What do you mean you are handsome now, but not before?
I should say handsome is more obvious. When people praise you, they actually mean that you are present. Don't think too much. Even if you are not so good-looking when you are fat, so what? Now you can look good. What is important now is to lose weight and become handsome, even if it is obvious, it is not handsome from the beginning. Wilber Pan and Eddie Peng Yuyan Swift are very famous, and the photos before their debut are not very handsome. Now they can lose weight successfully and kill a group of people dressed up. So when someone praises you for being handsome, you are really handsome now. You can be confident. Don't think too much, give yourself too much pressure, and don't care too much about what others say. It is very likely that others just made an unintentional remark.