the pscychological effects of weight loss

You're definitely not alone. i find it very hard to take compliments too - when people say 'Wow, you're looking great' all I can think is 'Fark I must have looked seriously gross before'.
The only good side of this mindset is that it makes me seriously determined not to ever go back to where I was.

I look in hte mirror and *still* see the 135 pounds that I have lost. They say your brain catches up. Occasionally I get a glimpse in a mirror and dont recognize me...but then the old image is right back there again.

I've been down this road many times before, and for me it's a full-body-and-brain experience. I've gone from chubby kid to lifelong yo-yo, including a bout with anorexia and being underweight. Right now I am thrilled with the way I look, imperfections and all (I'm currently about 20 lbs. heavier than I had been in the 2002 photo I use for my avatar).

I can identify with navigating in space as though I'm still larger. That's just force of habit that it will take me a while to unlearn (again).

I have to retrain my thinking with respect to temperature, because I'm more sensitive to cold. What blows my mind is that my partner and I have now flip-flopped due to her now-underactive thyroid. She's always been lean but has gained weight due to hypothyroidism. Used to be she wanted the thermostat set at a temperature that made me sweat; now she lowers the setting so that I put on extra layers. (I defer to her because she also has MS, which includes a host of environmental sensitivities.)

I was also mercilessly teased about my weight as a kid, but luckily I learned a lesson early. Another girl in grade school class was considerably heavier than I was, but she wasn't teased the way I was. That confused the heck out of me until I realized that she followed the clique. Big lesson for me: It wasn't REALLY about the weight. It was about all kinds of conformity.

In college I learned to love every single bit of me no matter what I looked like, and that was both hard and very scary. I was used to thinking of myself as really not having a body at all. But I forced myself to stand naked before a full-length mirror and accept everything I was from head to toe. This body is where I live and it truly is a gift.

It also is not uniform. I am at the point now where my sit bones can feel it when I sit for a long time or on a hard surface, but my stomach still has more fat deposition than ideal. C'est la vie. Right now I'm more focused on sustainability than on shape, and I want to keep the good habits I've picked up no matter what. I'm just thrilled to be where I am -- again.

Sometimes, all I can see is how far I've come. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror at the gym, and I almost don't recognize myself. I look so slim! I have a waist! Look at my upper torso, it's so different! Those hips, they look so...normal!

Other times, all I can see is how far I have to go. Oh, my god...look at the jiggle on that belly. Whoa, that's one serious double chin in that picture, fat girl! You're kidding yourself if you think you're slim now. Sure, you're not AS fat. But you're still fat.

Reminds me of one of those optical illusions where the picture is either a vase or two faces:

I know exactly what you mean! I had been overweight since I was a toddler. 12 months at my goal weight and it still shocks me when people refer to me as skinny. I think it takes a bit for our brains to catch up and I am gradually beginning to see myself as slim. Weird too because it is only when I look in mirrors when I'm out that I go "holy crap I AM skinny!!" The mirror at home somehow still sees me as... well... not FAT but not skinny either.

I'm also gradually learning to accept my body as it is... there is no such thing as a "perfect" body - there is such a thing as a fit, strong body and everyone, no matter what their height, proportions or age can have one of those!

Part of the bodybuilding lifestyle is always improving physique... I guess I'll never be happy with my body image.

When I was "morbidly obese" I didn't really see myself for the size that I was. Now that I'm a healthy body fat % and almost a healthy weight/BMI I don't really see myself for the size that I am now. Whenever I go try on clothes I still start in XL and cannot believe when smalls or mediums fit. I just tried on some size 8 jeans this week and still can't believe it. I look in the mirror sometimes for longish periods of time just hoping it will sink in. I am not at my goal body, but I am a far cry from where I started. Sometimes I can acknowledge that I look nice or cute a particular day. Overall it is still an adjustment. The entire journey has been very much a mental one for me anyway so this doesn't really surprise me.

Also, because of this ALOT of people think I am stuck up or fishing for compliments, because I complain about how I look and they dont see what I SEE! They dont realize that my self esteem really is in the toilet, waaayyyy lower than it ever was when I was bigger. I think part of it, is a lot of us live our lives at that size, and even knowing we are overweight until we start taking steps to LOSE, we dont address how we feel at that weight... Because it can be painful and hard to accept. So once you start losing, you are forced to recognize and then we start picking ourselves apart, finding flaws.

No one outside of my home commented on my weight loss until I lost 70lbs (26% of my total body weight) and still only four people did. I didn't really believe the nice words. It took me losing 92lbs and having A BUNCH of people comment over the course of a month (and a small freak out on my part) and a round of new pictures (b/c I rarely see anything in the mirror. Only pictures) for me to really realize that I haven't looked this good, ever. The last time I was this weight I was in 6th/7th grade and I was shorter, so bigger around. In HS I amhad the beginnings of a double chin (which I never noticed until a few nights ago looking at friends Facebook albums) and I wore my clothing too big or too small. The double chin is gone and I'm trying really hard to wear the right sized clothes (oh my god this is hard -- I never realized how ill fitting my clothes were!) and I've lost 92lbs. I do look good, at least comparing myself to the old me.

It's hard to get here mentally and I might not stay in this frame of mind but right now today I know what people say is true. I may not be pretty or skinny but I do look better than I ever have before.

Also, another thing that helps me is that I have never had the luxury of looking 'normal' I've always stuck out and looked different (I have


a disability). I will always clearly see those imperfections that make me different and I know there isn't a damn thing I can do about them. So perhaps I don't see small things that other's do, so YMMV.

And PS, I still think I am 92lbs heavier when trying to navigate in space... I think there's not room for me to go from point A to point B. I'm still surprised when I sit in a seat and fit. Or when I'm laying in bed and my whole body sits on the mattress in a different way. No idea if that ever ends. I hope this helps. Los





ing weight is a complicated business. Physical, mental. It's a whole shift in your life. I've never felt so 'crazy' ever in my life.

When I show people my before and afters, I have a sudden fear they are secretly thinking I look the same as the before pic.

I feel you!

I lost over 100 pounds, but I only see myself fat
I always head for the plus size section in any store,
(I wear size 4 not size 28W)
I guess that is how I will always see myself

When I was in 8th grade I went to public school for the first time. In my first week, a boy came up to me and told me his friend thought I was cute, and did I want to date him. I looked to the friend he was pointing at (he was very cute) and nodded yes. Then all the boys in the group erupted in laughter at the idea that I thought they were serious that a guy like him would want to date a fat girl like me.

Ever since then, when a guy approaches me out of nowhere it takes EVERY OUNCE of my self will not to shout "Get the **** away from me, I'm not a joke!" I was at the mall recently with one of my friends and I was feeling self conscious because everyone was making eye contact with me and smiling at me. I told my friend "Why is everyone STARING at me!?" and she said "Because you are cute." and I was floored. It also makes me sort of sad that when I was fat people would not even make eye contact with me or look at me. It's like I was invisible. Now I make it a point to walk over and talk to bigger people at work/ school and be super friendly because I don't want them to feel invisible. Still I should learn to just treat people like people instead of seeing their weight.

Something very similar to me happenedin 8th grade too. My best friend tried to warn me that it was a joke, but I thought she was just jealous. I went home and asked my mom if I could date this boy and she relented and I called to tell him that. And then the next day, it was just a huge joke.

I used to be very thin, and I never knew it until I was fat. at 125lbs and 5'3" I always thought I was gross, and fat, looking like a busted can of biscuits. Now that I really do look like a busted can of biscuits, I wish I would have enjoyed my nice body when I had it.

I'm 5'2" tall. When I graduated high school, I weighed 207 pounds; I bought my clothes from Lane Bryant (I looked big in XL shirts and was up to size 16 pants). In 2010, for whatever reason, I started dropping weight...one summer day I stepped on the scale and was down 16 pounds from the last time I looked. May 2012 I reached my lowest weight in years: 173 pounds. I was wearing medium shirts and size 10 pants. I figured by the time I reached size 10 pants and medium shirts - and had lost almost 35 pounds - I'd be where I wanted to be...but every time I looked in the mirror I saw that I was still chunky. Everyone was complimenting me and telling me I looked great (and I did look great), but 173 pounds is still chunky for someone who's so short. I kept seeing how much more I had to lose.

Just don't give up. I had to take time off due to surgery, illnesses, and an insane schedule that had me on my feet 16 hours a day. I gained back 2/3 of what I lost in a few months. After several tries, I'm really back. I'm working out again, and when I get back down to 173, I'm going to throw a freaking party. Just sayin'!

Yes. When I was my heaviest 330 pds and a size 28, after losing 138pds in my mind I was still that big and would continue to go in the store and look at the sz 28 clothing even though I was a 14!