I wrote up a whole thing about this on my blog because it's something I've been struggling with.
I'm fitting into freaking size twos and I still see myself as "fat." I'm going to be entering maintenance within the next few pounds so I'm hoping that being the same size for a while will change that.
I was overweight and obese since childhood, so I guess this isn't something that goes away overnight
Up until this year I seen myself as skinny even though I got up to 247! It took seeing myself in glass doors in town for my mind to alter the picture of me. And a picture of me with my mom before she passed on. I keep that picture in my room because my mom looks happy, I look happy but big, really big.
I still dream skinny. Up until I was 30 I weighed in the 130's wearing a size 8. I briefly got smaller going down to a size 4. That's how I look in my dreams, a size 4 usually. So when I wake up and see myself in the mirror I am shocked usually. Most of the time I am still in denial and think I look better that I do. I got down to 184 wearing a size 16 four years ago and thought I look awesome. Though I was still big. But I am slowly realizing that I don't look great anymore. Looking at my pants before or after I put them on helps. They are huge and I am constantly amazed that I am that big. While I seen a size 3 pair of pants at KMART and they looked so tiny that I was amazed that anyone could fit into them though I was one pant size away from them when I was younger.
Upon thinking about it I guess it would truelly depend upon the day as to rather or not I feel fat or thin. Today I feel thin, hehe
Hopefully in two years or less I will be the skinny gal I think I am, that would be nice. I also grew in the 11th grade to 155 before losing back to 131. My friend at the time told me I looked pregnant, which I did. The twenty pounds all went to my stomach. It took my friends comment to realize I needed to lose weight. It was almost reaching 250 to make my realize it this time. I am still big but feel big, at least not today or yesterday. The day before that I felt huge. It just depends on the day now. It is harder to get motivated to walk when I feel small. But I do it for my health and the fact that I am usually proud of myself for walking for two hours, so I do it. Like today I am going to go walking here in a minute. It is beautiful out and it is going to rain tommorrow followed by cold weather the next day.
Anyhow awesome question, really got me thinking. I hate those glass doors
Hum... I find it interesting that the people who were quite small (100 pounds size 2,3...) still consider themselves thin (myself included), and people who were a bit bigger growing up, see themselves bigger now.
I don't usually see myself as being as fat as I actually am, and I've always been like that. I never saw myself as skinny, either (except perhaps during early childhood, when I actually was). My mental image of myself tends to be of a solid, somewhat stocky, but not fat person. Part of it is probably denial, but I think a larger part is simply obliviousness to myself and my surroundings.
Thin. I don't think I was ever tiny, but part of my problem with finally deciding to lose the weight is that despite whatever a scale or mirror or picture said, I felt thin.
Even at 200 pounds I thought I looked thin. I kept telling myself the cameras were taking bad angles or the clothes didn't fit right.
It was denial, obviously, but in my head I was thin. Of course I was thin, why wouldn't I be thin?!
Part of my journey was facing that mirror and looking at myself and really LOOKING and not excusing the image as distorted for whatever reason. I look at pictures of myself when I was a lot heavier and I just don't know how my mind played those tricks on me.
I can't say either fat or thin. I've never been thin - I've been a bigger person my entire life since I was about 7 years old... but also active - I played sports all through high school - despite weighing 250 pounds - and was confident and had lots of friends. I knew I was big, but I never considered myself 'fat', if you know what I mean. I wanted to lose some weight, but just to make sports etc easier and maybe to attract more boys. But even that I didn't worry about too much, at my height there weren't a lot of takers, even if I were skinny.
As an adult I've always maintained a weight of around 240 pounds. I put on this extra through having 3 children and gaining 10 for each one. It was only at my highest that I really started to feel heavy and unattractive. I know that when I get back in the range of 240, although I will still continue to lose to a healthy range, I'm going to start feeling 'normal' again.
I've been fat most of my life, but I've never been able to see myself accurately. I didn't see myself being as big as I was at 225 and I don't see myself as being smaller now that I've lost about 50 pounds. I just got my first digital camera so I used the timer to take a picture of myself the other day. I don't look thin but I feel like "normal" is within range now.
Even though I have lost significant amounts of weight twice (high school & college), I don't know anything different than being big. My brain never caught up with my body either time. I had too much trouble dealing with the attention that being thin brought me - being invisible then in the center of everything was tough.
Now, instead of thinking I am fat or thin, I am concentrating on being - right now - as I am. Talking my way through the journey plus gaining perspective by being a little older is making the transition easier - and more honest.
Dressed or alone, I'm around average (or height-weight proportionate, which is less than the US average. Naked with company, I see fat that isn't there.
I'm a little chunkey in my head, and I think I have always been. I am a little surprised at what I now see in the mirror - even a little chunkier than in my head - so I hope that, when I do lose most of the weight, my head will adjust itself. I want a positive self-image.
It has vacillated over the years, but right now thin in my head. I'll look at a pair of pants and think, "I should be able to fit into those," and I'm surprised when I don't.
I guess the up-side to that is that I'm not driven by discontent, and that has really made this weight loss attempt so much easier than past ones.
I think I am a little fatter than average. But then, that's what I thought when I weighed 285 too!
This is me, too. I know I was pretty off the charts at my highest weight, and I knew I was fat. I felt fat, definitely. But I don't think I was able to acknowledge the true extent of it. I sort of saw myself as fat but not *that* fat. Then at 173 I would often feel downright skinny. But then every once in a while I would realize that, in fact, 173 and 5'0" is still pretty extreme. At that weight I was still wearing my 3X tops and size 18 pants. I was rockin' those 3X tops, but still. And whenever it hit me how fat I really was, it would really sting because I was getting used to thinking of myself as thin, if that makes any sense...
I also in my head for awhile always thot i was thing even tho i was overweight and obese...more so when i was overweight when i was obese i knew it and tried hiding behind tshirts 2 sizes to big... when i was overweight i still tried squeezing into those aeropostal and campus crew shirts that were l and xl even tho i was in a 1x or 2x in some.... i think in my head because i was always told i do have beautiful eyes that i assumed ALL OF ME was beautiful.... now that I am at 220 and losing the weight I still see myself as not fat but more unhealthy and working on it... im still beautiful just lost my way....
It varies. Some days I think I'm chubby, some days I think I'm thin.
It mostly depends on what I wear (a lot of my clothes just hang on me now and can actually make me look/feel bigger). It also depends whether I'm bloated - if I am then I feel fat - but mentally on some level I still know it's not fat but I just feel fat anyway.
If I can suck my tummy in and look side on in the mirror and am relatively happy with what I see, then it's a thin day.
DH tells me I'm too skinny now, but I always deny it. I know I"ve lost a fair amount of weight but I don't think I'm that thin.
Funny though, when I see myself in the mirror and think "I look 'thin' today" I'll go weigh myself to confirm - 99% of the time I'm correct.
I must be so obsessed with how I look I can tell within fractions of a pound if I've lost weight.
If, on the other hand I feel fat and puffy, I don't even bother to weigh - cuz I'm probably retaining water or have had a fluctuation up so I don't want to depress myself any further by confirming it. I have decided to ignore minor upward fluctuations in weight and focus purely on the downward numbers. This way I can track my losses and plateaus without beating myself up over it.
But even that I didn't worry about too much, at my height there weren't a lot of takers, even if I were skinny. 
But then every once in a while I would realize that, in fact, 173 and 5'0" is still pretty extreme. At that weight I was still wearing my 3X tops and size 18 pants. I was rockin' those 3X tops, but still. And whenever it hit me how fat I really was, it would really sting because I was getting used to thinking of myself as thin, if that makes any sense...
