Am I fat?

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a depression thread. But... it's not too far of a stretch, eh? :frown:

I consider myself overweight. Im 5 8 and 202 pounds. When people guess how much I weigh they always say around 160. I only wish, but then again that would be way to skinny for my height and frame. I have to be at 170 and 30 seems like a lot to me but I already lost 50 lbs years ago and have just been up and down between 210 and 200.

We're about the same ... but you look great in your photo - wish I looked that good!

Got this from Facebook

I am larger (always has been) than the "National Average"

that size 16 doesnt look like me at a size 16(5'11).lol. i wish my stomach was that flat.

Got this from Facebook

I am larger (always has been) than the "National Average"

it should say some men's Ideal average, I just asked my husband, and after a loooong reassurance I wan't tricking him he said the smallest one was the best and probably healthier

and I just want to point out to any one out their suffering from starvation the smallest one still has meat on her, so it's ok for you to gain some weight to be that size

I used to be fairly slim but never appreciated it.. at the time i thought i was huge.. then i gained more weight and got in a bit of a denial stage.. i knew i was curvy but i kept telling myself that it could be worse and i could be bigger so i didn't need to lose weight.. and now no matter how much i lose i think i'll still see myself as fat.

Ugh, I hesitated before posting that. It was hard to put that out there for scrutiny. *shudder*

I totally know what you mean. I've weighed around 115 lbs for the majority of my life, until I had a baby. I'm still convinced I'm a size zero and xsmall.

well im 5'10 and i used to be 282 and now im about 170 but i feel fatter than ever lol. everyone around me looks nice and i look horrible. i have some friends who are classified as obese and i find myself looking at them wishing i was the same size as them. i suppose in reality im smaller than them but in my head its a totally different story

I dont feel 'fat' but i dont feel thin either. I am at a point in my weight loss, where i dont know where i stand yet. I guess until I get under 135 i will feel this way. 134 is my cut off for over weight. (i am 5 ft 1) .. I am 147 now .

I totally know what you mean. I've weighed around 115 lbs for the majority of my life, until I had a baby. I'm still convinced I'm a size zero and xsmall.

I was never a size zero or xs, but I was a happy 6 medium, without effort. Eat anything, never work out, had a metabolism to kill for.

Then I turned 35 and had a child. My wonderful metabolism deserted me. Two kids later, and I've gained the weight of my youngest child (7 year old!). LOL! As far as how you see people, I don't judge. When I do comment to the hub-ster about another person, my perception of my weight is apparently that I am heavier than I am. He has asked me to point out someone who is my size, and I invariably choose someone he perceives as being much heavier than me. It is weird how the mind works.

FWIW, I hate the way I look, and I AM fat. No doubt about it. If I looked like the size 16 in the image from earlier in the thread, I'd be absolutely content. But I'm a size 16W petite, and the way stuff is arranged isn't pretty at ALL. Much of it has to do with distribution of weight, I guess. I've seen others posting they are nearly the same height and weight as me, but my shape is atrocious, whereas they look faboo! ~shrug~

I do hope that when I lose weight my perception of myself changes appropriately. I don't want to lose weight only to still view myself as I am now.

Eating disorders are about a skewed view of one's self, not of health in general. That is to say, if someone has an eating disorder and thinks he/she is fat, it's because they have trouble seeing themselves accurately not because they think everyone over 100lbs is fat. So no, people with eating disorders don't necessarily go around thinking everyone else in the world is fat too; in fact many of them think they are much fatter and less attractive than everyone else. Hence the *disorder*. It's a complicated and very difficult disease - not to mention deadly.



Of course not all eating disorders have to do with weight or appearance at all. Mine was related to stress, control, depression, and coping - I didn't care about my or anyone else's weight and I hated it if people noticed I lost weight. I didn't have body dysmorphic disorder, in which people see themselves incorrectly, but I did have an unhealthy relationship with food that resulted in me starving myself for a few days at a time.

Never assume (-:

Er... I have no idea if I have an eating disorder or not, but I'm 5'5.5" and I currently weigh 104 pounds. My lowest weight was 101 pounds. At that weight, I felt like I looked exactly the same as I did at my initial weight of 116 pounds. Now, I feel huge compared to when I was at 101, even though I probably don't look any different. I know I'm not fat and I've never been truly fat; I just "feel" fat. Most other people look great to me. I can easily recognize when someone is huge or tiny. Any problem I might have is not clouding my vision of others, just of myself.

I think Fat is a state of mind, as well as a physical state, for some people.

I've had friends who have a hard time seeing themselves as they are, even after losing weight. I have days where I struggle to accurately see myself as well and I'm not what most people here would probably consider "fat" (i.e. I'm pretty fitness oriented, I work out regularly, eat well, have a healthy BMI, a decently good body fat %). But again, these aren't things I consider when I see myself in the mirror.

It's a lot about your perspective and not necessarily reality.

Eating disorders are extremely complicated and hard to explain. In High School I was an active anorexic and at 70 pounds could have sworn I was still obese. After inpatient treatment for that I ended up bulimic in college. Treatment for that. As someone who's been through the system twice and lived with EDs as long as I can remember, no, there is no judgement passed on someone's size. Eating Disorders in general have nothing to do with food to begin with..it's just an outlet. EDs are extremely selfish diseases, and the only person whose size matters, is your own. I thought my friends were thin and I was obese and I looked like a walking skeleton. Eating Disordered people don't tend to pass judgement on others, they know logically what they see is wrong, but it's a very hard thing to overcome. All just a state of mind..

I'm 5'7" and up until a year ago I was 120lbs. In my head I looked huge, to everyone else I was just bones. Everyone compares themselves to others, but when we obsess about it that's when it becomes a problem. I was borderline body dysmorphia, never officially diagnosed because my weight never dropped low enough, I was however taken off of a nursing placement because I was working in an ED unit and was slimmer than some of the people in there.

I'm currently fluctuating between 148lbs and 154lbs and according to my mother 'now have a shape'. I hate it and want to be back down to 120lbs. I know though that mine is obsessive, and always will be.

Other peoples weight however doesn't bother me. I have a friend who is anorexic (unfortunately not in recovery yet) and she agrees that EDs only make you care about yourself. It doesn't matter how big or small anyone else is, or how other people perceive you, it's the image in your head and in the mirror that you obsess about, all day and all night.

"I agree with an earlier poster who said that they should've posted the height of these models. The middle is what I'd like to look like, but at 5'4" I'd probably have to wear a size 6 or 8 to look like that. If I wore a size 12 at my height, I'd look more like the model on the right. IMO, the one on the left looks a little underweight. The one in the middle looks the most healthy to me."


I agree with you completely!! I am 5'8, and weight 170 my figure is definitively more the model on the right, but I wear a Size 11/12/13