Is it "normal" to feel fat everyday?

purplishblue

What are your opinions- where is the line between Body Dysmorphia, vs the normal feeling of being out of shape and unhappy about it? Curious because I personally feel unhappy with my weight every single day. My BMI is on the upper end of "normal". If I tried not to think so negatively, I worry that I wouldn't try to diet/get in better shape though!

tomatoey

I'd put it this way: something like 50% of people without BDD are dissatisfied with their bodies. (Probably a higher percentage than that if it's just women who are counted.) But people with BDD are highly preoccupied, often focusing on their dissatisfaction for 1 or more hours a day (sometimes 3-8 hours). Do you feel unhappy just when you dress or really look at yourself in the mirror, e.g. trying on clothes? (I would say a lot of people who don't have BDD have thoughts like that, even daily, just not for very long and not very intensely.) Or do you kind of get stuck on thinking about it, and nothing else, for longer periods?

Does thinking about your body distress you so much it interferes with what you'd normally do, like you won't leave the house if you don't feel ok about it, or you get very anxious and distressed about leaving the house because of how you feel about your appearance? (and eg change clothes or hairstyles many times before leaving)?

Would most people say you looked fine?

Chickpeas242

I have felt fat for most of my life, through periods when I was underweight due to an eating disorder, when I got to a healthy weight and still now, when I am legitimately overweight. I think it is a battle in the mind that you have to overcome. It's good to want to exercise and be healthy, but when you are constantly feeling fat or calling yourself fat is when you have to look inward and do some self-care. It's a problem that I still struggle with.

ibnfaqir

yes

Zedeff

We often say that there's a difference between depression and just being unhappy; sometimes life actually DOES suck, and if you have real, chronic reasons to be miserable, that's not he same as having depression.

I suppose the same is true here. If you've known yourself for years as "fat" then thinking of yourself as "fat" is entirely normal or expected. It's not dysmorphia if it's true, or at least, was true in recent memory.

barbecuesauce

I feel fatter now than I did when I was obese. I am 6 pounds above goal and plan to take several months off from cutting once I reach goal. I will have a BMI of 21 and I currently feel huge, something I don't see changing in the next couple of months.

I don't know that I have BDD because I am aware that my self-image is a distortion. But I don't know where I will find a stopping place.

tomatoey

barbecuesauce wrote: »

I feel fatter now than I did when I was obese. I am 6 pounds above goal and plan to take several months off from cutting once I reach goal. I will have a BMI of 21 and I currently feel huge, something I don't see changing in the next couple of months.

I don't know that I have BDD because I am aware that my self-image is a distortion. But I don't know where I will find a stopping place.

this is so common. i think there are kinds of distortions and dysmorphias that are particular to the weight loss experience.

there's the cognitive distortion of perceiving your body in space as bigger than it is after loss (the lag). I remember bumping into doors and chairs way more often when I first lost.

the "whoosh" and the "jiggly" phase before it are confusing, i mean your body even feels different.

there are the expectations people have about their goal bodies (or remembered bodies, if they were previously thin), which may not be met at the end. things like loose skin are hard to deal with, especially after all the work that came before it.

i think it's really interesting, actually, i hope someone's doing research on it.

i think lifting/building muscle mass is a proactive way of coping with that. but i think some people do see it as an ongoing, never-to-be-finished project. i wonder if focusing so much on building particular body parts for aesthetic reasons might make it easier to see imperfections.

some people (like me) can't lift to the point where it would make a significant enough visual difference to address the gap between ideals and reality, for whatever reasons (eg injuries, illnesses, disabilities).
like i'd love to have a very strong, athletic-looking body, but that's just not within reach (for now, at least...). i feel mild dissatisfaction when I let myself think about it, but i try not to let myself think about it too often. and even though lately, I've been off my workouts more than on (because of injuries etc), i'm still working on it in my head and hope i will be able to go further with it for real in the future. probably at least partially delusional about what i can achieve, but some delusion is healthy