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

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!