from Amazon. I could not find it anywhere else, and I wanted this particular bag, so I got it. I don’t care much about what other people would say and just wear something I feel comfortable in and something that I like. This is the golden rule for me in terms of clothing.

Edited June 23, 20224 yr by Samsontryn