How long did it take your brain to catch up with your new body size?

_L_A_ · January 2021

I know when people lose weight, especially if it’s quickly or if it is a large amount of weight, the mind can take a while to catch up and perceive the body as it’s new size, either just general bodily awareness or perception in the mirror

I have been maintaining for a few months now, went up a bit over Christmas and back down now to maintenance, but my perception/awareness of my body when I’m moving, laying, sitting is still that of my larger size! In the mirror I sometimes can see I’m a healthy size, but it takes me by surprise when I do because my mind sees me as larger!

I thought my brain would’ve caught up by now!

How long did it take for your brain to catch up and perceive your body as it’s new size?

ExpressoLove11 · January 2021

Congrats on reaching maintenance! That's awesome and I hope you are proud of yourself 😊

I have been in maintenance and have been recomping since October 2019 and still feel surprised when I look in the mirror. So to answer your question - who knows lol

Fflpnari · January 2021

I had my high weight in 2011. I still feel that size even though im down a 100 pounds.

rosiekin · January 2021

I've been maintaining a 90lb weight loss for over 6 years, and I can still be surprised when I catch my image or side view in a mirror! I know I am slim and don't look in mirrors and think I'm not, however, there are some occasions when that mirror image glimpse just shocks me and I can't believe I'm the size I am! I also can't believe I've maintained for over 6 years as I struggled with my weight for 30 years!

AnnPT77 · January 2021

Varying amounts of time in varied respects, for me. I'm, in year 5 of maintaining a loss from obese to healthy, around 50 pounds. I'd been obese for around 30 years, probably, so it was pretty ingrained in my brain.

For quite a while, maybe months to a year or (hard to remember), it was always startling when I saw myself in a full-length mirror or something. Eventually, I got used to that, and it routinely looks like me, now.

For somewhat longer, I'd scootch over to the side of a narrow hallway when meeting an oncoming person. (One trainer I knew at the Y literally said, referring to himself, when I did this "I'm not that big, really." and I said "Yeah, I but I still think *I* am!"). I'd think I couldn't fit through narrow spots that I could (that still happens occasionally, but with an adjustment, i.e., some wider ones I couldn't have fit through when obese I know I can do now, but ones that are a closer thing still look impossible sometimes).

At first, my own clothes looked *freakishly* small, when I was doing laundry or packing a suitcase or something. That may've lasted up to a couple of years. Even now, buying new things, clothes will often look too small until I try them on, and find they fit.

Does it ever 100% go away? I have no idea.

Katerr1kk · January 2021

I am really struggling with this at the moment.

Logically I KNOW there is a difference (I mean, there has to be I've lost 41lb) but I can't see it in my mirror and it has been 9 months! The odd time I've seen a mirror elsewhere it is more noticeable. I think my brain is playing tricks on me.

_L_A_ · January 2021

Thanks everyone for your experiences and stories!

Nice to know I’m not a weirdo and this seems very normal! But less nice to know it may never go away!

Fingers crossed my brain does adapt!

Beautyofdreams · January 2021

@Katerr1kk, I have felt the same as you express. It is only with the last 20 -25 lbs left to lose that I notice the difference and I have lost 69 pounds since March of 2020.

Strudders67 · January 2021

It took me 2 years to lose weight down to my target level. I've been in maintenance since last March. I finally bought new jeans in September, once shops were open, as belts to hold in my old jeans really weren't a good look. In the shop, I needed help reaching a higher shelf and asked the assistant to get down a slightly larger size. She looked at me and said "I don't think so". I bought both my size and her suggested size, to try on at home, but had to take the larger ones back the next day. Even now, I'm still amazed, every time I pick them up, as to how I get in to something that small.

seltzermint555 · January 2021

For me it was 2-3 years. I lost over 100 lb eight years ago.

I had an uptick in my weight early last year though, when I found myself about 20 lb over my lowest weight. I had to readjust my brain and it was sorta unsettling. As a result, when I went from size 10 to 12 in jeans I was trying on tons and tons of 14-16 and actually bought some XL tops that I had to donate, when I realized they looked weird on me and I still wore M/L. The brain is a weird thing!

Luke_rabbit · January 2021

I'll let you know if it ever happens!

Plus be prepared for some other people to never adjust. Some will always remember you as large and will comment every single time they see you, even after 15 years (this happens to my spouse).

freda666 · January 2021

I am still overweight, about 3kg from the top end of a "normal" BMI for my height, having dropped from a "morbidly obese" BMI. So I have lost getting on for half of me so far, hoping to hit 70kg by the end of Feb.

70kg because when I was over 20 stone (I did not weight myself so do not know how much more) and first set up my MFP parameters, it asked my goal so I looked up what the highest weight in for a normal BMI and the answer was 70kg.

But anyway..... I certainly have not got used to being so much smaller yet and am still surprised that I no longer spill out of my chair or fill the now far too big jumper I am wearing at the moment. I bought new glasses just before I started losing weight too and when I look in the mirror an owl looks back, they just look so huge on my face now.

In fact I quite like wearing this jumper, just for slopping around in at home, as it does act as a reminder of how much I have shrunk.

richardgavel · February 2021

It helped me that I still had all my old dress shirts from when I was at my ideal weight. I kinda use one as a tangible gauge of where I'm at.

springlering62 · February 2021

Thank god for MFP, those who ask questions, and those who answer honestly.

I secretly thought I was nuts. I’m sorry to imply I enjoy you all’s suffering or brain fog, but it sure is a relief to know it’s not just me.

It’s only when I see photos I can comprehend the changes.

charmmeth · February 2021

I had the opposite problem for a long time: I was slim (and at times painfuly thin) from childhood all the way through to my early 30s, and then put on quite a lot of weight quite fast. (Family pattern, it happened to my mother and to her father too...) It took me years to see that I was now overweight. I was buying larger clothes, but still thought of myself as slim and looked in the mirror and didn't see an overweight person. It wasn't until the scale hit the 89kg mark (ca. 200lbs), which took me from overweight to obese, and I saw some photos of myself from the side that I finally took in the fact that I was no longer tall and slim but tall and decidedly Reubenesque. Now I'm back into being comfortably in normal bmi (though a good few kgs heavier than at my lowest weight: it was too low and I have no aspiration to hit it). I look at my belt and can see that I am doing it up six holes smaller than I was five years ago, and can't believe I didn't notice how big I'd got!

SModa61 · February 2021

I will add that I don't think this is only a weight loss issue (at least for me). As I was gaining weight and seeing the number on the scale, I don't think I acknowledged it in the mirror until the weight got to my high. Same issue, on the way back down. At least now, it is a pleasant surprise that I am slimmer than I think.

MadisonMolly2017 · February 2021

My comments tie in different ways to many of those posted above.

I WAS overweight & obese since puberty, approx 45 years, began changing that 5 years ago- lost ~75 lbs. BTW my highest ever weight was 10 lbs more than that (beginning of next level of obese & the only time I felt really fat, didn’t like it, lost it after a year)

One of the things that made it difficult to lose weight was I had/have a normal body image. However, I had confidence etc. so I guess that was good.

However, when I looked at photos when I was heavy, I’d think “That’s not me!” And I hated clothes shopping as then I had to face the reality in those mirrors & clothes sizes...ditto bathing suits

So, I do feel normal wt now, as always, but when I look at photos or go clothes shopping, I Realize that I’m actually slim. And that I look unrecognizable from my higher weight.

I joke to my husband that it’s like being a spy, infiltrating known groups incognito. I make light of it, but I wasn’t so happy with this initially.

And yes clothes that fit are minuscule & ive had to train myself to think small/medium.
Especially with shift in clothes sizing over the past decades!!!

Lately I’ve been using the statistic that 78% of Americans are overweight or obese to fully grasp what I’ve done for my health. BMI=23.2 to 23.5
From the 34’s

jennacole12 · February 2021

I’m about 3 years post weight loss and I still always order Mediums and Larges, I wear an XS 🤦🏼‍♀️ Idk why I doubt it every order.

cwolfman13 · February 2021

I had it backwards...my brain never registered that I was getting fat and eventually just into obese territory. I have been lean most of my life and downright skinny in my teens...about 140Lbs at 5'10" soaking wet my senior year in high school. Went into the military and then university after I got out. I graduated when I was 30 and put on about 50 Lbs from 30-38. It never really registered...my self perception was that I was no longer that skinny kid, but I wasn't fat either.

I had a physical right around my 38 year birthday that resulted in a lot of bad blood work and the Dr. telling me that I was now officially obese and needed to make changes now. I kind of scoffed at the notion of being obese because I just didn't see myself that way. One day I was going through some photos we had taken on a recent vacation to the UK...I'm usually the one taking pictures, so I'm not generally in many of them, but I came across a picture of myself with my then 2 year old at the wedding we were attending and it shocked me...there it was...big old fat me...fat gut...fat face...moobs...the whole 9.

How long did it take your brain to catch up with your new body size?

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