When did you stop feeling like you were still fat (if ever)?

srcurran

I had been overweight for 40 years. I have now been a normal weight for a years and I finally feel healthy.

Kerryatoon

I still feel the same.. as I did 25 lbs ago. I'm 5'5" 148. I have body image issues anyway due to the fact that I'm a breast cancer survivor and had mastectomies, I liken it to a form of body dysmorphia similar to what trans people feel. I feel like a woman all the time, but when I'm naked I feel like my body (on top at least) looks like a man. The only time I can visually see my progress is in photos. I take lots of photos..lol..I think its healing for me to see my own beauty and strong femininity that way.

neldabg

I have mixed feelings/thoughts about this question. I think I stopped feeling physically fat as soon as I reached a healthy BMI. After a brief period of phantom fat, I found that my brain automatically accepts whatever it processes in the mirror, pictures, and/or the scale. On top of that, yoga became much more enjoyable/easier at a healthy BMI. Therefore, I no longer felt physically fat since that time. Honestly, I only continued losing more weight since then for personal vanity purposes.
However, I still catch shadows of my former fat self in my behavior. For example, while I'm getting better at it, I *still* sometimes buy really large quantities of food. I have to take active measures to remind myself that I don't need to buy so much anymore since I no longer live a life where I'd eat my groceries within a day or two. I have to stop myself from stashing junk food; I still like my junk food, but I find that just a little keeps me satisfied, so there's no need to buy more than one serving anymore.
There are indeed times where I think, "Oh yeah. Right. I am petite." It caught me off guard for a second when about two weeks ago, someone said that because I was "tiny," there would be more than enough room to fit other people in the car. For the most part, though, I feel my size. When I go clothes shopping, I head straight for the small sizes. I truly feel comfortable/normal at my current size. I didn't have major self-esteem issues before losing weight, so maybe that's why I didn't feel fat for as long as some other successful losers? I think it also really helped that I lost weight away from home and away from the people that knew me as an obese person. As I met new people, I kind of "forgot" that I used to weigh so much. It's only upon scrolling through old pictures on my phone or seeing those who knew me before that I have a moment of remembrance that indeed, I was once obese. It almost seems unreal to me now.

TangledThread

I stopped feeling fat every day once I got 8 lbs into the healthy BMI. Now I only feel fat on the days I'm physically uncomfortable and my skin feels too tight...TOM...high sodium meals...ect. I can tell I look the same in the mirror but those days I feel icky and unattractive and fat. "Fat days" happen more often than I would have guessed.

arditarose

I don't think I have ever felt like I hit goal, even though I've fluctuated within the same few pounds for the past year. I would rather be 18% body fat...because I still see so much fat, even though I'm not fat. It's just not good enough for me personally

amyvanblaricom

victoria_1024 wrote: »

Still feel fat, new to maintenance after losing almost 90 lbs. I know logically that I'm not fat but I do still have plenty of fat on my body so it's easy to focus on that.

This is how I'm feeling. People call me skinny but I still fat especially naked. It's hard to get past.

Lynzdee18

I have lost 63 pounds since July of last year and have been maintaining for the past 3 months.

I didn't feel thin until today when my usual jeans were in the wash and it was too cold to wear shorts.... So I went to the back of my closet and found a pair of favourite boyfriend jeans that I wore last summer. I put them on to find that they fall down over my hips and pool at my ankles. That made me realize that my hips are now smaller than my waist was back in July.

I fnally feel thin, even though in pictures for the past few months I've looked fit and thin. It's really hard to shake that fat image that you hold in your head......

KathyApplebaum

It took losing 95 pounds and running a half marathon before I stopped thinking of myself as fat. I had a few aha moments in the same couple of weeks. I realized I was no longer dreading sitting where chairs were pushed up next to each other, because I didn't spill over any more. On a business trip I pulled out a snack mid-morning, and no longer felt like I should hide it from everyone. And I had to make an emergency shopping trip for a dress (because everything in my closet is too large - yay!), and I realized I was confident the store would have my size in anything I looked at. Honestly, it was a little mind blowing.

EttaMaeMartin

yoga has stopped the voices telling me i still have the extra 20 still. people noticing and commenting has helped, but still have to stay vigilant as to not let it sneak back. it was so hard to lose this time as i am on prednisone for life. really affects your hunger. it can be done...proved my doctor wrong. my bmi is 23 now!

Tedebearduff

JessicaMcB wrote: »

Hi Maintainers! I'm not here yet for another 24lbs (God willing by Christmas!) but I figured this would be a better place to ask this rather than in the weight loss boards for a longer term perspective.

When if ever did you stop feeling like you were fat/overweight/whatever term you prefer? Do you still find yourself doing things you did when you were overweight (ex. avoiding sitting near other people in a waiting area because you were taking up more than your fair share of chair, etc.)?

TIA for any thoughts you have

It's been 4 years, I still don't see myself the way others describe me now. I pretty much see a fat guy at all times, after year 1 I stopped doing things like getting out of peoples way assuming I was still 355lbs, I don't think it will ever change for me.

KetoneKaren

Kerryatoon wrote: »

I still feel the same.. as I did 25 lbs ago. I'm 5'5" 148. I have body image issues anyway due to the fact that I'm a breast cancer survivor and had mastectomies, I liken it to a form of body dysmorphia similar to what trans people feel. I feel like a woman all the time, but when I'm naked I feel like my body (on top at least) looks like a man. The only time I can visually see my progress is in photos. I take lots of photos..lol..I think its healing for me to see my own beauty and strong femininity that way.

@Kerryatoon Yes, you are beautiful and feminine. I love your avatar.

chrisnicholson714

I lost 165 pounds this last 3 years I'm down to 150 and I still feel like I'm fat guess I got a little extra skin around my stomach, I work out twice a day because of it and I'm always worried I'm gonna gain my weight back if I slow down

2011rocket3touring

Kerryatoon wrote: »

I still feel the same.. as I did 25 lbs ago. I'm 5'5" 148. I have body image issues anyway due to the fact that I'm a breast cancer survivor and had mastectomies, I liken it to a form of body dysmorphia similar to what trans people feel. I feel like a woman all the time, but when I'm naked I feel like my body (on top at least) looks like a man. The only time I can visually see my progress is in photos. I take lots of photos..lol..I think its healing for me to see my own beauty and strong femininity that way.

Much love to you. A friend of my wife's is also a breast cancer survivor, she was so self conscious about it. It was odd to me because she was so pretty and the cutest bottom.

AnnPT77

Kerryatoon wrote: »

I still feel the same.. as I did 25 lbs ago. I'm 5'5" 148. I have body image issues anyway due to the fact that I'm a breast cancer survivor and had mastectomies, I liken it to a form of body dysmorphia similar to what trans people feel. I feel like a woman all the time, but when I'm naked I feel like my body (on top at least) looks like a man. The only time I can visually see my progress is in photos. I take lots of photos..lol..I think its healing for me to see my own beauty and strong femininity that way.

Sympathies . . . I've been through a similar surgical process (bilateral mastectomies, one simple, one modified radical, no reconstruction). At this point, I guess I've gotten used to how my chest looks, and feel quite comfortable with myself - though I occasionally consider tattooing my chest (mostly when I consider possible reaction from potential partners . . . .).

Going back to OP's question, which has gotten some really interesting reactions: I feel different at different times. I started at 183, which is an obese BMI (I'm 5'5"). Around 140-150 it started to sink in that I was thinner - I would surprise myself when I saw myself in the mirror.

But, then and now, I still tend to move out of people's way in narrow spaces as if I were still just as large. Now, at 120, I vary between feeling no different from before, and feeling freakin' tiny. It surprises me when people I newly meet now assume I've always been thin - when I was fat for so many decades, it seems like still somehow part of me. Clothes that fit look ridiculously small.

I think it helps with my adjustment that I never felt super down on myself about being fat, even though (or because?) I was pretty honest with myself and others about it. I've really never felt alienated from my body at any size, nor by the mastectomies, for that matter.

mpat81

Gamliela wrote: »

I didn't feel fat at my highest weight.... and that was the problem

This is my issue too! I never felt fat until the scale went over 200 lbs, then I joined mfp thinking I'd just try to get back into the 190's where I'd always been. I lost 10 lbs those first few weeks. That's when a light bulb went on that maybe I had been doing something wrong all those years. I established a real goal, hit that, went on to another and another. I've now lost about 55 lbs and have been maintaining there for around 6 months. When I look at old photos I don't remember seeing myself like that in the mirror. I never knew how big I was until all the weight was gone.

Orphia

KathyApplebaum wrote: »

It took losing 95 pounds and running a half marathon before I stopped thinking of myself as fat. I had a few aha moments in the same couple of weeks. I realized I was no longer dreading sitting where chairs were pushed up next to each other, because I didn't spill over any more. On a business trip I pulled out a snack mid-morning, and no longer felt like I should hide it from everyone. And I had to make an emergency shopping trip for a dress (because everything in my closet is too large - yay!), and I realized I was confident the store would have my size in anything I looked at. Honestly, it was a little mind blowing.

@KathyApplebaum I love how you've made these realisations! Congrats on your HM, and on your awesome weight loss!