Does anyone feel the same? (Lost weight but still feel fat?)

TheHerbGarden

Does anyone feel the same?
I am lucky enough to have been able to stick to the diet this time round and have lost almost all the weight that I originally wanted to lose.
But...I still feel fat????
Is that because I've lost it fairly quickly this time???
I know its absolutely ridiculous to feel this way. I look in the mirror and see the evidence.
I'm also so afraid that I won't be able to keep it off and overnight it will just pile on again.
Why?????
All in the head I know but difficult to get it straight in my head. :huh:

81Katz

I totally I hear ya ...

I hope those bad voices will get less and less for me. I'm pretty much at my goal, .2 lbs off, and some days I think whoa I'm hot, other days I look at myself and still see the old fat me. Sometimes in public I catch a reflection of myself in a mirror or a window and have a "holy sh-t!" moment because it's very bizarre seeing myself this size. Almost like an outer body experience. People who haven't been through any of this don't understand how weird it is to see a smaller you.

Nicola1944

OMG this is me!!

Iv lost 4stone! (Yay me :happy: ..... right?)

Other people can tell, im always getting told i look better, have lost weight, its "dropping" off me..... but i do not feel 1lb lighter, and i certainly don't see myself any lighter in the mirror! :sad:

I still feel the same, still have the same issues with my appearence, and still when i go into a shop pick up a size 18! (even though im a 14 now) Sometimes even when i try the smaller ones and they fit, i dont buy them 'cos they dont "feel right"

Im glad other people feel like me (well not glad, cos its bad for you lol) but i HATE it when a friend starts to diet and they reckon as soon as they've lost a pound they can see the difference... erm no you can't on a 180lb 5 foot girl!

Thanks for sharing! Thats my little rant over! haha

x

waldenfam2

I feel the same way to. I'm actually down 40lbs from my starting weight and down almost 100 lbs from my heaviest. But when I look in the mirror, its the same fat girl. Strange really, I wear smaller clothes, things fit better, but still feel the same as I did at 227. Hopefully it improves with time, lol.

tripitena

I'm down 33lbs but seldom "feel it". Sure I am wearing smaller sizes but when I look in the mirror it doesn't look like much has changed.

maddiedog22

I feel it too. Not all the time but alot if the time. I feel like a smaller version of my fat self. Like my hips have shrunk but there is still fat on them. I would rather be wider still with no chub on the side. Same with my thighs I would rather them be bigger with no celullite the smaller with lots. PlUs I have no boobs either. I just hope to keep goin and eventually I will see what I want in the mirror

A_Fit_Mom

I know what you mean. I felt that way when I lost all my weight before. But when I look at those pics, I can't wait to get back to my pre pregnancy weight. I looked great, but still didn't hit me yet, that I was healthy and looked slim. I still felt fat, it's one of those things we have to work through.

Sinope82

Thankyou so much for posting this, I'm now 80lb lighter than when i started to lose weight and although i know ive lost loads of weight and gone down 7 sizes i just cant see it. I still hate the way i look and my numerous faults despite being fit & healthy and constant compliments from my partner who loves all the bits i hate and is more than happy with how i look now! He keeps telling me that the confidence will come in time and that i will feel better about myself as i get closer to my target weight because once im in my healthy weight range i wont be able to tell myself i'm fat anymore. I just hope hes right because i'd so love to look in the mirror one day and see myself the way he does )o:

It's nice knowing that it's not just me that has this problem xx

numindan

I lost 65 lbs pre MFP and constantly saw myself in the mirror as the same fat chic. I took a year off to maintain before trying to lose the last 25 lbs and a few months into that year I caught a reflection of myself in a shop window. I had to do a double take before I realized it was me. We have these mental pictures of ourselves stored in our brains - I think that's how we manage to think we're thinner than we are when we're heavier - that take time to reset. I expect one day you'll have an "ah-ha" moment where you too do a double take in a mirror and are shocked to see the new you.

lauraemthomson

Hi
i wrote the same post on here a couple of weeks ago. my sister who lost 80lb 4 years ago went through the same phase and took her well over a year to realise she wasnt fat anymore. the confidence gradually came.
i dont feel any differnet 77lbs down, yes it feels easier to buy clothes but i dont feel i look any different specially for the better (not that i have a bit loose skin. hopefully it will come in time


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

bella_babe_86

I feel it every day, I've only lost 30 pounds after 7 long months, and on most days feel like a failure that its taken me this long to lose so little, and the fact that I cant see a difference at all drives me crazy, especially if I see pictures of myself I still just cant see a difference at all. Hopefully it will get better, I think its probably just the mentality of being big and its just something we all have to overcome!

CannibalisticVegetarian

Omigosh, I definitely feel this way. People are constantly giving me these compliments and saying how different I look since the overall loss.. but there are times when I look in the mirror that I see very little change, if any at all. I know it sounds ridiculous because the loss can be seen in picture comparisons, but whenever I personally stand in the mirror sometimes it just feels and seems .. I dunno.. weird? I mean I AM still on the heavier side, but it'd been much worse in the past, ya know?

My guess is that it's just my brain that needs adjusting, seeing as I can never recall ever being this size in my entire life.... so maybe it's that.

LifeLongJourney

I feel the same way, I haven't reached my goal weight yet thoughso I'm hoping when I do those thoughts will go away with the rest of the weight I have to loose.

marketdimlylit

I'm another one that's felt the same, I got down to 9 stone 10, still thought I was fat.
Then i went and got myself pregnant, and now looking back on my previous pictures before pregnancy where i thought i was fat -
i'm so gutted - appreciate every inch, every pound that comes off!
x

LoggingForLife

Same here. I find it helps to buy small clothing that fits appropriately. But, yes....crazy.

sunshinekind919

For the first time ever I'm in a size 4 (after grabbing 8's and 6's, my old sizes) and literally put them on 2-3 times each before I bought them because I felt sure they would look bad or they wouldn't zip up. It makes me feel kind of crazy, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I still see big me and sometimes can't fathom fitting into something or going out in something even if everyone thinks it looks great.

memcd911

This is called body dismorphia. It's common. And it can cause you to give up. DON'T!

Do something, put something one, hear someone and realize HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME and REFUSE to GO BACK!

It's much harder the second time around.

onyx1972

I feel this way all the time and I am so glad to find that I am not alone... Thanks for posting

felice03

when I was big, I always thought I looked better than I did...until I saw pics and realized I looked like hell.

now that the weight is gone I still see myself as the bigger girl. I can see the proof in photos, clothing sizes and the scale...but it doesn't mean I see it with my eyes. hopefully, with time this will pass and I can begin seeing myself for who I truely am.

Tropical_Turtle

This is so me too. I see in the mirror a skinnier me, and at work they call me skinny minnie, but parts of me still sees the same ol fat girl there was 7 months ago. It is crazy how the brain takes forever to catch up with the physical changes.

RLeighP

Definitely! I was 292 lbs at my heaviest, and I lost down to 175. I looked amazing, but I still felt so fat. I think that once you've seen yourself as one way for so long it's very hard to change your perception of yourself. I swore to myself that I would never be that overweight again, and then I got pregnant and gained 60 lbs. I'm trying to lose it again, and I will, but I will always see myself as a fat girl.

Diary_Queen

I feel that way often when I get overly bloated and when I plateau. I'll stop losing weight for 7-10 days and feel like I'm a total screw up instead of feeling like I've accomplished so much. Seems that the negative feelings concerning my weight are 10 times stronger than the positive ones. I've really been in a funk lately since I'm between sizes. I'm between 18 & 16 and I got totally obsessed with the scale and with underfeeding myself to try to lose more. I've taken 2 weeks off to get myself straightened out and feel like a person again instead of that constant obsession with what to eat, when to eat, how to eat... eat, eat, eat, eat. Bah! I'm real... I'm doing more real stuff for myself. If I have a snack, then so be it. I don't have to beat myself up over it as much as I have been. I've lost nearly 100 lbs. and still feel like a fat girl.

Vivalabosie

I feel the same way EVERYTIME!! =/ IDK why either though!

tarak83

Absolutely. When people compliment me I'm thinking in my head... you haven't seen me naked!! I lost the majority of my weight 6 years ago and I'm technically at a healthy weight now, but I'm disgusted with what I'm seeing standing naked in the mirror. Cellulite on my legs and butt.. the bane of my existence! Loose skin.. ugh.

I just keep telling myself that if I don't like what I see then to change it. I've decided to start lifting weights because apparently that's the only way to tighten things up a bit and get rid of the cottage cheese thighs! My dumbbells arrived this morning. Time to get my butt in gear!

brittdaw32

I have found that it's about loving yourself no matter what the numbers or sizes say. I have never been super overweight, just chubby, and I didn't like myself then and I didn't like myself when I was really slim right before my wedding. So when I was skinny I was unhappy, when I was chubby I was unhappy and it made me realize that happiness comes from within. And it doesn't matter if a girl is a size 0 or a size 20, when they are truly happy with themselves you can tell.

sevencallmemom

Absolutely! I was trying to explain it to someone who was calling me "skinny girl" the other night and when I was stumbling through an explanation of how I still feel like the fat girl she used the word anorexic which made me cringe. I'm afraid to talk about it because I feel like people think I'm fishing for compliments, but it's there...

Makes me think maybe I should have kept just one pair of the size 26 jeans around to try on when I can't escape the feeling that I haven't really changed.

bsexton3

Both my wife and I have lost weight: her 25 and me 40. What we found that worked was not in buying new clothes, but doing activities that we didn't do before. She is training for a marathon. I am riding my bike on centuries and planning a five day bike self contained bike tour this summer. Those are things we would not have done when we weighted more.

Even so, I know I look in the mirror and still see the same guy that weighed 40 pounds more.

mitsia

Although I've never been "fat" per se, I also have an image of myself that's hard to shake. Even though several inches have come off, and i'm almost 20 lbs lighter than i was at my heaviest, and i pretty much see the difference every time i look in the mirror, I still strive for an EVEN BETTER me. I think it's totally natural, and yes, with time these images of ourselves will readjust. It doesn't help that we may have unrealistic expectations, too, with all the media airbrushed super-beautiful unrealistic images we are so inundated by everywhere. All we can strive to be is the best version of ourselves. And yes, you may lose weight and have more cellulite, or feel like clothes now don't fit right (i used to fit perfectly in one size and now i'm between sizes and it drives me nuts), but we are every day becoming healthier, stronger, and leaner, and that is the most important thing!
But i look at everyone that's posted here and your tickers, and think, holy cow! I could NEVER lose 80lbs if i had to! (or 100 or 125). It's the "stick-to-it-iveness" that i'm so impressed by when i see that, and I'm so proud of everyone that's been that successful! I'm truly just amazed at the gumption it takes to stick to a goal so steadfastly and successfully! It's just a constant reminder that every small choice we make every day does add up in the long run. If we stick to it, we will all get there!

thomassd1969

I have lost almost 15 pounds of the 35 I want to lose but I dont see any difference. My boyfriend says there a huge difference but I guess we look at ourselves everyday and dont notice. I took my before pictures at the begining of march and will take them the same day in April I am hoping to see the difference. Hang in there.

ANeWcRe8N

Yes! I have my days I feel hot and days I feel like I'm freaking "fat" but I'm sure that it's all mental :indifferent:

GG70

I feel it too. Not all the time but alot if the time. I feel like a smaller version of my fat self. Like my hips have shrunk but there is still fat on them. I would rather be wider still with no chub on the side. Same with my thighs I would rather them be bigger with no celullite the smaller with lots. PlUs I have no boobs either. I just hope to keep goin and eventually I will see what I want in the mirror

^^^^^^^
OMG!!! I say this ALL THE TIME!!! Those EXACT words.. " a smaller version of my fat self" Very frustrating..