I hate having pictures taken, though I allow it-and I feel sometimes they are necessary, because I love documenting where I've been with them. But, I do not like that I think I look a million times worse in pictures than I think i do in real life! For instance, yesterday my friends, hubby and I went on a good hike a few counties over and had a blast. We took a picture atop the mountain we hiked, and when I saw it tagged on my facebook, I was so dismayed. I looked so fat! These past few weeks, I feel like I have noticed when I look into the mirror how beautiful my face is becoming again. But in pictures, I just look bad. I'm not letting it get in the way of my loss, if anything it's motivation to lose more, but I must have some sort of delusional way of looking at myself that makes me seem better looking than I am when I see myself. Maybe that's why I allowed myself to get this big. Do you guys have these feelings toward photos too?

Absolutely! I got tagged in a group pic and when I saw it my jaw hit the floor because I thought I had lost weight and there I was like a whale with 3 chins! I try to hide now when people bring out cameras. The only person who takes my pics is me lol only because I know how to angle the pic to look thinner and I'll take a bagillion pics and only see a few I like XD

Unfortunately, yes. But it goes both ways. Some pictures, I will look at them and see, "Wow, I've made a lot of progress!"... and then other pictures I look at and I feel like I haven't changed. Although with almost 50 pounds lost, I know that some of the changes are quite visible. :P

It seems like the pictures that I am most excited about- meaning the pictures of me doing physical activities I wouldn't have been able to do 6 months ago - make me look like I'm still at my high weight... But our minds do just play terrible tricks on us.

I HATE looking at the OLD pics when I was 285 pounds BUT I do look at them to remind me why Im doing this Im happy with the way I look in pics at this moment but Im sure when I lose another 25 I wont like those either.

I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way. I have really low self-esteem anyway, but once in a while I'll look in the mirror and think I'm starting to look normal, then I see a picture and it all goes out the window. My friends and I go to dance night at a local bar where they always take tons of pictures and put them up on Facebook, and when I see them I'm always horrified even when I thought I looked kind of cute that night.

It even happens with pictures I take in the mirror! My mom lives in another state, so I've been sending her updates of my weight loss. If I'm going out and wearing something cute that I feel like shows off my weight loss, I'll take a picture, then I look at it and don't even want to send it because I don't think it looks any better at all.

I don't really have any advice for you, but I find myself looking at pictures of myself a lot and getting discouraged by them, which is probably a bad idea.

It's good to know I am not alone in that fact. I mean, pictures are sometimes necessary for life, and I think I'll just have to deal with looking like I do until I lose the weight-but I just wish pictures could express the way we feel that we look just once in awhile while losing weight. ^_^

People say that pictures don't lie, but in one sense, they do.

Pictures are a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional form. Flash photography especially tends to flatten that three-dimensional form. When you then view the photo, you're perceiving a wider shape than there actually is. I'm sure you've heard that "the camera adds ten pounds," right? Well, if you're already carrying some extra weight, it adds more than that.

Here's a great article in Slate that describes the phenomenon.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if YOU feel great and YOU know you look fantastic, then you absolutely do. I know that at my current weight for my height, I'm hardly model-thin--but I feel fantastic, so I suspect that I look lighter to others than my actual weight. An aura of confidence hides little flaws just as surely as a body-shaper or under-eye concealer.

The first picture is a horrible picture of me. In that picture I felt like a million bucks. I thought I was thin! I'd lost about 15-20 pounds at this point and wondered why people hadn't noticed. My face had thinned out. I saw this picture and was horrified.


But look at this one. My face really HAD thinned out. The picture above was just a bad angle.


Now I wish I had taken more pictures at my heaviest so I could look back and say, wow. Look at what I did. As it is, I don't have very many "before" pictures, nor do I have many "along the way" pictures. Keep clicking, and use them as motivators! Really! You're doing a wonderful things for yourself. And we are always our harshest critics.

Nola, you are such a sage. I'm feeling a ton better about myself. I do feel like I look a lot better than I did in that photo. I was feeling so confident that day until I saw it, so hopefully nobody noticed that I was down about it. Eliana, it's true-that's what I feel like. I love straight on shots of myself though, for that reason-my profile, even when I was thin was horrible.

It's funny that you posted this, like someone else said, I thought I was looking darn good when I left the house! Maybe my perception of myself is off. Last night I went out with my bf and a group of friends, pictures were taken (me thinking I look pretty darn hot) and posted on Facebook. I get kind of mad at my bf for posting such horrible pictures, my face looked all puffed up, i lookede bloated, it was just morritifying and he now all his friends will see how horrible I looked. It really kind of shocked me to see the pictures because I don't feel like thats how I look, in other photos I feel my face looks slim and I look pretty decent. I don't know, maybe it was a bad night, but it sure stinks to see pictures and think "I look like THAT!!"

I'm a ham, I love having my pic taken. It's awesome now to look thru them, the common thread is i usually have mouth wide open because i'm howling laughing at something or other LOL but it's fun to see them side by side and think WOW where' the rest of my face go??

Generally, I hate having pictures taken of myself. I'm almost to the point where I'm sort-of ok with it, if I can control the pictures but that's about it.

However, the most depressing think in the world is if you see a picture where you're sitting down!!!!! Speaking of which I do HIIT on the bike at the gym and there are mirrors surrounding me. I carry most of my weigh in my belly at the moment and looking at myself sitting on that bike is a pretty scary thing!!! However, it's also great motivation to really push myself.

I hate pictures of me but I know I'll appreciate them when I get to my goal weight, for now I'll just keep untagging on facebook!

I've always despised pictures being taken of myself. I do agree that as I've gained weight pictures seem more and more distorted. When I was slimmer, I would tend to look 10-15 lbs heavier in photos but now it seems to be more like 20-30.

I don't know much about photography and lighting but I look better or worse depending on the camera, usually. Funny enough, my webcam generally takes some of the truest, most flattering pictures, I suppose because the camera is in a fixed position and I can watch the picture on the screen so I know how far back and how to pose to actually look how I'd look in a mirror.

OMG I feel your pain. I don't look that bad in my head... until I see a picture of myself. I'm totally vain too, and I blocked people from seeing the photos I'm tagged in on facebook.

I am also just terribly unphotogenic, so I suspect I would even hate pictures of myself if I were half my size. Oh well!

I would encourage you to take your own pics though, to remind yourself periodically how far you've come.