Mental Picture v. Actual Picture

I have the same problem and I am down nearly 50 pounds. I feel great in my cute outfits now and then I'll see a pic and it's like "WHAT???!!!". I think we are just to hard on ourselves when it comes to pics. The people in my life can't stop telling me how great I look now, so I'll just try to trust them! I'm sure you're hearing the same from your loved ones - so just believe it

my first instinct with most body shot pictures and ALWAYS with video is disgust. But that's first instinct. Give it a few days, then look again. You'll probably be surprised at how your opinion will change. I think our eyes need to adjust between the perfection we see in magazines on a daily basis and the reality of how people look in real life.

I agree with the others. camera adds 5 or 10 lbs I've heard. IT DOESN"T MATTER. You are what matters. Give yourself the kudos, the atta girls, the I'm doing it's. Look at how far you've come, not how far you have to go or what a stupid picture looks like. God made you and He doesn't make any junk!

It never stops.... I still feel like a huge guy at times and the only time I remember I lost weight is when im buying clothes. What my mind remembers and what other people see are 2 different things as well.

I figure as long as I feel good about myself and im working hard to get where I want to be then it is just "a work in progress". I do keep progress pictures though so that i can see how I am changing to remind myself why I do what I am doing. When I look at the older pics I feel better about my present looks..

What my mind remembers and what other people see are 2 different things as well.

I like that, well said.

I'm only 3 kg down and already feel like a princess. Nobody notices yet though, except for closest family. That's how it works )) I'm fine with that. People actually tend to compare you to their mental image of you rather than 'see', so it always takes longer. And that's OK, too )

That happened with what used to be my favorite skirt. I thought it was awesome. My daughter said it looked like a sack and added pounds. Then I saw a picture of me in tha skirt. Guess what? It looked like a sack and added pounds, which - being about 205 at the time - I most definitely did not need.

On the other hand, I've also seen a picture taken on a day I felt wretched about myself but actually looked kind of pretty.

It seems like this is extremely common. Most people don't realize how much they weighed until they've lost a significant amount of their weight. I'm half way to my goal (which will be around the middle of a 'healthy' BMI) and I still feel exactly as I did when I started. My old clothes don't fit, but I still feel like I look the same regardless.

I've still been avoiding pictures for this reason though. It's too demotivating and I'm not ready to give up.

I know that my perception of how I look can be pretty screwy.... How do I (you, us) handle it when the photos don't look the same as the girl in the mirror does? I am confident when it comes to the mirror and being "inside my head," but photos throw me for a loop every time.

First of all, congratulations on your weight loss! That is terrific! You deserve heaps of praise for your hard work and dedication.

Secondly, you are absolutely right: there is often a big disconnect between the girl in our heads and the girl in the mirror/photo. Just look at those folks who are wearing spandex and belly shirts when they really shouldn't. Obviously what they see in the mirror is different from what we see!

In all seriousness, what we see in the mirror/photo is a snapshot of a single split-second in time. The way that you feel about yourself on a day-to-day basis, and the way that your changed lifestyle is evident to the people around you, are much, much, much better indicators of your progress.

And lastly... I happen to be a professional photographer and I like to say I specialize in flattering posing and angles. Call me.

Congrats again!

I liked weighing myself several times a day to see the progression of food/water intake and the weight you lose while sleeping. I've been stuck at 227 all week though without the accustomed few ounces of weight loss every morning. I know I ate badly this week and have been er... doing #2 less which is all really frustrating. I can't stand being at this weight for even another month.

I had a coat that wouldn't button, they were actually four inches apart at the beginning, and it took two years to have it fit. I have a new goal coat now, that has four inches between the button and hole but I do not want to have to wait two more years to wear it. (It's a small)

I would literally rather jump off a bridge. I need to find new recipes because all the food I eat is now boring.

I am so there with you….. my biggest disappointment is when i take a picture with others and they say…”oh you look good in this picture” then I look at the same picture and all I can think is “oh my, this is what I look like when I take a good picture ---man I do not want to see me in a bad picture then”. I don’t understand how is it that when I am getting ready I have a little bit of confidence on how I look but once you/they snap that picture I do not see the same person that was getting ready earlier that day.

We had a 60th birthday party for my parents 10 days ago, as my mom turned 60 in mid-September and my stepfather is turning 60 next week. My sister and I wanted to surprise them with a photographer, since we've never had a family photo with both of our parents and all five of us (my sister and I, two stepsisters and a stepbrother). We got a "sneak peek" of photos on Facebook yesterday and I'm really disappointed in how I look. I thought I'd look as thin as I feel and I don't...in fact, I don't feel like I look that much thinner than I did 22.2 lbs ago, which I know IS NOT true.

I know that my perception of how I look can be pretty screwy.... How do I (you, us) handle it when the photos don't look the same as the girl in the mirror does? I am confident when it comes to the mirror and being "inside my head," but photos throw me for a loop every time.

I used to be a photographer and spent many a slow day trying to find the magnifying glass they build into the lens that adds 50lbs to the mid, arm, and face area of all photographic subjects. I was never successful in finding this magnifying glass but I KNOW it is in there! I fel the same way when we did the comparison photo in my profile pic... felt like from (my kids') prom to homecoming I was a completely different person, saw the pics and thought, "what is the point? Not as much difference as I thought."

Seriously though. We all perceive things differently when we have longer to ponder what we are seeing. So in the mirror we are taking a quick glance with our minimized flab sucked in some and tightening those butt cheeks. We don't think about all that then. But in a photo that's forever, we find every out of place hair... it's the evil way our inner goddess' work to make us keep going...

Happens to me all the time. Which is why I have to approve all posts to my timeline. I especially hate seeing the photos after a night in the party bus. :noway:

I stopped trusting mirrors after Clueless came out.

It is actually really nice to know that other people have this problem, I thought it was just me! I go out on nights out thinking I'm a curvy hottie, and then I see the photos on facebook and realise I just looked big. On a slightly different subject, a "friend" recently got me to move in a group photo, so that I was between two thin girls "for balance". It may have been true but I like to think my feelings are more important than the aesthetic of a photo.