I think I'm skinnier than I actually am...

i do too i see pics and go omg thats not how i saw myself in the mirror

I also have mirror understanding troubles. Some days I think I'm fat and some days I think I'm skinny. Now I rely on my measuring tapes to let me know where I'm at. As many others have also said, photos seem to give a better picture - especially if you're standing next to someone you know is both skinny and healthy!

Good luck!

I really don't trust my own opinion of how big/small I look. I can't possibly be objective when I look at myself. I also think pictures lie... like they're some other person, detached from me.

I guess it all depends on your body type, for instance I am almost 60 kg but everyone seems to assume that I am in the early 40s.

I don't trust my perception of how I look at all anymore.

I started at 5ft 6 and 297lbs - I was definitely in denial about how big I was and blamed a multitude of reasons for why I had nearly hit 300lbs.

I lost about 50lbs - then I started to appreciate my body a bit more, felt good, walked around with a bit of confidence etc. Still felt fat, still was fat.

I'm at 82lbs lost now. Last week I was convinced I owned it, and this week I feel about as heavy as I did when I started. I alternate between thinking "Yep, you've got this" and "Hell no, you've got so far to go".

Clinically I'm obese still. I'm in a size 16/18 UK and although I'm reasonably fit, I feel like I'm going nowhere. It could be because this week I've plateaued for the first time - I appear to have lost nothing at all this week. I've stayed within my calorie range although my macro's have been skewered but I know the choices I've made haven't been great based on the sheer complexity of the last week.

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I go through moments where I think I'm smaller than I am. I also go through moments where I pick up a size 22 and think it will be too small. Basically, I have absolutely no middle ground :ohwell:

For some reason, I've always found that my home mirror is more forgiving! I think a lot of people find that. I tend to look bigger in changing room mirrors than at home.

I'm the exact opposite, but in the the same boat. I'm actually underweight, but don't see it at all in the mirror. Sometimes on my bad days I even think I can afford to lose a bit more (I'm not anorexic, don't worry!). Then in photos I suddenly look a bit boney and tiny, and it doesn't look good

I certainly had that problem. I saw myself as ok. Not slim but nowhere near as big as my 192lbs at 5ft 0ins.

I went shopping with OH one day and caught sight of myself in a window. I just wanted to hide. That couldn't be me could it? It was. I know in photographs I looked bigger, but the camara adds 10lbs so I thought I looked ok.

From that day I knew I had to do something about it. I couldn't hide myself away. I joined MFP and never looked back.

I now think I am bigger than I am. On holiday OH said to me 'You are one of the slimmest here'. I couldn't believe it. I am buying small in clothes but think they should be medium. Soooo, what is happening to us?

Not exactly. I look in the mirror and I think I look what I weigh, even more so before I lost any weight. But it hasn't mattered how big I've been, I've never felt that big in my head.
Not like I've felt skinny, I just haven't felt like I'm carrying 240+ pounds of weight around. Probably part of why I didn't try to lose weight earlier. I had a friend in school who was a similar size to me and he said the same thing.

It's weird because when I read this, my first thought was "yeah!" I definitely feel smaller than I am and when I see pictures where I really look big, it's almost hard to believe.

But on the other hand, when I'm talking to friends, co-workers, etc. about it and I tell them how much weight I want to lose, they always tell me I don't look heavy enough to lose that much weight. I'd say they were just being nice but I have some pretty direct friends, lol!

So I guess it's a mix? Body image is weird like that sometimes.

I get that reaction from co-workers if I mention I want to lose another 20-25 pounds. They all say no, I don't need it, I guess because my face, arms and legs look okay (my clothes hide my fat stomach and fat rear). I've stopped saying anything. The only person who agreed with me is a friend who is a retired professional ballet dancer. He understood because he's had a lifetime of body awareness.

The problem is so many people are overweight, our whole perspective is warped. We look like most of the other heavy people walking around, plus wear clothes that hide the worst of it.

I think I look better in the mirror than I do in pictures, so there has got to be some level of delusion operating there. That seems to be a common experience.

Great thread.

YES!! I did have this problem when I was at my fattest, and only got shocked into reality when I would see a photo of myself or catch my reflection in a shop window. I hated looking in the mirror, or if I did, would only look at my face, or a particular part of me, not the whole self. I avoided shopping and wore the same loose and daggy clothes to hide my fat... Except that I wasn't really hiding it at all.

I think I imagined myself to be at about the weight I am now, because when I look at myself these days, I see exactly the person I expect to see looking back. I feel great and I look good too.

These days I take a phot of myself every weekend when I do my measurements so I can actually SEE what I really look like, and how I've changed. It helps put things in perspective.

Me too - I avoided mirrors, I'd go in changing rooms to buy clothes and keep my back to the mirror. I knew if I dared to look it would horrify me, I just couldn't face up to what I knew I'd see! It's all denial and self deceit - I couldn't accept that I'd got to the size I did, so I fooled myself by avoiding facing up to it.

And because I never really saw myself, I carried a mental image of myself looking svelt and half my actual size! Because without that, I'd have curled up and died.

I remember too, a friend of mine who's much shorter than me, but I thought very big for her height, very big thighs, big bum, well padded shoulders. And I thought comparable to me. And I made a comment one day about us both being similar and her reaction was horrified - basically "You're fat, I'm not, I'm not as big as you!" which stung me - I don't know whether I was just skinnifying myself, or if she's in denial herself or what, but it left me feeling different, a freak.

There was a TV programme here in the UK - What Not To Wear, and the first thing the two presenters used to do was stick the participant in a cubicle, surrounded by mirrors, in their underwear so that they could understand their body shape and their best features. Some people were pleasantly surprised to realise they had a better figure than they thought. A few weren't. I used to cry (and reach for some chocolate) knowing that there was NO WAY on earth I could a) go in there and b) look at myself. Now, I could!

I don't have a full length mirror in the house, never have. Maybe I'd have stopped piling on the pounds if I did! I will get one now though.

But you do pull yourself up straight, pull in the tummy, pull your shoulders back when you look at yourself in the mirror, trying to look good - and then like so many people are saying here, someone takes a snap shot when you're off guard, and that's what you really look like! I used to pore over some of those pics agonising, thinking I don't really look like that surely? But then I'd think well, all the other people in the picture look like that so why would I be different.

But also the photos were the first thing that made me realise I am changing - someone took some photos of me in April, and I could see my face looked totally different! So it works both ways!

But I totally identify with the comparisons with other people - I used to be always asking my husband how I compared to other women - I'm not as big as her am I? My legs aren't as big as hers are they? I'm just so relieved to hear that other people do that too!

You don't know how many times over the years I'd see a large woman and ask my husband "do I look as big as her". Part of it was I didn't want to be that big, but part of it was I would just look at everyone and could never figure out if I looked that big. I knew I was big (never as big as I am now), but I couldn't tell how big I really looked.
You are not alone.

Oh Thanks for saying that! I thought it was just me! I thought I was mad! I'll tell my husband, he'll be relieved to know I'm just normal like you xxx

I went through a time period of doing this because I wanted to know REALLY how I compared to other bodies. I drove my family nuts with it. I still don't know and I don't feel as big as I am. I claim that is my thinner / healthier person inside of me who I want everyone to see. But yes, pictures are the truth tellers, but it's still hard for me to wrap my head around. I don't like to look in full length mirrors either.

Oh yes. That's me completely and consistently. I can be 44 years old and 300 lbs and think I'm 20 and 175. Then, of course, when I look in the mirror my brain goes "wth's up with that broken mirror???"