Body Dsymorphia??

Kindlesprite

I feel like the more weight I lose, the more negatively I feel about my body and self-image. Does anyone else struggle with this issue? I think that I have problems with body dsymorphia, because when I look in the mirror I feel like I looked thinner when I weighed more and didn't keep track of calories. I know that I am actually quite thin based on my BMI, which is 19, so I mostly try to ignore these feelings, but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on a positive way to turn around the way I view my body?

suppakana

Take pictures, lots and lots of pictures. Ask other people to take pictures of you and send them to you. I find that a lot of the times I look in mirrors (or any reflective surface, really) and catch a glimpse of myself, I see the worst things.

"Ugh, my hair is such a mess."
"Wow, look at that muffin top... hot"
"Maybe I should've had mom pick out my clothes today, am I really an adult?"

However... Looking at pictures of myself from someone else's viewpoints, I almost always see them differently, and find myself/my body more attractive.

Also, get dry erase markers and write nice things on all of your mirrors like "HOT MAMA!" and big hearts around where your face usually are. Small things can make a big difference over time.

forkofpower

Same. My BMI is technically lower end of normal, but I look very large to myself, for some reason. I am astounded when people tell me I am thin. I would also appreciate some advice about this

chadya07

positive self talk? tell yourself you are more than just your body? lift weights if you feel that you look fat when you are thin, if there is truth to it.

but honestly, you probably are thinking more about it because you are counting calories, where before you wouldnt be looking so hard.

i noticed the same thing, that i look more critically at myself now because i am working on it. before i tended to ignore problems because i was in denial. its pretty normal to look more critically when you have goals i imagine.

amusedmonkey

Yes it is. Almost everyone has it in some shape or form when their body changes somehow. I feel more fat now than I did a year ago when I was 30 pounds heavier (because it was the lowest I got before gaining 5 pounds and then maintaining). My memory of the event does not represent the truth, so my current body by comparison feels fatter.

There are phases where I thought I was quite thin, but I'm actually thinner now. The reason I still believe I was thinner then is because what I recall is not the actual event, but it's a memory of a memory (a memory of the way I used to remember myself being thin when I was at my highest weight).

When I dug out pictures of those phases it was confirmed. My memory was just distorted and I was really heavier than I am now.


I was actually reading a book about this very thing a few weeks ago, how deceiving our memory can be.

You can read a bit about the theory here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructive_memory

tl;dnr: Compare before and after pictures of yourself (don't use the mirror). I just thought the theory was quite interesting to share.

DaFibble

Yes. I have struggled with this for as long as I've been aware of self-image. It got so bad in my late teens and early twenties that I pushed myself to male anorexia. I was built like an ox, with so little BF that I was seriously unhealthy. Didn't matter. I still felt unhappy with how I looked. I wanted my physique to look like guys did in boy's magazines. I had no idea the guys I wanted to look like had small frames and had built up muscle. Instead, I looked *big* (in a culture at the time that didn't like that). It didn't matter how much attention I got, how much people outwardly commented on how good I looked (which I craved), I felt like I was was hideous.

Realise you're dealing with an unreasonable, irrational view of yourself. Its wrong, its weird, its messed up and its dangerous. You have to fight back against the BS in your head and what's out there!

What worries me a little is that, from your photos, you look outstanding and yet you still feel that you have to lose more for your girlfriend. No. The fact you avoid eating entirely when you diet is a major warning sign. I can't help feeling you should work on your psychological and normal physical health instead.

Jennifer10723

In my mind I think I look smaller than I am. I look in the mirror and I'm like .. That is so not what this outfit looked like in my head!

yopeeps025

Wow just notice all my profile pic. In pic one I weighted the smallest I was in 10 years from the photo. I lost a lot of muscle and looked like crap so I quit. That has not happen with pic three being smaller and weighing 15 pounds more. Middle pic I guess I never notice I was that big during that time. Even now though I still see myself as so much fat that has to be lost when I do not think the numbers would agree.