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    "fat" picture - motivating or de-motivating?

    Posts: 28 Member
    edited December 2024 in Getting Started
    Here's a question for you all - do you find it more motivating or de-motivating to have a "fat" picture of yourself on display? I'm debating adding some to my profile......

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    • Posts: 571 Member
      Totally motivating! I find it a fantastic way to measure success when I see photos where I've clearly lost weight. Who doesn't love a good before and after pic?
    • Posts: 751 Member
      100% motivating for me. At the start it did nothing, but after a couple months when I put my fat picture next to my current picture, it finally allowed me to see what the scale was telling me. I look in the mirror every single day so any changes are hard to notice. Now I see what can happen with a couple months of hard work and motivation, and it makes me want to put in the effort again so that I can see what happens in a couple months from now.

      For me the number on the scale and the way clothes fit isn't enough, I need physically see proof as to what is happening to validate the work that I put in.
    • Posts: 868 Member
      edited May 2016
      AlisonMulhare wrote: »
      Here's a question for you all - do you find it more motivating or de-motivating to have a "fat" picture of yourself on display? I'm debating adding some to my profile......

      I took several 'before' pictures on my old phone and then only saved one. Now several years later I'm so mad at myself for not having saved the rest, because even 3 years into maintenance I still look at that one before picture regularly to remind myself of where I've been.

      I actually think it's been more of a help in maintenance, than it was in the weight loss phase. Maintenance is where it gets really easy to lose focus and start justifying poor choices, so when that starts happening I look at that picture to remind me that I do need to stay focused for the next 40-50 years. Also, the further along in maintenance I go, the more I forget what I actually looked like back then, which also feeds into the losing focus aspect.

      And yes, I have that one picture loaded into my MFP profile picture area :)
    • Posts: 57 Member
      motivating so you can see the progress you are making along the journey.
    • Posts: 1,411 Member
      Very, very motivating. It lets me vividly remember how miserable I was and how badly I wanted to be where I am today. I won't ever let myself forget that.
    • Posts: 28 Member
      WOW @evelynwhitelaw and @ReaderGirl3 - you're before and after pics are amazing!! Well done!!! I've added some pics to my profile - I hope mine will show such great success one day!


      @50extra - I've read your story and I really like your plan around losing. You're doing great so far - keep up the good work. I started on the 8th Jan 2016 and I'm at 15lbs - it's slowed down but I'm in it for the long haul - not a quick win so I'm still keeping going.
    • Posts: 751 Member
      15 pounds since the start of the year is a real nice loss and at an extremely sustainable rate. Good job.
    • Posts: 9,151 Member
      I don't find it motivating. I do have before/during pictures that helped me when I thought I wan't getting on as I should.
    • Posts: 11,068 Member
      I think it CAN be motivating for people depending on how they view it.

      I think for most people it's motivating if it's a "look how far I've come" but I think it can potentially be demotivating if it's something that stems from self hate/shame.
    • Posts: 1,530 Member
      Personally, I don't post up pictures as say, my profile picture, and call them my "fat" picture because I feel like it's insulting to myself. Not in the sense that calling myself what I am, as in fat, is insulting, but the mentality behind the whole "Remember this? You don't want to be this again, do you?" that is behind the visual reminder. However, I do keep pictures of me at my biggest and at various stages, so that I can make things like this when I feel down about my progress...

      4536ofngv2ec.jpg
    • Posts: 820 Member
      ReaderGirl3 wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      I took several 'before' pictures on my old phone and then only saved one. Now several years later I'm so mad at myself for not having saved the rest, because even 3 years into maintenance I still look at that one before picture regularly to remind myself of where I've been.

      I actually think it's been more of a help in maintenance, than it was in the weight loss phase. Maintenance is where it gets really easy to lose focus and start justifying poor choices, so when that starts happening I look at that picture to remind me that I do need to stay focused for the next 40-50 years. Also, the further along in maintenance I go, the more I forget what I actually looked like back then, which also feeds into the losing focus aspect.

      And yes, I have that one picture loaded into my MFP profile picture area :)

      ^^So much this. It was cool to compare to my old overweight photos when I was losing but I find it much more important now that i'm maintaining since you don't see other changes like the number on the scale happening anymore. Keeping a before and after photo here and looking at it often is a constant reminder of how much I don't want to ever lead that type of lifestyle again.
    • Posts: 2,188 Member
      Nope, don't want to see it. No before pictures at all.
      The thought of how I was, and never wanting to go back, is all the motivation I need to keep tracking.
      I do have one pair of size 24W jeans that I kept though and every once in a while I pull them out and try them on.
      Size 8 now, and I like it much better.
    • Posts: 727 Member
      Neither.

      I don't feel hate/shame about my fat pics, but I can't really relate them to where I am now either.

      For me it is clothes. That is why I have a pair of fat pants.

      There are actually some pics of me from the past summer nearby and I can't really look at them and see that I look so different, but I know I still use those same shirts, only now some of them are looking more like dresses.
    • Posts: 1,642 Member
      edited May 2016
      AlisonMulhare wrote: »
      Here's a question for you all - do you find it more motivating or de-motivating to have a "fat" picture of yourself on display? I'm debating adding some to my profile......

      Depends on the person I guess. But for me, I find it better to have pictures of myself at my thinnest weight that I want to reach. I have a couple of pics of myself on my bedroom mirror from seven years ago when I was at my goal weight :) Helps to keep me motivated to see where I want to be at and not where I was.
    • Posts: 9 Member
      edited May 2016
      I don't have a "fat" picture per se, but there a few pics when I wasn't in shape..I gauge my size by a pair of pants that I had before I had to stop working out due to injury. I jokingly call them my judgment jeans and I can see how and what is not working or what needs to be toned up by the way they fit.
    • Posts: 5,261 Member
      I find them motivating, but I would not want to have one displayed where others could see it.
    • Posts: 386 Member
      Motivating
    • Posts: 867 Member
      AlisonMulhare wrote: »
      Here's a question for you all - do you find it more motivating or de-motivating to have a "fat" picture of yourself on display? I'm debating adding some to my profile......

      To me it's totally motivating. You sometimes wonder if you can do it and then you look at what someone started with and where they are now, yeah I can do this. My biggest regret is I didn't take pictures along the journey but I do have a pair of pants that remind me of where I was and I swear I'm never going back. As long as you feel comfortable do it.
    • Posts: 378 Member
      Whatever works for you. It'd be demoralizing for me. I'd rather focus on where I want to go.
    • Posts: 260 Member
      It's a before picture from 1999 that motivates me. It's been on my fridge :smile: zq0dw5n0sbca.jpg
    • Posts: 733 Member
      OP - totally support doing it. I also think the before after side-by-side comparisons are awesome and really motivational.
    • Posts: 7 Member
      Motivating. I've keep both when trying to get in shape. An old photo of when I was in shape and what I want to get back to and a fat out of shape one of how I don't want to look.
    • Posts: 11 Member
      I personally find it motivating. Those seem to be the only pictures I have. I have 30 more pounds to go to my goal weight. So I look at those pics and it makes me want to lose more and more.
    • Posts: 1,132 Member
      De-motivating for me.
      I'm not happy that I've put on weight again, why would I want to look at something constantly that makes me feel negative?
    • Posts: 1,584 Member
      everyone's different. i find it unmotivating. i'm not ashamed of myself at my heaviest weight, but i wasn't thrilled about it, either. i find motivation by working toward something i really want rather than seeing something constantly i wasn't at all happy about and that is no longer the case.
    • Posts: 11,463 Member
      Fat + current progress pic!! Keep it going.
    • Posts: 173 Member
      Very un - motivating. I get depressed when I see fat pictures of myself. Heck, I get deppressed looking in the mirror. Why would I want to put that on my refrigerator. Not much hope in that. I usually try to find a picture of someone's body in a catalog or magazine (of course something realistic and achievable for my body type) dressed and styled like I would like to look someday.
    • Posts: 33 Member
      For ME, I have a fat picture and a current picture NEXT to each other and it's motivating.
    • Posts: 2,171 Member
      I hated pictures of myself at my heaviest. I still do.I didn't find pictures of myself motivating then, and I don't now. but I have really enjoyed seeing the changes by comparing the (very few) pictures of myself when I'm heavy with ones that I've taken along the way. I did, however, find older images of myself when I was much younger and thinner to help keep me from stopping.

      That said, I enjoy the memories I have with every picture, regardless of what weight I was.
    • Posts: 146 Member
      Tweaking_Time wrote: »
      OP - totally support doing it. I also think the before after side-by-side comparisons are awesome and really motivational.

      While I don't find them motivational (for me or otherwise), I completely agree that I love seeing them. Unless you have been with the person and know what they WERE like, it is hard to comprehend how far they have come. Even being the person it can be hard to truly visualize the difference.
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