My Boyfriend Says I Reverse Catfished Him and It’s Now His Favorite Story To Tell

Typically, online catfishing refers to a situation when someone takes photos and information from other people, and uses it to create a new persona for themselves to trick or use their victims.

But in this case, everything is very different: a Redditor shared a story of her “pretending” being her old self on a dating app to avoid being used by people who go purely on looks.

Let’s read the story and find out why this girl decided to “catfish” her potential dates.

So I had been online dating unsuccessfully for almost 8 months. A lot of matches. A lot of first dates. But no second dates. A lot of the guys and I would continue talking after the first date, but we would soon become intimate. I made it clear that I wasn’t looking to do that within the first few weeks of meeting someone, and that I needed an emotional connection and trust with someone to be able to enjoy it. So I refused advances and invites back to their houses on many first dates. I even had one guy straight up tell me he wasn’t willing to commit until we had been intimate. It really did a number on my self worth and made me feel as though guys saw me as “attractive,” but not dateable...

So I decided to use photos from when I was 70 lbs heavier. I figured it’d weed out the guys who didn’t want to actually get to know me. The number of matches I received dropped significantly. When I did match with guys, they’d soon disappear from my match queue or would never respond when I sent them my first message — no matter how cute or personalized it was. Finally, I matched with a guy who not only messaged me back, but also enthusiastically conversed with me and asked me out for a first date after a week of talking. We got along so well, and I felt so comfortable talking to and getting to know him because the fear that I was going to be used was almost obsolete.

I was the most nervous I’d ever been driving to our first date, and made sure I had more than enough time to look nice and be there on time. The look on his face when he finally saw me in person will forever be engraved in my mind. It was a look of pure shock and awe, and although he didn’t say anything right then, I had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking, LOL. We had already talked about our dating experiences, and so he knew that I never got second dates. Near the end of the date, after much laughter and in-depth conversation, he spent the last 30 mins of our time together staring at me in wonder and repeatedly saying, “I don’t get it.” He later told me that he walked into our first date with the mentality of “I’m here to meet this girl who seems pretty cool and we’ll see where it goes” and that by the end of the date, he couldn’t stop thinking to himself, “I cannot mess this up.”

Long story short, he was the only guy I dated in the 8 months I did OLD who was intentional with pursuing a relationship with me, and that intentionality is what made me feel comfortable enough to trust him enough to fall for him completely.

He sometimes randomly brings up how lucky he feels to have met me, but boy, if only he knew just how lucky I feel to have met a guy who was willing to take a chance on me. He’s amazing and treats me as such. © cw9241 / Reddit

The story gained a lot of positive replies and put a big smile on Redditors’ faces. And some of them admitted they had similar experience.

• Such a sweet story. When I used dating apps, I would put up an average pic. No point in trying to impress others with your appearance if you want to make meaningful connections. © noiseferatu / Reddit
• Your unsuccessful dating stories sound a lot like mine and honestly you are an inspiration for me! I’ve been unsuccessfully dating on and off for a lot longer than you, but for generally the same reasons. © chmtastic / Reddit
• Oh my god. You’re a genius, first of all. I’m definitely gonna use this ninja technique. Secondly, this is so wholesome. I’m so happy you 2 found each other. © incognito_anxiety / Reddit
• I’m married to a woman who was 90 lbs heavier when we first met. I was bold and kissed her on our first date, she ensnared me that quickly! She lost that 90 lbs in the year leading up to our wedding and I lost 50. It’s kind of a crazy bonding experience to lose weight together. She tells everyone she knows I’m legit because I loved her when she was “fat.” © 50dkpMinus / Reddit
• I did something similar and only used photos of myself sweaty, in the gym (and not in a cute way) with no makeup, and exhausted. He looked at my profile and said, “Man she seems really cool and fun...”. He showed up to our first date and looked shocked. We’re engaged now. © renaissance-****ist / Reddit
• I love this. I took a similar approach to online dating, where the first thing I did in my description was lay out what I see as all my worst flaws. I too had great success with the strategy. I got several great matches, and I’m over the moon happy with the one that is now my boyfriend of 7 months. I highly recommend the strategy, at least for women. It cuts down on the number of matches, so the process is a lot less overwhelming, it takes away a lot of the anxiety that you may have about your self perceived flaws, and the matches you get are much more likely to be compatible with you. © BalaclavaSportsHall / Reddit
• This story just made my morning, also reading through these wholesome comments gives me such hope for humanity. I’m admittedly a hopeful romantic and it gives me such an oxytocin rush to see people in love and gushing over their partner. Love is hard to find (romantic or platonic), but when you do find it, I think it makes it all worth it. © brittanicax / Reddit

What do you think about this wholesome “catfish” story? Please tell us in the comments.