Bruises you can't explain — no remembered knock, appearing on thighs and calves — feel like carelessness. In the right pattern, they're a diagnostic hallmark. The fat tissue affected by lipoedema isn't ordinary fat: its small blood vessels are fragile, breaking under contact too minor to notice, which is why easy bruising sits beside tenderness in every clinical description of the condition.
That's also what makes this question a separator. Ordinary weight gain doesn't bruise and doesn't hurt to the touch; lipoedema does both. A woman whose legs are heavy, tender to moderate pressure, and mottled with mystery bruises is describing tissue behaviour — not lifestyle — and that combination is precisely what "have you tried losing weight?" fails to explain.
If you answered yes: count it as one leg of the lipoedema tripod — disproportion (with spared feet), tenderness, bruising. Worth saying at an appointment exactly as it happens: "I find bruises on my legs without remembering any knock." One boundary: sudden widespread bruising everywhere, or bruising with other bleeding, is a different question — that one goes promptly to a GP on its own merits.