Anyone else have an inaccurate perception of yourself?

Cadori
Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
I've lost 33 pounds. I can see that number on the scale. I'm down almost 2 sizes, I see that in the clothes I'm wearing. I know both weight and inches have come off. Logically I know I've lost weight.

But there is a strange battle going on in my head. When I look at myself in the mirror lately, I feel like I'm even bigger than before I started. That got me thinking to the last time I attempted losing weight (HIIT and CICO) ...right at this same point I started having these same feelings...gave up and regained.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any advice on how to convince my brain of something that it already knows?

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Replies

  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    binabodu wrote: »
    I feel the same way. I have a lot to lose but I am almost half way there and I feel like I can't see it. Sometimes I think I do in a mirror but then I see a picture of myself and I still look so big. :( I just bought jeans 2 sizes smaller, I could have went 3 but my head couldn't skip to that. It didn't seem logical, it seemed like a waste of money.

    Thanks for sharing! Hopefully we can both get some help in replies here :)
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    Lillith32 wrote: »
    Body dysmorphia is real. We have some heavy ladies at my job, and I always feel like I'm a size bigger than them, which I am not. When I look at myself, or think about myself, I see one of those busted tubes of biscuit dough. I hate shopping and don't wear revealing clothes unless I'm working out. The thing is, it's a mental problem. I felt the same at 215lb and at 130 lb. Maybe once I hit 130s again I'll go get help.

    That is exactly how I feel lately!
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    Unfortunately (?) I am sort of the opposite. I look in the mirror and I'm still in my mid-20's at an excellent weight. Then I see pictures or put on certain outfits, or attempt something requiring more strength and stamina and think, OMG how and when did this happen?!?

    Hmmm...maybe it goes both ways?
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    KnitOrMiss wrote: »
    I tend to flip back and forth. Sometimes I feel like I look absolutely smashing, then other times I feel worse than I did.

    The biggest thing that helps me is to go back and look at pictures. I was talking to someone the other day about a picture collage I made. It went back to HS... It doesn't have my two heaviest pictures that I use for comparison, and I haven't updated it in about 4 years, apparently. There's no other way to describe it, really. I was horrified. Even though I'm the same weight or HEAVIER now, in all of the pictures in that collage, or all of them since I got heavy, anyway, I don't even look like me... I was shocked (and disgusted, honestly) at how awful I looked, when I thought I looked better, as I'd already lost weight... It's crazy. But to me, I have to go back and look at those horror show pictures...because I keep getting stuck in that loop of how much heavier I am, etc.... But I still look healthier than same weight or even lower weight from before...

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    That's a good perspective, thank you! I'll have to pull up some pictures.
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,104 Member
    edited January 2017
    So in that picture, 3rd row first pic is Xmas, 2001. The next pic is 2010.

    Here are 2008 & 2009 pics by comparison... I don't have anything between saved here accessibly...

    July 2008
    7w323nws0se9.jpg

    December 2008
    h2c9habneinc.jpg

    Approximately February 2009
    8umsjtmqa6jy.jpg

    That last picture is a few months before my highest medically recorded weight...and I'd have to go check, but some of these are close to the weight I am now... I know I weigh close to the same now as the last pic in that third row/first one 4th row...
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,104 Member
    For me, it all comes down to the pictures... I keep thinking I look the way I did back in 2012, because I'm back up to the same weight, but simply said? You can tell I'm healthier now, even if the same weight...if that makes sense?
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    KnitOrMiss wrote: »
    For me, it all comes down to the pictures... I keep thinking I look the way I did back in 2012, because I'm back up to the same weight, but simply said? You can tell I'm healthier now, even if the same weight...if that makes sense?

    Absolute sense and yes, you do look healthier. And that should be the benchmark. Thank you :)
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
    baconslave wrote: »
    I have to go back and look at my befores and durings. I still feel huge. All I see is the imperfections some days. The hanging skin and remaining fat. I still double-take when I see a reflection on accident in a door or window. I actually wore my hair down at my oldest daughter's soccer game and looked at myself in a bathroom mirror and had one of those moments. Once I recognize that as me, all I can see is the little neck wattle and the laugh lines that are no longer concealed due to excess weight.

    I'd roll my eyes at myself if I weren't afraid they'd get stuck like that due to the magnitude of the eye-roll called for. I AM better than I was about it 6 months ago though. In time, I imagine I'll probably slowly become less neurotic.

    Yes! I nit pick everything.
  • anglyn1
    anglyn1 Posts: 1,803 Member
    @baconslave My mom keeps telling me I'm obsessed with my neck wattle and it's not noticeable but it is all I see some days. It's like if I don't have the excess weight to stress about then that is my new focus. It's kind of ridiculous because before I never thought twice about my neck or anyone else's. Now I meet someone and I think she's got a nice firm neck there! lol

    At first I still saw myself as my old weight but like above pictures helped. I was kind of the opposite before I lost weight as to where I was always astounded to see my pictures and just never believed I was that size. Then when I lost weight for the longest time I felt fatter than I did before. Finally through pictures and sightings in mall mirrors and stuff I'm feeling at home in my new size. Also after many dressing room trips with pants that ended up being way too big because I hold up a size 3 sizes above mine and think that looks like me!
  • TomKershawUK
    TomKershawUK Posts: 65 Member
    edited January 2017
    I've looked at old pictures of myself and I look much bigger than I remember being. It was also helpful as I realised I put a lot of the weight on within a couple of years (2010 - 2012) rather than over much longer as I'd remembered. It was around the time I developed an interest in baking sourdough bread, sausage rolls and cakes etc. so there is some clue there...
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,104 Member
    @TomKershawUK - My issue was enduring an unhappy marriage and prolonged divorce... And then the damage was hard to undo!!