Appearing smaller than you are

[kimpossible67 608]

My son who is a great estimator says he thinks I weigh about 180. I weigh 222! Makes me wonder, I don't exactly have a goal weight in mind. Maybe the 140's. If I look 40 lbs thinner at 222, I don't think 140 is a good idea. Has anyone else experienced this? Looking way smaller than you actually are?

[Dr-Patient 830]

Yes. I have always weighed more than I look.

I'm 5'5" and currently I'm 183, but folks I saw last week think I weigh 160. So when i said I wanted to lose 20 more pounds, they were saying "no," but I'm still in the 180s. I thought I wanted to get to 150, but nah; that'll be too small, especially in my face. I just want to be a comfortable sure size 10-12, so that is my goal now; not the weight. [bMI stuff--eh!] I'm basically good. Last night I wore a size 12 dress, down from a 22 last year this time.

[Mrs. Reid 392]

I too weigh much more than I look. I am sure I am going to hear "You're loosing to much weight." when I get down closer to 135. I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm going all the way down to 135! That is where my BMI is going to be normal and my body will be healthy. It will remove my hypertension and keep me far away from diabetes. I know that is going to make me a bit skinny looking and I'm ok with that

[chloe379 1]

I am one of those people who look thinner than the scale says too. I am at 177 and my parents and spouse think this is enouugh but my nut/dr both want me to be at 137. My husband says he wants a curvy wife and if with every pound I am loosing the curves but I did this to be healthy and if 137 is healthy for me, then I guess that is what I will have to get down to.

[FairySleeve 297]

Me too I can hide 30 lbs easily with the dressing technic.

When I weighted 209 lbs, one of aunties asked me my weight,

she said I just Wonder if I weight around 176 lbs or not.

[Roo101769 742]

I started this whole process weighing 316lbs, my highest non- pregnant weight. By my surgery date I was down to 283lbs. Today I weigh 218lbs. ( For the record I have lost pretty slow and I have been at a stand still since mid-June, although it is starting to move down a little again!) Anyway, I am wearing between a 16/18 now, just depends on how things are cut. I have people tell me that I look far skinnier than I know I am. I am still clinically obese, yet no one believes that. My goal weight is still 140lbs, although I have no idea if I will get there or not. I chose that weight because that is the highest weight for my height to be in the "normal" range. If I weigh 141lbs I am over weight. I would love to just be normal...But, as it usually goes in my life I may not become "normal". If my body does not want to go that low I will accept it. I do try to eat healthy, although I still struggle at times. I have incorporated exercise into my life now. I am by no means a gym rat, but I am still doing something. I am accomplishing what I set out to do when I had this surgery, to get healthy. The fact I look smaller than I actually weigh is a bonus in my opinion. It helps my internal struggle with my slower weight loss not be as hard to accept if I hear others call me "skinny". LOL

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I carry nearly all of my weight in my hips/thighs/legs, so people always think I weigh much less than I really do. I think if you carry your weight in your stomach/chest/arms, people think you look heavier. So apple-shaped women look heavier for their weight than pear-shaped women do.

[kimpossible67 608]

I hear skinny all the time. It makes me cringe! I carry a good percentage of my weight in my stomach. It's all but melting off. Pants are frustrating because one day they fit next day I look like I'm wearing a droopy diaper, lol. I started this journey six months ago and hit 90 lbs on my anniversary.

I guess I should concentrate less on the numbers on the scale and concentrate more on how I feel. I FEEL like I weigh 180. I'm okay with that.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Well, I think there is a medical reason for some of this.. if you have been obese for decades, your bones, your blood vessels and internal organs have adapted for that. They don't necessarily shrink was you lose weight. There is a a couple of pounds of extra skin maybe (I had 5.5# of skin removed since i didn't have excess fat by the time I had plastics). So, maybe that accounts for 10-12# in total (that is a wild guess for purposes of discussion only).

I think the more significant issue is the whole vanity sizing and resetting of what "normal" looks like. when I weighed say 150-155 my sister was convinced I was like 125-130#. I think it is because over the decades our whole population got bigger and we are just used to thinking that "a bit overweight" is a normal weight.

I have slim friends, who have never been heavy and they tend to guess my weight pretty accurately in the upper 130s to 140s range.

I am shocked that I wear such small size pants. Then, I went to the most crazy vanity sized store ever - White House Black Market and noticed all the 0 and 00 clothes. Oh, I get it, I wear a loose size 2 pants there and so they had to make up new negative sizing for slimmer ladies. In most stores, I wear size 4 (sometimes a 6 if a designer brand) pants which I still think is a crazy size for someone who weighs in the 140s. When I was in my 20s at this weight I wore 9/10.

Anyway, we have just reset our ideas of what a "normal" weight looks like in my opinion.

I don't really care until I start getting criticized for being too thin. Seriously? My BMI is 23ish... I look at my own pix, I am far from too thin.