Getting skinny is.... kinda weird

ElJefeChief
ElJefeChief Posts: 650 Member
edited November 2024 in Motivation and Support
This is the unexpected part of weight loss for me. I'm apparently a skinny person now. I recently looked at some recent loss pictures of me and compared them to when I was heavy, and they look like someone I'm not sure I know. I've spent most of my life overweight or obese.

I'd like to get used to being skinny so it just becomes second nature. But it's really weird. I'm not elated by being skinny and near goal-weight. I thought I would be.

Can anyone relate?

Replies

  • brynnsmom
    brynnsmom Posts: 945 Member
    It is a strange phenomenon. I've been "skinny" for years now, but it's not until I see a picture of myself that I recognize it. I know I still hold on to some insecurities from being heavier - they are hard to let go and are part of who I am, regardless of what others see.
  • WickedPineapple
    WickedPineapple Posts: 698 Member
    Oh yeah. I just went shopping at Old Navy, which I haven't shopped at since I was a size 10 and medium/large. I said the following to my husband afterwards, "Apparently, I'm a size 2 and extra small there now, which is really weird." When you've been overweight and/or obese your entire life and all of a sudden you're 2 sizes smaller than you though you were even capable of? Totally weird.
  • zorahgail
    zorahgail Posts: 91 Member
    @DrEnalg yes, I also relate. Even when maintaining an 85-90 lb. loss for about 7 years the image in my head didn't always match up to what I saw in the mirror.

    When I first reached my goal weight, I wasn't excited either. Now that I've gained weight for performance purposes, there's part of me that's more comfortable being this way since I was fat for so long. Buuut, my performance goals have changed again, so I'm back to losing weight.

    This time I'm curious how it'll go because I've shifted my identity to being an athlete, instead of just losing weight for aesthetics or health.

    Thanks for bringing the topic up. Very interesting!
  • RLeighP
    RLeighP Posts: 232 Member
    When I was at my smallest nearly 5 years ago, I never felt small. I'd lost 12 dress sizes and 115 lbs, but I still felt heavy. After being obese nearly my whole life, I didn't know who that slender person was. Now, I desperately miss that slender person, ha ha!
  • squeeeyk
    squeeeyk Posts: 165 Member
    I'm not there yet, but I've looked at old photos of myself in the past and remember feeling like a whale at the time. Yet, while I'm still overweight in those photos, I'm nothing like what I imagined myself to be. It concerns me because I wonder if I'll be satisfied once I reach my goal or if it will never be enough. It screams body dysmorphia. Ugh.
  • HikeCyclist
    HikeCyclist Posts: 153 Member
    I can relate. I used to be overweight from ages 12 to 18. Was constantly teased and called fat by my own sister. Developed eating disorders in my early 20s. Lost weight. Still felt like the old, "fat" me regardless.

    Years later, when at a normal weight, I saw old photos of myself from the eating disorder phase of my life, and thought, "omg, I was sooo skinny and I never even knew it."

    It's odd how some of us identify ourselves by what we are on the outside.
    We think it's who we really ARE. Although I've been eating disorder free for at least a decade now, I still believe that no matter how thin I get, I'll always feel like the fat kid I used to be. Yep, I need help.

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,731 Member
    It is sort of throwing me off a bit.

    I was really light for many years ... most of my life. But I've been at the high end of my BMI range since about 2008, and into the overweight range for the past 4 years. And I kind of got used to that. I've also got a whole range of clothing sizes in my cupboard.

    Now I've lost so that I'm lower than my 2008 weight.

    So I pull an item of clothing out of the cupboard and debate about trying it because the last time I tried it, it made me look like a bulging sausage ... then I put it on, and it's actually too big!!.

    It's different ... in the mornings when I'm getting ready for work ... to think whether or not I can wear something not because it will probably be too small for me and make me look like a sausage, but rather because it will probably be too big for me, and could fall off!! :smiley:
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