Do you still feel "fat" mentally after a lot of weight loss?

Lyadeia

Yeah, I have total body dysmorphia...

Doesn't seem to matter how much weight I lose, I'm always chunky in my mind. When my profile picture was taken (this was a couple years ago when I was about 20 pounds lighter than now) I commented on how my belly was fat and poofy. I wish I was joking...and I wish my belly was that "fat and poofy" now. :ohwell:

JoyceJoanne

My counselor said to take photos throughout your weightloss journey. Post them (along with before pics) where you can see them daily. Your brain will eventually see the "fat person" evolve into the thinner version and will adapt. She says it will take time, but doing this will do the trick.
Good luck.

Annakersey7212

not anymore, but i used too think so frequently. it goes away after time!

Sublog

During my 15 month weight loss journey, I've found that my self image lagged behind my physical image 3 months or so. I won't stop until i achieve the body of my dreams.

Levedi

Oh yeah. I think that's a big part of why I regained the 50lbs I lost on WW. i still felt like a fat person disguised in a skinnier body so giving up on the healthy eating felt like going back to my real self. I had to adjust my thinking about myself before I could tackle the weight loss again. Some days I feel like I'm making progress. Other days i feel like a giant slug. For me it's really important to keep focused on being healthy, rather than on being skinny. Skinny thinking leads to failure in my experience. Healthy thinking leads to progress.

Jenn_W

I still do daily. I too wear a medium but reach for something bigger.

Best thing for me to to show myself the before and current pictures.

lolollama

I do!

Every time I look in the mirror I see myself about 20kg(44lbs) heavier than I am!

For some reason I find that If i take a photo of myself I can see the difference but the mirror plays tricks with my mind!

Sometimes I have to go back and look at my before photos to realise how much weight I have lost.

emilysebastian

Not only do I often feel this way (except right after a workout... then when I look in the mirror I'm magically transformed to a hot hard-body vixen), but I'm completely out of whack vs people around me that are the same size. Example--my MIL is actually a size larger in pants than me, but I can't see that when I look in the mirror (EVEN with her right next to me)... somehow, my brain inflates my legs or something!!! Or, I think to myself, if I'm a size Small top, then half the population must be an XS or their shirts must need to be taken-in, because everyone is still smaller than me!
I hope it doesn't take another 29 years to reverse this thinking :ohwell:

MzBug

I am a little more than half way to goal, and still "see" a fat woman in the mirror. I catch a glimps in the mirror and don't recognize myself. My brain knows I am 83 pounds smaller, my eyes just don't see it. Maybe when I drop the remaining 60 pounds my eyes will catch up.

wongwl

It's important to not allow your value to be dictated by others.
The fat mentality can be a subconscious defense mechanism activated
against critics, existing; or would be critics.

Somehow, you want to allow yourself to judge yourself first before anybody does.
This is perfectly understandable when you have pretty much been living behind the
perceptions of others. I had an issue with my weight for a long time. Been skinny and chubby
over and over again over my entire life. I would say that I sway to and forth pretty often over the recent years.

People can make unkind remarks and say the darn-est things.
I have had people who didn't believe in some of the things I said because they
didn't believe that then, the physically "fat" person could be capable of such things.
Honestly, all those comments and conversation topics then were so juvenile and
superficial but it affected me and I knew that they were shallow.

I knew that they judging from their perceived judgements and frankly, I was rather pissed.
I told myself that no one deserves to be put down or to feel any lesser than the skinny person
next to them. I didn't want to conform and be just another skinny person at the same time
because I didn't think that just by being thin, I would have a sky-high self esteem.

I wanted to live the life I wanted.
Look and feel good and not need to be bothered by insensitive people.

As such, I have lost 10kg since over the past few months with a lot of exercise.
I still snack a lot and eat a lot of unhealthy food, but I try to keep track and balance it out with
loads of water coupled with gym 3--4 times a week.

I can say that I'm very satisfied and confident now.
More so because I didn't cave in the the society demands of being stick-thin.
I didn't starve myself to achieve a physique for others.
I got back in shape to feel good. It was for myself and that was the huge difference.

Don't punish yourself for something that isn't even your fault.
The society and people have formed a consensus of the ideal physique of the human,
but you shouldn't undermine your looks and self esteem based on that scale.
Learn to feel good about yourself and everything will fall in place.

fronc

This isn't just me wahoooo!

I'm not quite at my goal weight, as I reached it, then decided I still wasn't quite happy.

I think it's such a mental thing - we've spent so long thinking of ourselves as the fat friend and feeling self-conscious in everything and it totally takes a while to figure out that we're different people now.

I am still pretty obsessive about the scale - if I don't weigh in for a whole week I freak out that I have no idea if I'm losing or not! But it's gonna get better for all of us!

lolainlondon

I think it's familiarity. Friends I see every day have noticed my weight loss less than those I see infrequently, because the change is gradual. I think if we all avoided mirrors and shiny surfaces for a few weeks/months we would see the difference more too. That's why I think before and after pictures help - we can't say what's different now from last week, but we can see how different we look from 3/6/9 months ago.

My big one is the clothing sizes. I have schooled myself to pick up my new size, but I'm still always a little convinced the shop assistant is looking at the sizes I've picked up and thinking I'm deluded. I guess over time it will go away, but it is quite crazy. I spent a lot of time this summer wondering if outsize styles were in and that was why things were fitting me.

Shausil82

I still feel fat. My highest weight was 240 (which was when I was in high school). I got down to 180-190 for a few years. Then up, then down. When I started losing weight this year, I was 190. When I started here I was 185. I'm 159.5 right now and I still feel like I did when I was 200 pounds. I'm less than 15 pounds away from my ultimate goal, and still feels like it's impossible to get down to a healthy weight. But I keep trying. I've come so far, I can't quit.

Pidders89

I feel the same. i know i have lost weight but mentally i still feel the same about myself

xxx

sc1572

yep! sometimes i feel like the more i lose, the bigger i feel. we all have good and bad days...hang in there!

Manysongs

Yes!! Even though I've dropped 59 lbs and 4 dress sizes my mind still sees me as fat! I sometimes look in the mirror and feel like I haven't made any changes at all.
Recently I found some before pictures and took some pics of myself now. I can finally see a difference! I have to keep looking at them especially when I get that "nothings changed feeling". It really helps! Hopefully my mental picuture will catch up with my actual progress soon. Good luck to you!

bflicker11

YES!!!! I do still feel fat. I still have a bit more to lose but not too much. I always go for the higher sized pants because I forget that I'm now a size 12. When an attractive fit man flirts, I think, "I guess he likes fat chicks." My brain will eventually catch up. I hope!!!

MrsT99

My big one is the clothing sizes. I have schooled myself to pick up my new size, but I'm still always a little convinced the shop assistant is looking at the sizes I've picked up and thinking I'm deluded

I have had exactly the same thoughts cross my mind when heading to pay several times now.

I'm not so bad in clothes nowadays but looking in the mirror in my underwear I still feel pretty big and want to get off the last few

(Edited as I put cross my minds - I don't have a split personality)

forsophia2009

I feel the same way though granted I still have a very long journey ahead of me. But my loss is so slow that I get used to my new size before moving in to another so it doesn't feel like I have lost much. Looking at before and after comparison pictures really helps!

adrian_indy

Yes and no. While I do get more confident when I am thinner, I am still a little self conscience about things. Growing up chubby made my learn to make people laugh and be self deprecating. How you feel about yourself is tied to directly to your mental state as well as your physical shape.