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[ttowe]

Do you think or feel like you suffer from some form of body dysmorphic issues?

Absolutely. I'm struggle with some weight gain and even though I haven't had to buy any new clothes at larger sizes, I feel huge and I see myself as huge in mirrors and windows.

[Kierie]

Mind you I'm up 20 pounds from my lowest. I found that nomatter what size I was I'd find something negative to focus on and still thought I wasn't thin enough and I actually think this had a negative impact on me maintaining

I'm starting to appreciate my body and not use the cruel self talk

[Seht]

Yes absolutely.

When I look down at my stomach all of that extra skin makes me feel like I'm huge
If I turn sideways and look in the mirror, it really doesn't look that bad, but under direct observation I just can't tolerate it.

I also freak out when I have the slightest weight gain.

What I could look like and how I would still see myself

[auntb]

This is an ongoing struggle for me. When I was heavy I didn't really "see" myself. I thought I was just a little big at 320. Now I do not see myself as I am I "see" myself as larger than I am. I work at having a better image of what I look like. For me it helps to see myself in pictures with other people it gives me some kind of scale.

I think we all spent so much time and effort not "looking" at ourselves when we were big that we have a very difficult time doing it now. I try to stop and see the whole package a couple of times a month. Starting getting dressed and looking at how I look and how it changes as I put on each piece of clothing. It helps most of the time.

That and I know this will sound dumb but it took me a long time to figure out that if something didn't look good on me it was not that my body was WRONG in some way but that the garment was not RIGHT for ME in some way. That shift has helped a lot.

[lolita1971]

Good Lord YES!  I've suggested at my Kaiser support group to get butcher paper to trace our bodies.  I'm still waiting if everyone would be willing to do it.  I think it's a great idea, since this is something that is done with anorexic individuals at Stanford's Eating Disorder Clinic.

I still think as a fat girl who weighs 276 lbs.  When we take photos at work with our employees, it grounds me for a while, but within a few weeks, I'm back to the same frame of thought.

[Barb]

YES!!! I really need to get a new driver's license. I think it looks like me but I had a cashier comment recently that I look a lot different than my picture... NSV? 

[Seht]

It's not just what you think, it's also what your body thinks.

I was working with a personal trainer who teaches swimming, Pilates, and yoga.
She had no idea that I have had weight loss surgery.
She asked me "were you previously overweight?  Because you move like some one who is severely over weight"

So even though I have slimmed down, my body still acted like it was under the stress of the extra weight.

Scott

[Dr_Adventure]

I sometimes don't see myself as large as I am

[MacMadame]

I consider body dysmorphia to be when you really, really don't see yourself. Like the 90 pound anorexic who thinks she is obese. So, in that sense, no.

But, in the sense of, do I know what volume I take up in space? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

For example, I can pick out clothes on the rack just by looking at them, without checking the sizes, and I always pick the right size. Sometimes they are a little tight or a little loose but mostly they fit about as expected. But when I am looking for myself in group shots, I always stop at someone who sort of looks like me but is about 20 pounds heavier than I am. I also look in the mirror and get surprised by how small I am. Even now when I'm about 10 pounds over where I want to be, I'm still 20 pounds lighter than my mental image of myself.

[Jabba2Halle]

I think we all spent so much time and effort not "looking" at ourselves when we were big that we have a very difficult time doing it now.

True dat.  *nods furiously*

[Indykitty]

I see it better in pictures, but still don't quite have a true self image in my head. I never really saw how big i was before and I still have trouble really seeing...

[saucywench]

I see it better in pictures, but still don't quite have a true self image in my head. I never really saw how big i was before and I still have trouble really seeing...

Pictures help me. I also don't/didn't see myself in the mirror. I can't eye ball clothing I have to try things on and I'm usually stumped I have no idea what looks good on me I'm still in the "buy it it fits" mentality. I'm trying to think in the moment and ask myself yeh it fits but do I love it? AS I've seem some ladies on here post they ask them selves that question and it been great advice Thanks guys! I found myself trying on yoga pants on clearance at kohls yesterday and lost track of time. I don't know how long I stood there staring at my legs in the mirror I think I was trying to convince myself they belonged to me. I knew they were attached so they must be mine but they looked so different, so weird, and foreign to me. I just stood there in the same pair of pants just gawking in the mirror but if I try and picture myself now in those pants I can't envision/remember what I looked like. Is this body dysmorphia?
-Mel

[lolita1971]

Oh, one thing I do in the mirror is to lift the hanging skin, move it around and imagine that excessive skin cut away.  I think it's only then when I really see what I look like underneath.  Oh, of course I do that with the "lolitas" up-top too (from sagging to perky).  Oh, I wish I could win the lotto to have plastic surgery, oh I should say pay off the bills and to have enough for plastic surgery.  Must play California Mega tonight again.

[Indykitty]

Lolita I do the same thing!  I try to picture how it would be post skin removal and repositioning and I gotta say, I like it much better than the saggy bagginess and I am playing the lotto too! Come on lady luck - mama needs a overhaul over all!