body dysmorphic disorder

HIITMe
HIITMe Posts: 921 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have suffered from it for years... I didnt notice myself gaining weight until one day I looked up and weighed nearly 275 pounds.... most used excuse " Im tall, thus I wear it well"...WHATEVER I was still obese

Fast forward 18 months.... Im in a size 10... 170 lbs...

this morning I am looking at the "Success Stories" forum, specifically this thread:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/990688-kind-of-embarrassing-but-here-goes-before-and-after

She mentions her stats... while my tummy/waist is much bigger than hers, she states her current hips are 39...mine are 40.5... and her thighs are 23...mine are 23.5....

She looks DAMN GREAT!! and a LOTTTTT smaller than me.... when I look at pics of me, all I see is size 20, 250+ pounds looking back at me....

my mind didnt see how big I got until I was wayyyy past the point of obesity and now Im just slightly overweight ( ~10 pounds til normal BMI) yet I dont see the progress.....Everyone else sees it... and I know I wear a smaller size but looking at pics, I just dont see it... even when I do side-by-side comparisons, I see little difference....

I will be glad when I get over it.....

Replies

  • ilmb87
    ilmb87 Posts: 216 Member
    This is me right now. When I look in the mirror, I don't notice any difference. Logically, I know I've gotten smaller (going from an 18W pant size to a 14, but only when I see pictures of myself does it become obvious. And even THEN I feel like I'm looking at someone else, not me.

    I agree with you 100%, OP. I cannot wait till my mental image of myself catches up with reality.
  • SZY0006
    SZY0006 Posts: 23
    I think this plagues a lot of us, and it's so unfortunate. I've lost 35 pounds in the past nine months, and I'm only about five pounds away from a normal BMI. But I still see the 195 pound person I was nine months ago. My old clothes are laughably big on me. The tape measure tells me I've lost inches. Someone needs to take a candid picture of me from the back and not tell me that it's me... then maybe I'll see the difference.
  • IlyanaRose
    IlyanaRose Posts: 21 Member
    I remember reading a quote from Kelly Osbourne where she said that when a fat person loses lots of weight, they'll still see themselves as fat, no matter how slim they are now.

    I think that's so true. I was roughly nearly 160lbs when I was 17; now, even though I still want to lose weight, I'm 20lbs lighter than I was back then. Yet I still think I'm fat, and no matter how much weight I lose, I think I'll always feel fat.

    I'm trying to stop telling myself that I'm fat, because at 137lbs I'm not fat. Just a little jiggly :wink: My boyfriend, family and friends always tell me that I'm not fat; maybe I should listen to them more!
  • NJL13500
    NJL13500 Posts: 433 Member
    I'm with you on this one. I still see myself at my highest weight when I wore a size 18/20. I'm currently a 2/4, but that's not what I see when I look in the mirror. Lots of people tell me that I'm small and I've even had my doctor call me tiny and tell me not to lose any more weight, but that's not who I see in the mirror. I look at coworkers who wear the same size as I do and think how skinny they look. I don't know why I feel this way and I don't know how long it will take me to adjust, but it is frustrating for sure.
  • juliemouse83
    juliemouse83 Posts: 6,663 Member
    I am feeling exactly the same way. I did a side by side with my January picture next to my May picture (in a freaking swimsuit, no less) and while I KNOW that I am 30 pounds and quite a few inches smaller? I still see a fat chick in the pictures. Like HiitMe, and several others, I am only a few pounds away from a healthy BMI, and about 3 percentage points away from where I'd like my body fat percentage to be. It kind of ticks me off that all I can see is the fat me.

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