I thought the camera was supposed to add 10 lbs?

[Comfy_Blue 285]

Has anyone else experienced looking smaller on camera than in the mirror?

I've lost almost 60lbs, but when I look at myself in the mirror, I look "average" sized and don't see much of a difference. However, if I see a photo of myself, I am always shocked because I look so much thinner than my mirror reflection.

Example: Yesterday I was looking at myself in a full length mirror in the dressing room and while I was thrilled to be in a size 12 jeans, I thought I looked about the same. I decided to snap a picture to commemorate the occasion, then when I looked at it I was shocked at how small I looked. I thought it was just that angle, so I took several more and kept looking at the mirror and the camera trying to figure out which was real.

The same thing happened last weekend. My husband and I were out eating lunch and he asked to take my picture (we were sitting so it was from the waist up).

I was like, "Ugh, no!" and hid my face, but he kept begging me, so I let him snap a few. When he handed me the camera, again I was taken back that I looked so small. I kept looking at it over and over trying to comprehend the image. When I went to use the bathroom I looked at myself in the mirror and again, I didn't look nearly as small as the picture.

[Comfy_Blue 285]

I'm sorry. I clicked send twice and double posted

[LipstickLady 25,682]

Sounds like body dysmorphia. I've got it, too. I don't see myself as a size 8, borderline size 6. It's not until I see myself in pictures with other people that I can actually SEE that I've gotten almost thin.

In the mirror, I still look plump, not fat so much, but bigger than I want to be. I thought I would be happy at a 10, then an 8 and now that I am almost a 6, I still want to lose. I need to take more pics to let reality hit and it sounds as if you do, too.

[WhoKnows 288]

This is good to know. I feel like right now (pre-op) I don't realize how fat I am until I see pictures. And the last time I lost weight on my own (got to a size 12/14) I thought I looked ok, until I saw pictures and then still thought I looked bigger in them then I'd realized. Of course, now looking back at these pictures I can say that I looked totally normal! Like they say, "If only I could be as fat now as I was then!"

[LipstickLady 25,682]

That's how I feel about the pictures I look back at when I was a size 2/4 teen and thought I was HUGE! Sigh...

[Bombs 353]

So funny just happened to me this weekend. When I look in the mirror, I still see the same me. Was in some pics over the weekend and thought I looked thinish. So screwed up

[MIMamaof2 30]

I didn't realize how much I had lost until I compared before and one month pictures. I was shocked! I cannot see this looking in the mirror.

[ziggypbang 272]

Funny topic but so appropriate! I look the same in the mirror, too MOST of the time. But the other day at work I was trying on glasses in the optical when I got a glimpse of Thinner Me. Ah, one of those trick mirrors designed to make me feel good about myself and get me to buy eyeglasses, I thought! So I pulled two of my co-workers into the mirror image and, strangely enough, only MY image was a tricky, thinner image while theirs were perfectly accurate!

Body dysmorphia, you say? So glad I've got a name for one more game my mind likes to play on me!

[JanaAZ 16]

Many years ago I lost a lot of weight and when I started buying new clothes and they were a size 8 I asked the sales lady if the clothes were mismarked or if clothes sizing changed.

I haven't lost enough this time but can't wait to have a thin me in the mirror.

[piercedqt78 658]

I'm the same, but I will say that my biggest surprise is when I catch my reflection in a store front window, or like you see a picture of myself. I had my hubby snap pics along my journey, and the first few I didn't think about too much, but then he took one of me recently, at goal, and I thought he took it at a weird angle. I looked so thin, and tall, I thought for sure he had been too low taking the pic and it was a camera trick. Then I saw a pic of myself at a church function and I was the thinnest person there. I asked my hubby if I was a small as a sales lady at Victoria Secrets, and he said I was smaller than her, my jaw must have dropped open, because he asked "don't you know how tiny you are now?" I guess I really don't know it most of the time. I'm in a size 4 and my NUT says I will need to gain a few pounds before I can have plastics done, or I will be severely underweight after plastics. I'm 115, 5'5 and they are projecting removing between 12-14 pounds of skin. Ugh, I don't know if I am willing to gain to have surgery, maybe I will wait and see how my skin fairs over the next year.

[Comfy_Blue 285]

Hey Everyone

Thank you for all the kind, well thought out responses. I'm sorrry to be so late replying, but after nearly 3 months of feeling awesome, I got knocked on my a$$ by a cold.

Thank god for the camera, because without it, I would be completely convinced I look about the same.

It's so funny because it was easy for me to believe that it was really me when I'd take pictures of myself in my heavier days and I looked fat. However, when I take pictures now (with the same picture nonetheless) and look thin I'm like, "It's an illusion/the angle/the lighting/I just happen to have my body positioned perfectly".

Damn you body dysmorphia!

[Madam Reverie 2,958]

I'm the opposite. In the mirror, I think I look okay.

In photos, I am a heffer.

Fact.

[BellaHugz 331]

It is hard for me to see the change, but I know it is happening. A very wise sleever told me to take front, side and back photos along my journey So I would be able to see the changes as they happened. It takes me a bit to grasp even with photo evidence that I am getting smaller. Sheeze I still gravitate to bigger clothes at Dress Barn just by habit.

[Comfy_Blue 285]

It is hard for me to see the change, but I know it is happening. A very wise sleever told me to take front, side and back photos along my journey So I would be able to see the changes as they happened. It takes me a bit to grasp even with photo evidence that I am getting smaller. Sheeze I still gravitate to bigger clothes at Dress Barn just by habit.

OMG i am the exact same way. I went to the store with my mom and i immediately started looking at the large and extra large sizes before heading over to Women's (basically the plus size section).

I think my mom has dymorphia issues in regards to my body because she found a cute shirt that was a loose large (seemed more like a 1x) and insisted it would fit me. It was cute so I bought it. I tried it on at home and my husband was like "yeah baby, that looks too big on you. Maybe you should see if you can find it in a medium?"

When i returned a medium shirt to another store (not because it didnt fit but i didnt like the color) mom was like "that shirt looks teeny. You should get it in a large" i just kinda laughed to myself.

Edit: One day I was feeling especially vulnerable a e a little nostalgic for the days i could comfort myself with food, so i actually out on my old sz 18 jeans and XL shirt(both of which used to be too tight) and it made me feel safe. I like being smaller, love it even, but there is that rare occasion I miss the fat

Edited March 29, 2014 by Comfy_Blue