Question For People Who Have Been Overweight Their Whole Lif

I have lost 82lbs in the last 13 months. I have always been fat, but I am now at the lowest weight I've been since I was a sophomore in high school. At my highest weight, when I found MFP, I weighed 365lbs. I look in the mirror and see the thin person I have always felt myself to be emerging. But, if I'm going to be truthful with myself, I've been basically maintaining the last few months because I am SCARED to lose anymore weight. I don't know what I will look like. I'm afraid of what other people will view me as. I have never been thin, so it's a scary thought.

LadyLord,

Do it for your health and for your future (your long distant future) and try not to worry about how you look or don't look now. Your heart, bones, joints, will thank you for it decades from now long after looks will cease to be a very important part of your life. You're making great progress, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and don't doubt yourself or look back. Your body knows what to do - let it do it for you.

i'm pretty close to my goal, but i've pretty much always been big before now -- at least chubby, if not downright obese. i recognize that i'm smaller than i was, but my perspective of how i actually look is all wonky. sometimes i see other girls who look good, and i'm struck that our bodies are very similar, and it makes me realize that i probably look to other people the way these people look to me, if that makes any sense. i probably look good, "normal" slim, whatever, to other people.... but i don't see it that way myself.

At least in my case, it took a while. I had been overweight during college, starting somewhere around 200, going up to 235, and eventually getting close to 290. Through the whole time, I felt I kinda looked the same, and didn't see much difference, either way, at least past the 230s. Most of my time was around 250-260. I've been losing weight for the past couple years, and now that I'm almost down to 200, I FINALLY started noticing something different without before/after pics. Even before I could see it myself, my clothes were loosening and whatnot, but I still didn't seem visually different when I looked in the mirror. Now when I look in the mirror, I have this kind of confused feeling. I know it's me, and I don't look THAT different it feels, but something feels... off. I'm probably about to my high-school weight, and still trying to lose more. According to the Fat 2 Fit website's goal weight calculator, my goal weight should be about 175, to be near the low end of the healthy range of bodyfat, so I have a ways to go. For reference on the weight, I'm a 5' 10" male.

TLDR. I didn't see it myself until I got to about the BMI obese/overweight limit line for me.

I have lost 82lbs in the last 13 months. I have always been fat, but I am now at the lowest weight I've been since I was a sophomore in high school. At my highest weight, when I found MFP, I weighed 365lbs. I look in the mirror and see the thin person I have always felt myself to be emerging. But, if I'm going to be truthful with myself, I've been basically maintaining the last few months because I am SCARED to lose anymore weight. I don't know what I will look like. I'm afraid of what other people will view me as. I have never been thin, so it's a scary thought.

You sound like me, I had to push myself very hard to get past that feeling. I have never been able to tell anyone those feelings, it is so good to hear it from someone else.