Body Image and Reality (achieved weight loss)

susanswan

I wonder how many people are like me? My brain and perception of my body image are not catching up with my current reality of how big my body is today. I really don't see myself as "thin". I know I am no longer "fat", but I can't relate to what I look like now. I wonder how other people have worked through this and would like some insight.

I started at 205 pounds, size 16. Today I am 133 and size 4. I started my weight loss journey over 5 years ago. As an adult, for most of my adult life I weighed 155 pounds and was a solid size 12. I realize I am not just stupid. I know I have lost over 70 pounds, and have gone down 6 sizes. Small is even too big sometimes when I buy shirts. Size 4 pants gap at the waist. I am bottom heavy. I reached my top weight as I was almost 50 years old. I am 55 now. My skin is somewhat loose on my abs and I definitely need to tone up the body.

I finally have adjusted to the number of size for my clothes. I have quit reaching for size 8 and 6. I get frustrated because I can't find clothes to fit properly. When I talk to sales women at the store for help sometimes I ask them what size they are because they look so small. They end up being a 6 and they comment on how tiny I am and suggest for some things I may need to go to the juniors department.

I feel like I need to start taking pictures of myself, or have someone point out people that are my size to me, but it's hard to do alone! It's really odd. When I was at my biggest or anytime really, I always felt like the biggest person in the room and was very conscious about sizing up the other women around me, hoping I wasn't the biggest one. Now I have the opposite problem. I feel I can't ask anyone for help because everyone else has weight issues and I don't want to have them think I am just looking for compliments or trying to rub their nose in it.

I suppose I'll just get over it one day, or maybe people think, "why should it matter?" I don't know why, but I feel like something is wrong with me and I want to just feel normal.

katz22

It is totally normal, it does take a while for the body image in your mind to catch up with reality. The suggestion of finding people who are the same size as you sounds like a great way to help visualise it. It would be great if some mfp'ers the same size could post some pics .

mjoymarshall

I deal with this too. I'm 31 and have been heavy all my life. Two years ago, I decided to make a change. I went from 241 lbs down to 144 today!! A size 22 down to a size 8. But when I look in the mirror, I still see a fat person. I see women on the street and say to my husband "I want to be that small". He turns to me and says, "Uh, you are!" When I go shopping, I pull a dress that looks like it's my size, but it's a size 12 or 14.

Anyway, I found a REALLY cool website that shows you pictures of real women. You can put in your height and weight or pants size and see other women that weigh that much!!

www.mybodygallery.com