Mixed emotions. My man spoke to me about my weight.

Nicolee_2014

When in my early 30s, for over 3 years I had a boyfriend who always complained about my weight. I am 5' 3 1/2" and he thought I was enormous at 129 pounds. Desperate to hold on to him, I dieted down to 108. He still thought I was fat. He told me, "Your legs should look like mine. Your butt should look like mine." He was 5' 10" and 147 pounds and he did look perfect. I like thin men! But I felt I was too thin at 108. We went to a bookstore and I showed him books with photos of Marilyn Monroe and said, that is an ideal female figure. And he said, "She's a pig."

:noway:

summer92008

I'm kind of in the same boat, except in the opposite way. My boyfriend doesn't want me to lose weight. I am not overweight, but I would like to slim down a little to up my self-esteem. But every time I talk about what I've eaten today, or how many calories I burned while exercising, he gets upset. He says it hurts his feelings because he thinks I am beautiful the way I am and that I'm pretty much ignoring what he says by dieting. He said it also hurts his feelings because I talk about how I need to lose weight when I don't, and he knows he needs to lose weight. He says, "If you aren't happy with yourself the way you are, then how can you possibly find me attractive the way I am?" He is on the bigger side, but he has been the whole time I've been with him and I love him nonetheless. I do wish he would lose some weight just to help his health, but I don't want to mention it. I know in time he will do it on his own. As far as my weight loss goes, I try to just keep it a "secret" from him - I just don't discuss exercising or trying to eat smaller portions, etc. I do feel bad for thinking that yes, he does need to lose weight because I love him and find him attractive the way he is, but I just want him to get healthy so we can live long, happy, healthy lives together.

He sounds a tad insecure, and a little manipulative. Why you ask, bc my EX didn't want me to really WO(he had packed on about 50 lb) so I would sneak out of the house early in the a.m. and run then get back in bed as if nothing happened. Very disturbing looking back at that, but I allowed it, so I can't play the victim.

This is kind of how I feel. I try to not discuss me going on walks every morning because I'm afraid it will make him upset. But, like anyone else, I sometimes catch myself telling him a story about something funny that happened while I was walking. It's hard to keep from speaking about certain parts of your life, especially to your SO. But I definitely do think he is insecure. He says that he is afraid that I will leave him. I try to tell him that I won't and I love him, but that doesn't always make him feel 100% better.