I still feel fat

[Pineapple]

I've reached my goal, my doctor says to stay at this weight, my body fat percentage and BMI are ideal for my type- why can't I accept it?

I have trouble looking at myself in the mirror most of the time. I just focus on how fat I think I look. As finals approach I feel myself becoming more stressed. I want to rush out to the gym and burn 3000 calories, and eat skimpy meals. I haven't and I know I'll never do anything that drastic- I want to feel satisfied! It's taken me almost a year to lose and I'd like to feel like I've accomplished something.

Did this happen to anyone else? I'm sorry if I posted it in the wrong forum, it doesn't seem like depression and I can't put it under emotional eating

Thanks all!

[Heidi3]

Re: I still feel fat

Honey there are days I feel like a COW!!!!

it is all about perspective that is for sure ...if most days you feel good and have the odd day feeling fat that is normal if it is all consuming the feeling of fat then there are deeper issues...and you do need help ...but I think you are a bright girl and you know that ...


TODAY I feel fat for sure I ate poorly yesterday and am paying for it

[cmcole]

Re: I still feel fat

If we are honest, I'm sure we all have "fat" days.
I still can't get used to seeing myself as small, so I consistently refer to myself as fat. It's a horrid situation, and certainly there are no winners.

And, yes, I've been maintaining for, I believe, at least two years by now. I've lost count.

[sallyseachange]

Re: I still feel fat

Oh boy! It isn't easy to give up our old image. We're slim now and maintain (hopefully)...but still that chubby person looks back at us from the mirror.

I do a silly thing: I look at myself in shop windows, very quickly, as I walk by. Somehow it seems as if I'm glancing at someone in the crowd, not myself...and I get a better impression of how other people see me. In shop windows, I look slim! Lol! Weird!

Ok... I know you'll all think I'm nuts...but...but... ok, maybe I am...but it helps me a bit!

Sal

[ttdriver]

Re: I still feel fat

I am 50 years old + 4 months, weigh 99 pounds and I STILL FEEL FAT sometimes.

I look in the mirror and long for the good old days when gravity hadn't found me yet. The days before gaining 50+ pounds when pregnant. The days when my love handles weren't there. The days when my butt didn't sag. The days when I didn't have a wingspan.

I realize that there's NOTHING I can do about the aging process. There's no way I can counteract the effects of gravity on this 1/2 century-old body.

But I WILL NOT GIVE UP. I still run 35 miles a week. I still lift weights. I still eat clean. I don't eat crap. I do everything in my power to offset the effects of aging. The rest, I just come to terms with. I accept me for who I am. I am so excited about what Atkins has given back to me. I have alot of energy and strength ... much more so than I ever thought possible at this age.

I refuse to give in to those so-called inevitable aches and pains of aging. I am in total denial of it. Okay, so maybe I'll never be 20-something again. But that doesn't mean I can't FEEL LIKE IT!

Betty

[cmcole]

Re: I still feel fat

You go, Betty girl!!

You're an inspiration to those of us approaching that phase in life (very closely)

[sadie147]

Re: I still feel fat

When i'm feeling really down that way, and feeling fat, i try on an old outfit..and it gives me perspective on how much smaller i am. I made sure i kept a couple of 'fat' clothes just for htis purpose. I've also even tried on my wedding gown as well (it's about 2 sizes 2 big for me now).

I'm not sure if we every really overcome this, we will just always have our 'bad' days, I think even people that have always been thin have days like this, they see cellulite, love handles etc that others don't see on them.

I think you just hvae to learn to deal with these days and not give up..it passes.

[Jerzaka]

Re: I still feel fat

I'm a second time around'er. And, I have to tell you try and think positive. One of my downfalls after 8 years was a couldn't see the difference anymore. I simply lost perspective.

I thought I was fat (I wasn't). I thought everyone else thought I was fat (they didn't) and that gave me the "permission" I was looking for to go on a free for all eating binge that lasted almost a year.

People told me I was skinny. But, I had convinced myself that I was skinny, fat. So, on the outside I was acceptable, but without my clothes, I knew the truth. Boy if I could turn back time.

Looking back, I should have gone to the gym and toned up. That would have helped me see a difference in my body and helped my mind and body feel stronger.

Have you seen your primary care physician? Perhaps a antidepressant could help you short term. You don't have to take them forever. Sometimes it's just a tool we need to help us out of our funk!

[I lost it]

Re: I still feel fat

We always see the little flaws in our bodies,probably because we know ourselves so well. Others usually see the big picture, this is one area of life where I trust others opinion more than my own.I pull out my old pictures and enough said, it gets me back on a positive mode very quickly.

[Bostnchub]

Re: I still feel fat

I've reached my goal, my doctor says to stay at this weight, my body fat percentage and BMI are ideal for my type- why can't I accept it?

I have trouble looking at myself in the mirror most of the time. I just focus on how fat I think I look. As finals approach I feel myself becoming more stressed. I want to rush out to the gym and burn 3000 calories, and eat skimpy meals. I haven't and I know I'll never do anything that drastic- I want to feel satisfied! It's taken me almost a year to lose and I'd like to feel like I've accomplished something.

Did this happen to anyone else? I'm sorry if I posted it in the wrong forum, it doesn't seem like depression and I can't put it under emotional eating

Thanks all!

Having a food addiction or an eating disorder makes all mirrors turn into those carnival mirrors where you look short and fat but if you move you look tall and slim; then your head looks like a stove pipe or disappears completely. heehee...hang in there!!

[Smallerizing]

Re: I still feel fat

Greetings from the STAC club, which I hope you never join!! (Don't take this wrong!)


I maintained for about a year after reaching what I was considering SHOULD have been my goal, having heavier bones and all from carrying 60 extra pounds around for so long. BUT I could not take off my "fat goggles". I knew I was skinny, everyone said I looked great, but as Betty said there were residual effects that I knew about from having been overweight.

I just popped in here to say, You have done great and don't let your faulty perceptions keep you from your present goal and healthy lifestyle. Some of us got lazy or discouraged and then gained a lot of it back. This is NOT FUN. Now that I know how great it felt to be slender, it feels even worse having a potbelly to haul around as my legs scrape together under my elastic-waist pants.

You obviously know deep down how good you look and how great it is that you got where you wanted through all that hard work. PLEASE DON'T QUIT NOW. I know that's not what you were asking, but I didn't even THINK of quitting for a while, it's just that I took my new figure for granted and now I lost it. I am hereby giving you permission to enjoy and revel in your new-found slenderness, and hope you start giving yourself permission to pat yourself on the back, too. Your accomplishment is INCREDIBLE and so are you. The "fat goggles" are "normal" BUT you must not believe them!

Good luck and happy low-carbing. (Going back to the big fat failure forum now)

[qbu]

Re: I still feel fat

When i'm feeling really down that way, and feeling fat, i try on an old outfit..and it gives me perspective on how much smaller i am. I made sure i kept a couple of 'fat' clothes just for htis purpose. I've also even tried on my wedding gown as well (it's about 2 sizes 2 big for me now).

I'm not sure if we every really overcome this, we will just always have our 'bad' days, I think even people that have always been thin have days like this, they see cellulite, love handles etc that others don't see on them.

I think you just hvae to learn to deal with these days and not give up..it passes.

I'm not at my goal, yet, but I'm down 74lbs and 8 sizes. I have days when I still feel like the person before Atkins and I do exactly the same thing. I saved 2 things, that's it, and I try them on when I'm having a really bad feeling day. I realize just how far I've come and I'm not in as bad of a mood. When I go shopping, I look at the size of something in the store before I try it on and think, "This is never gonna fit, it's too small". It fits, but then when I get it home, somehow it becomes this huge pair of pants in my eyes. It hasn't changed size, just somehow when it's "mine" it naturally has to be big because that's how I still see myself.

[Bren]

Re: I still feel fat

For people with eating disorders it is called "dismorphia".........yeah I am sure I spelled that wrong! But, it is real and there is a name for it. For a long time when I looked in a mirror I did not recognize me! When I "visualize" myself I still see that size 24. I never understood it before, but now I truly get it. Anorexics see a large person when they look in the mirror, even though they are dangerously low in weight. Finally now when I look in the mirror I see myself for what I am, but it took along time! I think for us the "fat goggles" come off very slowly.

[changing]

Re: I still feel fat

Body dysmorphia is really incredible, and it can go in the other direction too... for me, I've always thought I was smaller than I was and struggle with it to this day. It took being 280 lbs and having my back feel like it would crack in half for me to realize that I was even overweight. It's nice to live in blissful oblivion, but body dysmorphia in the other direction, the flattering one, can be really dangerous to health and well-being.


I for one wish that I'd realized long ago that I should be losing weight. Then I wouldnt' have so far to go.

[easttexasdaisy]

Re: I still feel fat

"When I go shopping, I look at the size of something in the store before I try it on and think, "This is never gonna fit, it's too small". It fits, but then when I get it home, somehow it becomes this huge pair of pants in my eyes. It hasn't changed size, just somehow when it's "mine" it naturally has to be big because that's how I still see myself."

That is me..... Absolutely. I try things on in size 10 they fit but they look so much smaller until I get them home and start wearing them. Then they look huge.

The only thing I can add is if their is someone in your life who is brutally honest about your weight? Ask them their opinion. Maybe they see someone who needs to tone and if so I'm sure they'll let you know. But they may see a really fit and slim person. I'm sure they will tell you as well.
I have a dear friend but she likes absolutely anything I put on and thinks it all looks great. Her opinion is I eat weird and I've lost enough weight already, so let's go out for banana splits. We've been friends through thin, fat, obese and even pregnant at the same time (friends over the past 16 years). My husband on the other hand is really honest and helps me to find things that are more flattering. I drag him shopping always. And he does encourage my WOE.