What I think I look like vs. what I look like
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How you look is more than just your weight!
You all seemed to glow when you initially thought you looked good. You looked good then and you look good now. 
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i do the same thing, i always though it was becasue i focused on what i liked about myself... and when i see me in a picture i see everything i wasn't looking at before.I do but in opposite.
When I see myself in the mirror I see a girl who is cute, plain and thick but not HUGE.
When I see pictures of myself I see a mammoth with two chins, bad skin, bad hair, etc. etc. etc.
I don't know if my internal vision is messed up or if I'm just unphotogenic.0 -
that was so me too. i thought i looked fine. even though hubby kept telling me i was gaining and i should do something about it. I hit my highest weight last nov and realized i was at the boarder of being overweight for my height. That was a eye opener, then i really looked at my mirror refection on day and was shocked at myself. how did i let myself slide like that and think i looked fine? i can't believe i got there and now i am getting so close to goal. I still look some days and think : whoa" i need more work on this...0
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Before I started my weight loss journey I thought I looked good...thought I had a good shape! THEN one day my eyes were opened and I REALLY saw myself for the first time in years. It was then and there I made the decision to get with it and get in shape and get healthy. Now...almost 50 pounds lighter I see myself as fat. I know I still have 30ish pounds to lose but I am nothing like what I was. If anything I am harder on myself now than I was at my heaviest!! Odd I know...but that's me!
The same thing happened to me.
I went from not being aware at all, living confidently in my ignorance to being hyper aware of what I look like, how big I am and extremely less confident.
I know it should be the other way around. More weight loss = more confidence, right?
Wrong.
It really stinks =\0 -
My whole vision of myself is distorted, when I was 40lbs heavier I totally had "faborexia" thought I was fabulous in the mirror but my gosh the shock of seeing the true me in a picture was unreal. Now in the mirror I feel I look huge but in pics it's a far smaller version of my mirror image. Hopefully when I reach goal weight my head will be sorted!0
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When I look in the mirror I see so many flaws.. lots of jiggle, flab, fat.. and when I see pictures of myself I think wow, I'm not that bad at all. I don't know if I'm just photogenic or great at working my angles or what.. lol.. so I don't know which to believe and thus continue to struggle with my body image
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There's a strange oxymoron that goes sort of like this for me:
* The heavier I am the more time I spend telling myself how cute I am, how curves are sexy, how it's "not that bad".
* The slimmer I am the more time I spend bemoaning what's not perfect about me.
It's almost as if the more work I put into it, the higher my expectations - realistic or not. I definately have a fat mirror - I look way heavier in my head than in most pictures.0 -
I totally know this feeling. Think I look good and then someone takes a picture! Or I can wear clothes 3 sizes smaller - some four sizes smaller - but I look in the mirror and see the same old sized me! A friend on MFP told me that it usually takes about a year before you really see yourself as you are. Kinda discouraging.
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I took "before" photos the other days and went, "huh, well I don't look as bad as I feel..." Still want to lose 15lbs of fat though But God forbid I look down while sitting at my desk or feel my rolls touching. GAH 0
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when I look in the mirror or at pictures of myself. All I see is ugly. That's it, that's all.
Ugly, fat and disgusting.
I've had many people tell me that I'm cute, pretty, beautiful and even gorgeous and I'm really trying to learn to take a compliment with grace and at face value.
But I really do not see what they see.
At all.
Ever.0 -
I do but in opposite.
When I see myself in the mirror I see a girl who is cute, plain and thick but not HUGE.
When I see pictures of myself I see a mammoth with two chins, bad skin, bad hair, etc. etc. etc.
I don't know if my internal vision is messed up or if I'm just unphotogenic.
I feel exactly like this. But the pictures are reality check... and remind me I need to keep on MOVING!0 -
To the OP...I know exactly what you mean. I developed a deep seated hatred for the scale during my military days. Even after I got out, I would stand on the scale backwards and forbid the nurse from saying the number out loud. I knew I was a little bigger than before, but I figured I was handling it ok. I didn't think it was that noticable. I have never liked taking pictures, so there was no gauge for a long time. Even when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I thought it wasn't that bad. Reality did a running, spinning, roundhouse kick to my face on the day that I got some pictures back that I'd taken with my husband. I was in shock, cause even though I remember buying 2X-3X sizes...I didn't remember them looking like that on me. So I finally decided to do what I dreaded the most and start getting on the scale and actually look at the numbers. I took the infamous "before" picture and let it all hang out. No sucking in the gut. No flexing. Just me a camera and the ugly truth. I've lost about 30 lbs since the first picture, but I'm not satisfied with what the mirror shows or what the scale says. I take frequent progress pics so I know where I've come from to where I'm at. Maybe I'll get brave one day and post them. I think the most progress that I've made so far is being honest with myself and facing it head on.0
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I'm in the same boat. I hate seeing pictures tagged on Facebook, because I realize I look a lot bigger than I thought I actually looked at the time. I always looked at old pictures as motivation for me to get back to that point, but I'm sick of living in the past. My new thing isn't to look like the version of myself from a few years ago, but to become the best possible version of my current self. 0
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I do but in opposite.
When I see myself in the mirror I see a girl who is cute, plain and thick but not HUGE.
When I see pictures of myself I see a mammoth with two chins, bad skin, bad hair, etc. etc. etc.
I don't know if my internal vision is messed up or if I'm just unphotogenic.
^^this. All the time.0 -
In my mind's eye I have always pictured myself as much thinner than I am. I have never been that thin person but I don't picture myself as a big girl. However every time I look in the mirror particularly without clothes on I am like "Wow, is that me? That can't be right." Being big doesn't feel right for me but I have let it slip to the point where I really have a long battle ahead of me. It doesn't help when you have friends who make comments like one of my friends did last night "I don't know why all of you are so obsessed with losing weight." I just laughed and told him that it was something that I wanted to do.
I am already more confident. For the first time in my life I am acting like a grown up woman. I shop for clothes, I am starting to notice when clothes flatter me and when they look bad. Instead of just tossing on black slacks, a dull colored shirt, and a jacket to cover my flaws I am actually wearing short sleeves, trying not to wear jackets inside, and yearning for colors in my wardrobe! This is all for me and I am loving the small changes that I am already seeing. I can see who I am supposed to be and I can't wait to be that person. When I see pictures of myself I can be humbled because I haven't made as much progress toward the me I know that I can be as I think I have. But no matter, I am getting there one step at a time and soon I will be the girl I see myself as in pictures, maybe even better!0 -
I totally know this feeling. Think I look good and then someone takes a picture! Or I can wear clothes 3 sizes smaller - some four sizes smaller - but I look in the mirror and see the same old sized me! A friend on MFP told me that it usually takes about a year before you really see yourself as you are. Kinda discouraging.
that is totally me too. i just see a smaller version of myself!0 -
Oh, I SOOOO know what you mean! I avoid cameras at all costs - even at my wedding it was a struggle to allow people that I'd paid to photograph me! And sure enough, I'd thought I looked fairly decent and I felt good about myself until the pics came. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, the video came. UGH! Reminded me of that Friends episode when Monica said, "The camera adds 10 pounds!" and someone replied, "and how many cameras were on you?" ;o)
Bigger problem for me is that while I think I'm super unphotogenic, people say that I'm actually very photogenic. Scary to know that's what I look like to other people. I need to take pics of myself and hang them around the house to motivate me to get on that elliptical! ;o)0 -
I do but in opposite.
When I see myself in the mirror I see a girl who is cute, plain and thick but not HUGE.
When I see pictures of myself I see a mammoth with two chins, bad skin, bad hair, etc. etc. etc.
I don't know if my internal vision is messed up or if I'm just unphotogenic.
^^this. All the time.
Wow, I had no idea so many people felt this way!
Maybe cameras should just be banned? Because it seems to me a lot of us would feel okay with ourselves if we didn't have to see those damned pictures. Haha.0 -
When I look in the mirror I see so many flaws.. lots of jiggle, flab, fat.. and when I see pictures of myself I think wow, I'm not that bad at all. I don't know if I'm just photogenic or great at working my angles or what.. lol.. so I don't know which to believe and thus continue to struggle with my body image
Ha, working your angles! Nice. Can you or Tyra come teach me?0 -
There's a strange oxymoron that goes sort of like this for me:
* The heavier I am the more time I spend telling myself how cute I am, how curves are sexy, how it's "not that bad".
* The slimmer I am the more time I spend bemoaning what's not perfect about me.
It's almost as if the more work I put into it, the higher my expectations - realistic or not. I definately have a fat mirror - I look way heavier in my head than in most pictures.
I think judging by the responses to this post that you have hit it pretty right on with that paradigm.0 -
I'm in the same boat. I hate seeing pictures tagged on Facebook, because I realize I look a lot bigger than I thought I actually looked at the time. I always looked at old pictures as motivation for me to get back to that point, but I'm sick of living in the past. My new thing isn't to look like the version of myself from a few years ago, but to become the best possible version of my current self.
That is awesome! It is so hard to let go of the past. I keep telling myself that I'm not latched on to my high school weight or anything - I was 24 at my goal and had already gained the weight (and lost it). But those "glory days" are behind me, and good riddance because I am so much happier in my life now! I just look back because it was the one time I was successful at weight loss. I want to duplicate it, but my life is so different now, it feels impossible.0 -
I'm opposite. I look in the mirror and all I see is fat, even with a bmi of 21.1
Though I am 28.4% BF, which has a lot to do with it. I feel huge sometimes tho. Bigger than I am.0 -
Most of the time I feel like I look like a whale and then I take a pic and I see a fit girl.
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feel the same...it sucks...0
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My theory is that our self image is pretty much fixed.... or at least changes very slowly. I spent most of the past 10 years around 140-145 pounds. My self image is still that person, and my self image was that person when I gained weight before joining here. I didn't "see" in the mirror when I gained another 15-20 pounds, because I saw my self image in the mirror.
Now that I've lost weight, it's taking time to see the new me that's 10-15 pounds lighter than my old self image. It surprises me when I see pictures and I look slender instead of average.
So I take a LOT of photos to help the new image sink in. 0 -
I never thought about how hard it would be to see myself after having a baby. I gained 42 lbs while pregnant and lost 35lb in 6 months, but my body is totally different. I delete all pics of me taken by others, don't put pics on Facebook, and have hardly any pics of me and my baby. Seeing pics from a summer trip looking still pregnant at 6 months post partum was awful!!! I feel like pics don't lie and even though I am 5'7", 162lbs does not sit well on my small frame0
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Yes, definitely. On the days that I feel like I may look better, that it may be noticeable that I've lost weight....I will take a picture and see how I ACTUALLY look...and it's heartbreaking.0
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