Psychology of weight loss

#1

How is it possible to lose 74lbs and drop four pant sizes over 6 months and wake up in the morning feeling “fat?”

(Almost didn’t post this for fear of letting ya’ll see too much behind the curtain of my mind.)

(Karen Parrott) #2

It’s a common phycological reaction of your brain needing to catch up with your body. I lost 70 pounds over 40 weeks and my health coach at the time told me to look at a lot of pictures of myself at my new weight so that I would associate myself with being normal weight rather than overweight.

I was previously obese for 40 years so it took 1 to 2 years to even recognize myself in the mirror as a normal weight person. My coach told me if I identified as being an obese person that I was very likely to go back to being obese.

I kept working at it and eventually I could see the normal way me and identify with my body and brain. Feel free to seek the help of a counselor, I have had good experiences with CBT counselors.

(Olivia) #3

I lost 50 lbs 2011-2012 bringing me to BMI of ~20 i.e. healthy-slim and still feel like a fatty on bad days. :cloud_with_rain:
However, such feelings occur less often as the years continue. :sunny:

(Renee Slaughter) #4

What a great idea. I’ve lost 32 lbs so far but still buying clothes a little too large. I still see a big girl in the mirror. Granted, I was about 40, maybe 50 lbs overweight . I see me as a smaller person but I guess it doesn’t quite register yet. Have about 10-15 lbs left, my goal is a size 12. I’m 5’8 currently 174. So pictures ok

(Dawn) #5

You are not alone. I’m Down 70 pounds and I still look awful. My perceived “image” of myself does not at all match up with the “reality” of my self. I thought I would look great. But I just look meh. Most people can’t even tell I have lost weight. I think the key is to continue towards my goal (40 more pounds) and then do some major body reshaping to see if I can fix this mess. LOL! I can’t stop seeing a fat girl in the mirror. It’s all I can see. Technically I am still fat. I am still in the obese category for BMI. My waist height ratio is still obese. I have much work to do…but I wish I could see my success so far a little more clearly.

I love the idea of a health coach. I love the idea of looking at thinner pictures of yourself. Even if you don’t see the changes, focus on the health. Stare at those healthy blood panels. Embrace the ease at which you walk up stairs now. ENjoy the small size clothes. Focus on more of the NSV’s then what you see in the mirror. I am going to try to take my own advice too.

#6

I didn’t even take note myself until I was 50 lbs down while intimates around me saw clearly.

I am glad I took before-pictures. I keep taking pictures now and then. It has really helped see the progression and transformation.

(Pete A) #7

Yes this is real. I often literally feel too much weight on me. It’s “dysmorphic” of which Freud could have a field day!

#8

Thank you! This should help, right? Not looking for platitudes. Just taking your suggestions.

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(bulkbiker) #9

Hey where’d those chins go?
I’m down just over 100 pounds but still cant quite believe it and want to loose a bit more.
You look like a new person (ok so that my be a platitude but it happens to be true).
I stil wake up feeling fat… then think about how I used to look and feel (totally crap by the way) and realise how much better my health is these days.

#10

Thank you. It’s just that today old me is in my head so much more than new me.

(bulkbiker) #11

I know that feeling too… lets just hope tomorrow new you takes control again!

(Randy) #12

I started here 11 months ago as probably one of the biggest people here. 93 lbs down so far and still weighing in at a rotund 347 lbs. So yeah, still a fatty.

NSV’s are a huge motivation. The biggest being hope for the future, which was in short supply 1 year ago.

KCKO!!! :sunglasses:

#13

Keep looking at that transformation! Huge!

(Karen) #14

Oh ya! Like some traumatic events, the impressions and the emotions with them keep popping up. Put a sticky on your bathroom mirror. “I AM healthy” “I AM trim” “I love my new body” or whatever mantra will support you. Help you head believe what you see. Impressive loss!

K

(Liz ) #15

It is SO DISORIENTING to lose a lot of weight. i keep telling my husband how weird it feels, how it’s so hard to SEE myself. Pictures do help. I’m down almost a hundred pounds from my heaviest and I still suck in my gut to squeeze past things though there is now plenty of room for my new smaller body.

One thing I did in the middle of the journey is I worked really hard to stop equating overweight with BAD. I stopped judging other overweight folks. It had been ingrained in me by society from birth that fat is “ugly” or bad. So I literally worked to stop believing that. Nobody has to believe that! Instead I would see a large person and think. “Person, with value, with worth, wearing a red shirt.” Whereas in the past I would be judging their appearance on some arbitrary aesthetics scale that wasn’t even my innate opinion!

I did this no matter what size someone was, I stopped deciding how good someone looked based on size, I did it again and again and again for every person I saw, and over time it really helped me. Free from this judgement I felt so much better. I no longer felt ugly myself for being fat, I am just ME, no matter what size, and I have innate value as a human regardless of perceived aesthetics. And so do you!

Now I am in this middle aged, droopy, wrinkly lumpy skin suit lol, and I am just delighted as heck about everything that works fine and doesn’t hurt.

(Ethan) #16

I’ve yo-yo dieted since I was 16. I am 5’11, but I had a lot of various weights at different ages:

16: 185
17: 200
18: 138
19: 165
20: 175
21: 185
22: 205
23: 170
24: 180
25: 150
26: 170
27: 190
28: 205
29: 225
30: 250
31: 276 (peak)
32: 240
33: 235
34: 195
35: 220
36: 250
37: 260
now (still 37): 212

No matter what particular weight I was at, I felt fat. I could see my size in the mirror and feel like I had a lot of work to do. At times though that I gained weight, I would look back at a picture from before and see that I was NOT fat after all then.

(Karen) #17

I’ve had that happen seeing a photo. Ihave the opposite. I was a thin child, youth, younger adult, middle aged adult. I am shocked sometimes, in the last decade, at how fat I’ve become, when I think of myself as thin. It’s oosing into my dreams now that am “Gordo” as one of my kindies said.

Still you are on track, and getting healthy.

K

(Ethan) #18

What I am saying, though, is we are often very critical of our present selves. When I weighed 138, I so myself as still overweight! No matter what I weigh, I see myself as fat in the present. Only later on can I see that I was not when I see a picture.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #19

It’s normal buddy…I’ve lost 57lbs and still feel fat. When you don’t want to be fat, feeling fat is a hell of a motivator.

(Sophie) #20

Well said!
Most of my life I’ve been a normal size/weight but I always felt fat. It wasn’t until my perfect storm (8+yrs ago) that I became morbidly obese and then I actually knew what it was like to be fat. As I head back to a normal size for me, that morbidly obese girl in the back of my head has taught me to become more empathetic to people that are IR with all the health problems that go with that. I have literally walked in those shoes and can’t look at obese people the same way ever again.