I know everyone is different and sees themselves differently but my question is this: For those who have been overweight for a while and physically look in the mirror and see fat, when you lose the weight after the band is it hard to tell the difference? Do you see a thinner you or do you still see the exact same fat person as before? I ask because I am in the process of trying to get approval for the surgery, but in every diet I have been on before (even where I lost 60 lbs ) I still saw a gross me. I looked in the mirror and still saw the same person that I was before I lost the weight..Does that ever go away? Does my head ever catch up to my body??

I'm sometimes shocked when I turn around in a dressing room and see my body in the mirror. I expect to turn around and see someone a lot bigger. When I'm not looking at myself I think of myself as bigger than I am. I still grab XL and size 16 when I actually fit into a M and size 10 pants. It's an adjustment for sure.

I found it helped me a lot to take a photo on the 15th of every month. Now that I am down 85 pounds seeing the difference helps my brain adjust and sometimes elevates my mood when the scale hasn't changed.

My thoughts on this are this..we spend so much time avoiding pictures, looking in the mirror, etc. because of our distain of what we see, that we never really get a good image of where we are size wise. So as we begin to lose weight we start to pay attention to our body in the mirror and because we did not really have a good idea of what we looked like before losing our initial weight we mentally cannot compare. We see ourselves after we have lost 50 pounds as looking the same because it was after the 50 pounds we really started to look at ourselves so that is really our starting point. I hope this makes sense.

I'm sometimes shocked when I turn around in a dressing room and see my body in the mirror. I expect to turn around and see someone a lot bigger. When I'm not looking at myself I think of myself as bigger than I am. I still grab XL and size 16 when I actually fit into a M and size 10 pants. It's an adjustment for sure.

I found it helped me a lot to take a photo on the 15th of every month. Now that I am down 85 pounds seeing the difference helps my brain adjust and sometimes elevates my mood when the scale hasn't changed.

That's a very good idea, I am just scared that my mental image of myself will not adjust and that I'll never gain the confidence that I used to have about myself.

My thoughts on this are this..we spend so much time avoiding pictures, looking in the mirror, etc. because of our distain of what we see, that we never really get a good image of where we are size wise. So as we begin to lose weight we start to pay attention to our body in the mirror and because we did not really have a good idea of what we looked like before losing our initial weight we mentally cannot compare. We see ourselves after we have lost 50 pounds as looking the same because it was after the 50 pounds we really started to look at ourselves so that is really our starting point. I hope this makes sense.

Makes perfect sense. It's like you took the thoughts right from my brain and put them into words. I am just hoping that in time, I will be able to see a thinner me once I get the band and start losing the weight. <3 Thanks!!

It's hard, but I think you'll adjust. I hated what I used to see in the mirror. Now, even though I am only halfway to my goal, I like what I see. I should say, when dressed, I still hate myself naked. I find myself dancing around the living room and looking at myself in the mirror. I feel SO much better about the way I look.

its so weird as you lose more you still find imperfections or your still not satisfied ifeel as though itook 208 for granted now im 234 blah! but im soon to be banded more motivation to stay on the right path<3

I forget that I'm thin all the time. When I go into a store and the salesperson says "what do you wear, a size small?" I laugh before I realize that they're not making fun of me. I actually do wear a small. It's a process. I certainly wouldn't consider it a deterrent though! The health benefits are there, whether you see yourself as fat or thin. Good luck. The band is the greatest!

I chop and change with this one - I see myself dressed and try things on and I'm really thrilled with how I look. I go to the gym to do Body Pump and facing the mirrors, I'm really happy - I'm tall and lean and happy with my body. At the gym in particular, I can see that I'm often the thinnest person in the room.

But generally, I dont see myself as thin. I still think I have fat bits, I still have fat days. And looking in the mirror at home I can see I've swapped beefy and fat for scrawny and saggy, I seem to have bypassed that fantasy model figure somewhere by the wayside! I'm just as unhappy with my body as I ever was yet I cant quite get my head around breast and tummy work, if you asked me about it for anyone else, i'd say great, go for it, do what makes you happy, its your right. I have no objection to it. But for myself it feels shallow, vain, something I'd be hideously embarrassed to admit I'd been tacky enough to do, I dont like to admit that I care that much about how I look. So I sort of have all this angst tied up in my body, its been through so much with cancer in the last year too and lately I look at it and all I see is old, its really depressing.

But at the same time, I'm fit, strong, my body can do so much, it has healed itself, and I'm proud of it. Its weird that I can feel so good and bad about it. But one thing I dont see is the old fat me!

I have been fat all my life, so I will probably always deep in my soul think of myself as a fat person.

It's o.k. though,,, because as I look into the Mirror now, I already see smaller waste, thighs etc. If only the junk in the trunk would get lost... But I am patient with that one. I know it will happen.

But yep I feel that I will always feel like a fat girl, because I have never been thin.

Now I could blossom, and enjoy my thin life, (I'M SURE I WILL.) and maybe someday put this all in the past. I hope !