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

jaci34

I don't feel fat, which is somewhat surprising to me! I do not feel skinny, which is because I'm not, but I feel healthy and happy with where I'm at!

Cathleenr

when i had lost about 20 pounds and could feel the beginnigns of my hip or shoulder bones, i just couldnt reconcile that to whan i had been feeling (or NOT) for the past 20 years.
as the weight came off, though and i grew muscles....i liked it. i had been wearing 16/18 sized jeans forever, but had some 12's hanging in my closet and the day i could slip them on was fabulous!
THEN the day i went to Nordstroms and was actually able to buy a size 31 off the rack. OMG.
just the other day i went to Buckle (LOVELOVELOVE Buckle!!!) and i told the chick helping me that i needed new jeans, and that i had been weaing some BKE's but the waist was too big and i thought i needed a 28 or 29 (those words have NEVER come out of my mouth when talking about jean sizes). she looked me up and down and said "actually, you might need a 27". i STILL thought "no way". and yet...here i am, wearing my 27's which are NOT tight.....they are comfortable and i'm thinking i'll be in 26's soon. when i hold them up..they look impossibly TINY, but they slide on easily.
plus i rawk in them.
so...being able to actually go into a store and verbalize a small size and actually wear them has really helped with readjusting mymental image. its getting so that i think i may just stay here....all comfy and lean and all .

Lozze

This is why photos are so amazing. I didn't see it (besides my face) before the pictures. Yet there is a massive difference. Every time I feel down I look at my pics. Even saved them on my phone for that reason! need to remind myself how far I've come.

Aussie4870

all the time...no matter where i go i feel like the fattest person in the room...

ive still got a ways to go and im hoping that reaching my goal weight will be the start of shaking this feeling but im honestly not too sure about it...

i can tell myself over and over...you've lost 90lbs...you are not the same person...you do not wear a size 30 or mens 4XL shirt anymore...

but my mind tells me that im still huge and i should just throw on some baggy pants and a huge mens t-shirt and head out the door...since morbidly obese people have no business trying to look cute (this is what i tell myself people...dont take offense)...

glad to see that im not the only one struggling with this issue...

miam4nia

I don't feel fat anymore, but I have a lot of the same self-confidence issues I did when I was obese. My brain hasn't caught up with my body. I think it's probably fairly common, but it stinks. It isn't that I feel fat, but the feelings of being ugly, frumpy, awkward, etc. remain despite the fact that I've shed an entire person worth of weight.

That's exactly how I feel-- I think some of it is that we're so tall. Now that I'm thin(ner), I thought I would feel smaller, but I still am towering over people. I feel like I want to shrink away, but I'm trying to learn to be confident and embrace my height.

I wish I was tall!!! Seriously embrace it because being tall is beautiful and if there was anything I could really wish for is to be really tall!!!! A lot of short girlies like me would love it!!! When you're short, 5 pounds gain/loss shows a lot more so being tall would be much nicer :P

kleavitt1992

oh yea! i feel fat as ever i have to look at pictures to tell myself im not

MîîśÊmÿłõü

Yes!
i actually either have to look at old clothing or pictures to convince myself that i have actualy almost lost 20kgs!
sucks really, but the pictures keep me in my right mindset

narenn

Simply, yes.

abellante_0205

sometimes I do, but looking at pictures, it hits me that I really do look a lot better than i did 2+ yrs ago!

Cold_Steel

HOLY CRAP THIS IS A DOWNER !

LOL seriously. Every body you have accomplished so much. Stand up, be proud, keep up the work and move on. Geeze, three pages of I feel fat is depressing!

This journey is not a one time thing, use these feelings as motivation and work hard dang nabbit !

trud72

yes most def! :noway:

but it is sinking in SLOWLY!

greenhumanclay

Thats a big YES,

Actually today was one of those days where I felt fat and sluggish and still see my self like the same old me 50+ lbs heavier at 5 feet tall. Psychologically Im not on the same page as my body. I have always hated taking photos since I was convinced Im not photogenic, when there is a camera around I want to hide behind people and after the photo is taken I want to see it right away to see how bad I came out, and more recently every time I look at the photo after it has been taken, it takes me a minute to process, " I really look like that" call it body dysmorphia idk but it's going to take longer mentally to adjust to the weight and body changes. One reason I have a body image picture of myself from last month as my default is to remind me Im not obese anymore, a pose I would NEVER allow to be taken. The part that sucks is I hardly have photos of my before except one I keep on my fridge, so you are not alone many of us unfortunately feel this way but it's nice to know Im not alone, great job to those who have changed bad habits and lost weight keep up the hard work!!

cppeace

I guess Im the odd duck here. I've always mentally seen myself as thinner. Ive always shopped for smaller sizes. I cant wait to drop to smaller sizes. I see this thin shapey girl that Ive always seen and cant wait for the mirror to show what Ive always seen in my head
of course I have always had pretty high self esteem so that is probably the difference.

gaeljo

Yep I def have this issue too. I struggle to believe I'm this thin.

Cdcaldwe

I have held onto an old suit. I put it on last night and was amazed. I still need to lose. But at times I still feel self-conscious like i felt when i was at my biggest. My mom had me try on a shirt the other day and she said I hadn't been that size since I was in 9th grade of high school, over twenty years ago.....lol

I take pride in what I have done but i still need some work.

911chell

I Just recently lost 102 lbs and sometimes i feel like I am still 265 ... i feel like I still can run a 5k or hike up a fire access road and make it to the top and still run back the remaining 3 miles. I still feel fat when i look in the mirror and wish i still was smaller. I remind myself you are no longer the fat girl and are cute and spunky (as my friends tell me). It is all in the mind and it will pass once I have been this weight for a while.. SOMEDAY

911chell

I still feel "fat" when i look in the mirror sometime and I still feel "fat" when i struggle to run 6 miles straight, but then i think to myself .. stop feeling that way and get back on track. I recently lost 102 lbs and think back to when i could barely run 1/2 mile with out feeling like i was going to die and my lungs and heart and everyother major body organ were going to explode out of my body. Good days and bad days.. but i just remind myself "I came this far no stopping now":flowerforyou:

joshiesdad

I do almost every day. I have been fat for so long that it is just a hard thing to come to grips with. I am proud of what I have done and I know that I have lost it. It is really hard getting myself to feel it.

Pidders89

I do almost every day. I have been fat for so long that it is just a hard thing to come to grips with. I am proud of what I have done and I know that I have lost it. It is really hard getting myself to feel it.

totally agree!

RAFValentina

I wasn't even technically "Fat" to begin with... yet Ive lost 13 lbs and still think I am... some people say "nO, you're not" but when you're not as skinny as the perceived "hot wome" you are judging yourself on that image and so yes, you still feel fat and that work can be done.

If only we promoted health and not image and that humans weren't all so shallow human beings...

I am shallow, I want to look good. I want to be thin and be perceived as attractive. Its an unhealthy mindset we all need to break and men and women need to understand what normal bodies look like... women should appreciate what a normal man and woman's body looks like in health and vice versa... we all put far too much pressure on ourselves. If we're healthy and not bad looking and not having to do ridiculous things to keep healthy and fit then why are we all so obsessed... I still don't know why...

Ebwash89

Yes! Even sometimes when you have people give you compliments and your clothes are hanging off of you. It takes your mind a while to catch up to your body. Just last night I was talking to my fiance and I was like "Ugh!! I swear I'm gaining the weight back". He told me that I sound crazy because it looks like I lost more and to my surprise I stepped on the scale this morning and was 2 pounds lighter. You can be a size 2 and some days feel fat and frumpy. Sucks

ratherbeskiing

I've lost 70+ and I'm STILL not happy when I look in the mirror.

Ditto

shybelle

Yes. I've lost 85lbs and I still feel really fat. Even when I see before and after pictures I see the diffeence but it's hard to actually "see" the difference. haha. I hope one day it goes away.

withchaco

I was just starting to feel not-too-fat, but then I stopped actively trying to lose weight in order to focus on muscle training. It's been two weeks and I feel fat, despite weighing only half a pound more than I did two weeks ago... :huh:

scribe313

I almost feel as if I have to explain away the weight that I lost, so if I blow up again people won't be surprised. I use to make alot of fat jokes about myself (I don't want to skinny, just stop being jabba the hut large). At first I was bugged that people didn't seem to notice and now everyone one does and that bugs me. lol. My work uniforms hang off me (waiting for new ones gone from 46 to 38 waist and 5x shirt to 2x) and every one jokes about how slim I am or ask how I am doing it. But honestly, I still feel fat. Yes I feel better, and look better, but sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. For a long time being big is who and what i was, and it is taking a bit to shake that off.

Slice1

I know a woman who used to be in the 300's and now weighs 152lbs and is a body builder. She looks outstanding!
She has kept the weight off for 5 or 6 years now, yet even she has days where she feels fat or "thinks" fat.
She calls it Fat Girl Thinking or FGT for short. She says it may never go away.
Another part of FGT is thinking you can have one little nibble of something, or one bite, or eat it just this one time.
Most times you end up eating that whole cake, or that whole bag of chips.
It's hard to go from FGT to HGT (Healthy girl thinking)

So you're not alone.

SmartAlec03211988

Yes, I do feel fat still.

<--- clearly I'm not, though.

shammxo

Sometimes I still picture myself as the short and... stout girl I used to be. I always think I'm really WIDE. And sometimes when I look in the mirror, I can still see it. But for me, it's a matter of putting it back into perspective. I have this friend who I always thought was TINY, and when I stand next to her and "compare", I notice that we really aren't that different. It drives me crazy feeling like this though... Like I'll never be completely satisfied.

mizjohnston

Absolutely! I go through that time to time. I still go to large and extra large but I always end up in a medium. I go straight to 12's/15's but I can fit an 8/11. I just don't see myself that small. You're not alone in this.

BeckaT79

I have lost 40lbs (22 since starting MFP) and I still feel I look like I looked 40lbs ago. The sad part is that when I was at my thinnest (Size 8-10) I felt like I was a size 18. I didn't even notice when I gained the weight, I thought I had always been that big. The plus side, I feel great, I see muscle I didn't even know I had, and I have more energy...That to me makes more of a difference than how I think I look :-)