Dating after losing weight...

Two years ago I weighed nearly 400lbs, and with slow progress over that time I now weigh about 230lbs.  I've been heavy most of my life and as you might imagine at 400lbs I wasn't getting a lot of dates, as a result I didn't naturally socially progress in my teens and my early twenties the way that most people with the benefit of various romantic entanglements might.  Now that I find it somewhat easier to get dates (although I'm still working out many aspects of all the social interactions necessary to negotiate those consistently), I'm finding it really difficult to navigate successfully through them.  Does anyone have any similar experiences and advice on this matter?

Dating is easy if you approach it as a way to make new friends.    It's stressful & awkward (no matter what your size) if you turn up on a date thinking your companion might be 'the special one!!'... and racing ahead with all that imples.   Love at first sight happens, of course it does, but a lot of serious relationships start off first as friendships.

Use a date to find out as much about someone as possible... Ask about their life, their interests, what they enjoy doing, what their pet hates are....   People are always flattered to think you're interested in them.  If you're lucky, they'll do the same thing back and find out more about you.  If you're not lucky you'll get what I call a 'Master of the Me-Niverse'... and they'll talk about themselves all night!!!  (Yawn)  Practise flirting... compliments are always good.  Laughing at someone's jokes.  Smiles are worth a thousand words.  If it works out OK everyone gets to know each other, it's a lot of fun and the romantic sparks start to fly.   If it doesn't work out romantically, you've made a new friend.   Win-win.

I'm in the exact same boat, and I really don't know how to deal with it either.  I went from weighing 340 and hating how I looked and avoiding any contact with the opposite sex, to weighing 225 and looking fairly decent and getting a lot of compliments from ladies that would never have talked to me before.  I tried going out with a girl this summer and I seriously couldn't handle it because I was always wondering what she saw in me, because I was still in that mindset that I was 100+ pounds ago.  I think I'm getting better at it, but it's still some work.