The reason I was able to gain this much weight is that I have no idea what I look like. I was thin once upon a time and went through much of my life as a decently good-looking, well-liked thinnish person. Now I weight 280 but half the time I'm totally shocked when I see myself, or see the people on The Biggest Loser who weigh what I weigh. Reverse anorexia? I look like hell and think I'm a supermodel. OK nothing close to that, but I do think that a strategically placed full length mirror would have done me some good! Anyone else? I'm such an idiot!!!

My husband and I both look back at pics from when I was almost 300 pounds and just can't remember me ever looking like that! I know what you mean exactly! It all just kinda creeps up on ya!:thumbup:

It really upsets me that I am going thru all this because 'all of a sudden' I gained 100 pounds! Today I too feel like an idiot for gaining the weight and with the Super Bowl tomorrow I want to SNACK!!

Wow, I know exactly what you mean. I have been overweight since I was a child, so I have never known myself as anything by "the fat girl". Even when I was 330 pounds I never thought I was as big as I was, now looking at pictures I am amazed I was that size. I am now 225, and 5'11 and still see myself as "the fat girl". I still have some weight to loose, but have come a long way. I sometimes wonder if I will ever see myself as a normal healthy person, that maybe, just maybe someone might want to go on a date with someday! LOL. Funny, but sad at the same time.

I hate looking at myself because I don`t feel like I am Fat I feel the same as when I wasn`t over weight , its only when I actually Look I admit to myself how big I have got ..and to walk down the street and glance in the shop windows ..is a wake up call..at first you think who is that fat person ..then you realise its YOU...

I do want to be the person inside that is trying to get out the slimmer me has been hidden for many years now maybe 25yrs , I get scared that maybe she is lost forever ..this banding I hope to have soon is my last hope ......

This is a great question,, I didn't even consider WLS until one of my friends and I were discussing loosing weight and I said I was working on it. That is when my friend asked me how I was going to loose the weight,,, diet, exercise, the lap band. I was so upset that someone would suggest that I needed WLS???? I finally had to deal with the fact that I was big and needed to do something. I am only one month out and have to say this is by far the best thing I have ever done for my health ever. I cant wait until I love to see pictures of myself and my family every where in my home, and mirrors... LOL

I can relate completely. For much of my life, I was of normal weight, and viewed myself as fat. This made it very difficult, as I gained, to really see that I was gaining. It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy---becoming what I thought I was. But the result was NOT a woman who saw herself as fat. My eyes still saw the thinner woman.

Our heads play really weird games, don't they?

I'm not sure how other people see me. I'm not sure if how I see myself is accruate. How would I know? It's what I see. I know I do not like pictures of myself, but they do match up with what I see in the mirror.

It's not so much what I look like in the mirror. I "know" what that image looks like. But when I'm meeting new people or walking down the street I don't think of myself as being fat. I picture a "normal", confident person which in theory is ok, but it didn't give me the drive to change the situation. When my MIL asked if I would ever contemplate weight loss surgery I looked at her like she was crazy? Weight loss surgery? Huh? That's for FAT people!

I've been fat and I've been thin and believe you me I know I'm fat! I especially hate to see myself in a picture. I won't even post pictures here where I won't be judged...notice my cat is my avatar. I might post them after weight loss as before and after photos but while I'm fat...no way......

ps. an eating disorder is an eating disorder, whether it's anorexia or overeating. But I believe you can see yourself in the mirror skinny just as an anorexic sees themselves fat!

I didnt start considering myself fat until I started losing weight. I think I would have been depressed otherwise. The problem is now I feel so fat I am more ashamed than before.

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I just refused to see what was staring me in the face.

Its so weird how you can objectively KNOW that you're fat, afterall, I went and had weight loss surgery. But i still didnt see it when I looked. I made myself see someone who looked OK becuase that's what I needed to see. Now I look at old photos and I'm just horrified and so so sad. I looked awful. I dont think of myself as a bad person, and I didnt then either, but I looked awful - bloated and unhealthy and not attractive.

I could see it if I really looked, but I avoided doing that and pictured myself in my mind's eye instead and like some above, I never thought of myself as fat in my minds eye.

I've never been thin, or probaly even "average" weight. I've always been fat. But I have NO IDEA what I look like! In my mind's eye, I am average. I KNOW that I am fat, I just don't know what that looks like. When I see pictures of myself or catch a glimpse of my full body, I am shocked/surprised/dimayed. I always say "Why didn't someone TELL me I'm this fat?!?!"

Hopefully this will change!!

I work downtown, so one day I was walking down the street and happened to catch my reflection in one of the buildings. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at myself. I am sure people were tripping, but I just could not believe that was me! I always avoided looking at myself when I was 280 and now that person is gone!

Even after losing almost 70 lbs I still don't want to see a picture of myself. I have avoided having my picture taken for years, and as a result I have very few of them with my kids. I regret that so much. A few years ago we celebrated my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary and of course that meant a family photo. I remember when I saw those pictures. I loomed like a giant over everybody else in my family. That really sucked. It is painful to even look at them. I am really starting to have people comment on my weight loss now so maybe I need to just get over it and have my picture taken. I just don't want to be disappointed. I am starting to like what I see in the mirror, but pictures are different. They don't lie.

I was never overweight until I hit the age of 13...and then I put on 30 pounds in one year because I was always ravenously hungry. I now know it was because that was when the hormones went crazy and my lifelong journey with hypoglycemia started.

At any rate, during those crucial early teen years I saw myself as 'fat'...even though I have some pics of myself at my aunt's wedding when I was 15 and all I can say is, "man, was I hot!"

When I was at my top weight of 330, I knew I was grossly fat but was still shocked when I saw pictures of myself because that was not what I saw when I looked in the mirror.

Even at 260, I never 'felt' as fat as pictures portrayed me.

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