Mental Image Reset

[Megdelyn 85]

I suspect most of us suffer from a similar problem with mirrors and pictures and the like.

On the one hand, when I look at myself in the mirror I do not see my weight loss. I know it's there, I'm wearing a smaller size and I can tell I take up less space in the world. But I do not see it.

On the other hand, I have always been (and continue to be) shocked when I see myself in pictures. Because I am much bigger than how I see myself.

Lately I've been asking myself how this could be - how can I not see myself getting smaller, but not see myself as fat as I am?

I wonder if it has to do with comparison. For the most part, when I look at myself in the mirror, I'm alone. So my perspective is off. But in photos, I see how I am in relation to familiar objects in the physical world.

Obviously, it's been bothering me. I wonder if I'll reach a weight where these two mental images overlap.

[stacyg1 136]

I'm 17 months post-op and down 130 pounds and struggle with this issue everyday. Like you, I know I'm smaller, I wear a size 4, but when I look in the mirror or in pictures I don't see it. Friends tell me that I'm tiny but you couldn't prove it by me. I've started working with a therapist who specializes in eating disorders and body dysmorphia in the hopes that this will resolve. I have no words of wisdom to offer only to say you're not alone

[The Candidate 3,215]

For me, I think it's from conditioning. Having been fat since childhood, it's basically all I know. Combined with all the times I lost major pounds, only to gain them back, it can be hard to begin to accept that somehow it's going to be different this time.

Someday I hope we can reconcile the person we think we see in the mirror, with the person we've actually become.

[BestDayEver 418]

I can totally relate to this issue. I can see it in the mirror and my feel it with my clothes but in a picture I think I look just as fat as ever as if I hadn't lost a pound. Weird.

[itstimealready 180]

At one of the multitude of diet places I went over the years in my yo-yoing I remembered, I think it was Lindora, had what they called a "skinny mirror" and every time you got on the scale it was a distorted mirror that made you look thin so you could visualize you future. I think that was a really clever idea to start to see and think of yourself as thin and let your subconscious help you lose weight.

Somebody should make a $20 version of a full length mirror that is slightly distorted for dieters. I think that would be a big seller.

[Dub 9,922]

Maybe it just takes living at the goal weight for a while.

[ttdish 315]

I know exactly how you feel! I look at pictures of myself, and I'm like, is this what everyone else saw? Because I never looked that bad/big in the mirror!

And now I'm super critical when I look in the mirror... Am I seeing what everyone else sees? I can see my face is smaller, but don't see much change in my body (without before and after photos).

It's just so bizarre that when we look in the mirror and are overweight, we don't see how big we are, but as we are losing weight, we can't see how small we've gotten.

~*~ Find me on YouTube: Trisha's Sleeve Story ~*~