When do you see the skinny girl in the mirror?

I apologize if this is on the wrong forum, but I was not sure where to ask it.

Does anyone else have the same issue of losing quite a bit of weight and then not seeing yourself as the skinny girl/guy yet? I still walk into a store and head towards sizes of clothes that are too big for me and think of myself as being that overweight girl that I used to be. It baffles to me to fit into a size 7 or a small and I am thrilled to have made it this far. Just wondering.

I used to do this all the time when i first lost 3 stone, i never saw the skinny girl in the mirror and one day in NewLook the shop assistant told me i was picking clothes for fat people! But now that i AM a fat person again...i see the skinny girl in the old photos and i tried on some old clothes the other day-that wouldnt get past my knees! That was a big realisation for me...so i never saw her til she was gone

I am going through that now, I have people tell me you lost weight , you look skinny! I just don't see it! I lost more than 20 pounds and I just still have in my mind, I don't look, how I want to look. I know that is a mental thing! Hoping to get over it soon! Have not bought anything new either. My clothes fit me big! Maybe when I buy something new, I might change my mind. LOL

Not sure when we can see the "skinny" person, I would just settle for seeing a smaller person!

The last time I lost a ton of weight, I had this problem too. I saw no difference and felt no difference....even though I KNEW there was a lot less of me. When I went shopping, I would always pick up what looked like my size. I'd put it on, and it would be 4-5 sizes waaaay too big.

When I did figure out my "new size", I'd pick up a pair of pants or a shirt, and I'd smirk. Yeah right....like THAT'S going to fit!! And every single time....I was floored when it DID fit. I remember staring at a shirt and then back at my half-dressed self in the mirror of a changing room. I was so confuzzled. It was like some weird optical illusion. Like the sheer physics of me fitting into that shirt were impossible.

But when I saw my before and after pictures...I could see the difference. I could look at my 'after' photos and see my hardwork and be proud. I still considered myself fat....just not morbidly obese.

A lot of people attribute this to low self-esteem, but I never felt that way. I love myself, I love my life, and I'm confident in myself as a person. I think some of us have just been so fat for so long...it's ingrained. We don't know how to see ourselves any differently. I wish I could give you hope and say that I finally reached the point where I could see what everyone else saw....but, I hit a plateau, got frustrated, and gave up. Hence, the reason I'm here. I gained it all back and then some. :ohwell:

I'm 5'6 and went from 116lb (skinny but healthy) to 96lb and less, and from a size 3 to a 00 in pants. When I look in the mirror my bones look back at me, there is about an inch and a half of space between my thighs, I can't even make them touch when I press my legs together, yet I still feel like I look the same. I will never see that skinny girl but know I'm always the thinnest in the room. Sometimes the answer is never. Unless you're actually overweight, don't look for the skinny girl because you might spiral into a vicious cycle of being unhealthily underweight (BMI 16 or less) and doing a daily waltz around trying to gain some weight back and not letting go of your current, unsustainable body. That skinny girl is an illusion, an unattainable ideal. She's never happy with what she has and in the end no matter how much she disappears in the mirror, she'll keep pushing for more. If you wear a size small than you are small, don't let your eyes tell you otherwise.

I definitely do! I know that I look skinny in clothes, even skin tight clothes, but when I am naked in front of the mirror I see excess fat everywhere! My body is weird, certain parts are bony and lean, but other areas still have pockets of fat that do not look lean. At least now with my weight training I look like someone who works out a bit, and not just a smaller blob of myself.

I'm 5'6 and went from 116lb (skinny but healthy) to 96lb and less, and from a size 3 to a 00 in pants. When I look in the mirror my bones look back at me, there is about an inch and a half of space between my thighs, I can't even make them touch when I press my legs together, yet I still feel like I look the same. I will never see that skinny girl but know I'm always the thinnest in the room. Sometimes the answer is never. Unless you're actually overweight, don't look for the skinny girl because you might spiral into a vicious cycle of being unhealthily underweight (BMI 16 or less) and doing a daily waltz around trying to gain some weight back and not letting go of your current, unsustainable body. That skinny girl is an illusion, an unattainable ideal. She's never happy with what she has and in the end no matter how much she disappears in the mirror, she'll keep pushing for more. If you wear a size small than you are small, don't let your eyes tell you otherwise.

Thank you for sharing. :flowerforyou:

I apologize if this is on the wrong forum, but I was not sure where to ask it.

Does anyone else have the same issue of losing quite a bit of weight and then not seeing yourself as the skinny girl/guy yet? I still walk into a store and head towards sizes of clothes that are too big for me and think of myself as being that overweight girl that I used to be. It baffles to me to fit into a size 7 or a small and I am thrilled to have made it this far. Just wondering.

This just happened to me the other day. After losing 5 pounds (i'm only 4'8" so this is pretty significant), I went to the store to try on swimsuits. I went straight to the women's swimsuits and began trying on suits that fit me last year and I looked so dumpy. I though, "wow, I'm not as thin as I thought." So I went up a size, and felt worse.

It was crazy, the bigger the swimsuit the fatter I felt. Though it never once occurred to me that it was the swimsuit that was too big, not me. Then a salesperson pointed out a few cute swimsuits in the Junior section and I laughed, but she insisted so I tried a few on. And they fit perfectly!!

I still don't see the skinny person in the mirror, but this experience (trying on swimsuits) which is supposed to be humiliating was a wonderful reminder that I am skinnier than I think I look.

And an added benefit, I spent about $100 on this swimsuit so that's an incentive to maintain my "skinny girl."

I'm 5'6 and went from 116lb (skinny but healthy) to 96lb and less, and from a size 3 to a 00 in pants. When I look in the mirror my bones look back at me, there is about an inch and a half of space between my thighs, I can't even make them touch when I press my legs together, yet I still feel like I look the same. I will never see that skinny girl but know I'm always the thinnest in the room. Sometimes the answer is never. Unless you're actually overweight, don't look for the skinny girl because you might spiral into a vicious cycle of being unhealthily underweight (BMI 16 or less) and doing a daily waltz around trying to gain some weight back and not letting go of your current, unsustainable body. That skinny girl is an illusion, an unattainable ideal. She's never happy with what she has and in the end no matter how much she disappears in the mirror, she'll keep pushing for more. If you wear a size small than you are small, don't let your eyes tell you otherwise.

Thank you for sharing. :flowerforyou:

I knwo this may seem nit-picking, but underweight is a BMI of 18 or less not 16. And i have bulimia and know that she is never happy with what she has....thats the sick twist....all the weight you lose, all the effort you put it and youre NEVER happy ever. Youre never happy and youre never good enough. Im only feeling happy with being the weight i was in my profile pic because i am 30lbs HEAVIER now , when i was that size i was addicted to losing more and more, to starving, to seeing the scales drop virtually everyday and the inches get less and less. I know what i class as skinny and many of you would be appalled at my opinion,so i wont share it. ED are torment

What would have made you happy when you where 30lbs lighter and still not happy?

Truthful answer? I dont think anything wouldve. Its not truly your weight youre not happy with, its yourself. It just manifests itself through eating.

I only see a skinny person if someone else is using the mirror. I'm always going to be fat no matter how much weight I lose.

It took me 3 years from when I started losing weight to see the 'thinner' me in the mirror. I'm still not at my final goal yet and I still don't look in the mirror and think "Damn you're skinny" but I do look in the mirror and think "Damn, I not nearly as fat as I used to be". For me that's enough. Hopefully the skinny thoughts will come when I reach my goal weight.

I saw the skinny person in the mirror when I was at my highest weight ... thats why I got so big lol ... I only saw the fat person in pics

Add me to this one. I always thought and felt that I looked 'good' and until my body started complaining about the excess weight I was carrying around I never even noticed the extra weight. I was very active, I went hiking all the time, I worked hard, I was stronger then a lot of guys I know (still am) I just weighed 228 lbs LOL.

When I look in the mirror I can see that I am getting smaller but I am not where I want to be yet. Possibly its some memory of when I was smaller that has helped me to be able to see it happening - I have no idea. I would be curious to know if people who have never been at their ideal weight have more of challenge seeing the losses?

I've never seen her.

you dont see the skinny girl in the mirror. you see her through others. Meaning, when people who used to look skinny dont look so skinny anymore, you know you're skinny. or vice versa, people who used to look fat dont quite look so fat, you know you are getting fat! Thats how I often realize im gaining or losing wieght!