[Katbot24]

http://gizmodo.com/5914241/if-youre-...e-you-that-way

That article came across my newsfeed on Facebook this morning, and honestly I found it resonating with me.

In high school during grade 9 I was very heavy and then over summer I got a liver condition that made me drop 50lbs (I went from about 190 to 130). I was TINY, joined the cheerleading team and wore tight clothes to show off my figure. The liver condition cleared up and I was healthy again. That christmas I got a t-shirt from one of my friends...it was an XL size. He had gotten one for his girlfriend too and he got her a medium even though she was heavier than I and wider! I was shocked, did people still see me as fat even though I was definitely not?

Fast forward almost 10 years to today and I read about this study...and find it very depressing! I'd like to think that my family and friends won't see me as fat once I lose the weight!

[LockItUp]

People see what they want to see. I have the opposite problem actually, maybe it's because I used to be smaller (average of 150 from high school through my mid 20s). Even over 200 lbs if I got clothes for gifts they were way small. When I tell people how much I have left to lose they act like I weight 90 pounds already and will die of starvation if I lose even 1 lb more.

I don't really care how people see me, I'm losing weight for myself anyway. But I don't think people literally have a friend who is a size 2 person and see a size 18 person just because they used to be bigger.

(Couldn't get the article to load, so I didn't read it.)

[linJber]

I think most people are really bad at guessing what size someone else wears. If it makes you feel better, my adult daughter said something that is in direct contradiction to what the article says. She lives 600 miles form here and we see each other every 2 - 3 months, usually about 4 or 5 times a year. She never said much while I was losing weight - she'd say I looked great, that she could tell I lost from one visit to the next, but not much more. I had been heavy most of her life. She only knew the 250+ me. I think that's how she saw me. But the last 4 visits (October '11, Christmas '11, April '12, June '12) have been at my present weight. As she was getting ready to leave this last time she said, "You know what? When I think of your face when I'm not near you, I see your thin face now and not your heavy face. For a long time I saw your heavy face, but now "this" face is normal to me, and that's what I see in my mind." I wonder if it just takes a while. What DD said is exactly opposite of the article. Hang in there.

Lin

[Slush]

"People see what they want to see." This could not be more true.
The people that are around you all the time aren't going to notice a difference, and your family that loves you should already accept you as you are, so it won't really be different for them. I have a hard time talking to my mom about this stuff. I'm going through so many changes with my weight loss journey to changing majors in school. She just acts like it's another day in the life, when it doesn't feel that way to me. She just loves and supports me no matter what i do, that's why she isn't very enthusiastic about it. Wait and see what happens in the future, when you meet up with old friends or distant family members. That will be the shocker. I can't wait for that myself. (:

[Spinach]

I think this happens with a lot of changes. I talk to my mother every day on the phone but only see her once or twice a year. In my mind we are still the same height, just like when I was in college (a loong time ago) and it's always startling to see her and hug the woman who only comes up to my nose.

Our brains don't always do so well with change, but eventually they will get it, especially if you are active. I changed most of my friends perceptions of my size by talking about my activities, in fact, even though I was quite honest about my size/weight to friends online, they believed I was much skinnier than I was even at my lowest last year because anyone who did as much running and zumba as I did must be rail thin.
Brains are crazy... almost as crazy as bodies are when you're expecting a certain number on the scale... smiles.