Hi!! I am Mairin and just joined.

What is going on here?...I look good to myself in the mirror. I am pretty pleased as I put on final touches before I go out. I feel confident and happy. Then, somebody has to go ruin my perception of myself with a photo. In the pic, I look way fatter, my hair is thin but Come On!! In photos, it looks plastered to my head, which looks like a cue ball.

I call it reverse anorexic perception. They think they look fat but they are thin. I think I am fine...when I am fat. Never mind that my scale says I am fat...I just figured it was was lying.

So, anyone else thusly sfflicted?

Oh yeah. I look in my own mirror at home, and think I don't look TOO bad. I'm heavy, but I look okay. Then I go to the gym, and holy cow- in the mirror at the gym I look twice as big. And when people take pictures of me, I'm huge. So I know for real I'm a lot larger than I "feel" like I am, and then I normally see myself.

I am not photogenic, even when I was younger and thin, I rarely took a good picture. And yes, I too have that Gee, I thought I was thinner syndrome. It'll get better. We are usually our own worst critic.

I wonder how it happens...does the brain actually change the way it sees the body or does it happen psycologically, where you are just in denial. I feel like it is a brain thing. I see what my brain tells me I see in that mirror. Goes to show how powerful our brains are. It is in collusion with my mirror to embarrass me! Had I seen reality I wouldn't have worn that puffy shirt.

I have the reverse problem. I am constantly taking photos of myself (vain, I know), but I see FAT FAT FAT!
My sister tells me if I lose 1 more pound, I'm going to blow away in the winter wind

Dyslexic/anorexic is the term I use. Hey, if we looked in the mirror everyday and hated what we saw 100% of the time it'd be a pretty bleak outlook, eh?

I understand your problem. I have an issue where some days, I'll think I look great and the photos tell me otherwise. Other days, I think I look horrible even in the mirror even though nothing much probably has changed. I feel like I have a very distorted view of myself really. It's really weird.

My mirror used to be a total liar too! I would also look at myself and think, "not bad". Only to later catch a glimpse of myself in a window reflection, store security mirror or the dreaded facebook picture..... UGH! FATSO!

It does get better!! I've turned in to Ms Vanity. I'm constantly looking at my pictures and thinking, "Nice!". I don't mind pictures now. I want to be in pictures. I catch a glimpse of myself in the security mirror at work and I like what I see. My perception of myself in the mirror at home, elsewhere and in photographs are more matched now. Maybe my mirror is becoming more honest.

I'm still around 35 pounds from goal, but I think I look pretty darned good for someone my size. I'm happy with how I look and the progress I've made. It's such an amazing feeling to look at myself and like what I see, and feel good about my physical appearance when I go out in to the world.

WOW! I thought I was the only one who had reverse anorexic perception! Im glad im not the only one. I get so sad when I look at photos of myself. I then wonder what im going to see in the mirror when I am thin?

I was going through this yesterday -- it was so demoralizing. I went out eyeglass frame shopping. At lenscrafters, they have their mirrors strategically angled so that you have to look up to see your face (which makes your face look thinner!). But I was at a more boutiquey store, where they want to make sure you're getting exactly what you want and that you have a realistic idea of what your frames will look like. They have full-length, completely undistorted mirrors. Not only that, but they take a snapshot of you in the frames and pull it up on the computer.

I thought I looked sorta pretty before I headed to the store, but I got a quick dose of reality when they pulled my image up on the screen: pasty, enormous, multiple chinned, apple bodied monster with fabulous glasses.

I have this! It's called FATOREXIA, google it a woman actually wrote a book on it. I thought I was a hottie when I was fat. I had major confidence etc. I knew I was bigger but still thought I was sexy....gosh when I saw a bunch of pictures from Pride with my friends, I was like "Who the **** is that???" OMG IT'S ME! I never thought I looked that fat. So that's what I do now and have been doing since I started in June, I take pictures of myself to compare. And it amazes me even from my pictures from October, I thought I was looking so good, but now that I compare them...WOW I never realize how FAT I really was! Seriously google fatorexia...lots of women have it!

This is my experience as well. I think part of it may stem from the fact that I was always very trim until I hit my mid 20s and my binging went off the deep end. So in my minds eye, I looked like I was used to looking (and most of my life I have not been obese).

So in the process of losing weight, it took me a long time to see any difference. To be honest, I still do not. But it's not because I "see" myself as fat per se, it's just that I am probably closer to my minds eye now after almost 80 lbs gone that I have been for the last 10 years. Except for now I see my loose skin (which I would have had regardless of obesity, I had a singleton and twins within 17 months of each other and I've never had hugely elastic skin tone!) and my body is still different (this is natural and I'm coming to expect that) so my negative inner voice still says "fat and gross." Especially in a picture, where it's not so easy to see with the mind's eye!

What has helped (and is helping) me is to start focusing on other measures of body health and fitness (I'm sure that would not necessarily work for everyone, but it has been really helpful to me!). I may not look as good in a bikini or in a knit dress as I think I deserve to look (I deserve to look awesome for all the hard work I have done!); but when I started this journey I couldn't hold a plank for even 5 seconds and now I can hold it for almost 2 minutes; couldn't even walk one loop of a track without sweating and heavy breathing, now I run for 15 minutes to get sweaty and heavy-breathy; now I can sit in the middle bench seat of my minivan and buckle the seatbelt; I can get clothes off the rack anywhere, and not even the biggest sizes either.

I've also just accepted the fact that it's going to take my eyes/brain some time to catch up with reality--and they may NEVER do so (they certainly didn't do so during my 10 years of morbid obesity). It makes me feel kind of weird, but in talking with tons of other women (most of whom are not and never have been obese, and many who have not and are not overweight) it seems like unfortunately almost ALL of us suffer from this (or thinking we're fatter than we are) in one way or the other. It's good to talk about it though. Kinda weird how everyone can relate, but it's so rarely spoken about openly!

My problem is I think I look bad and fat in the mirror and when I see pictures, they're even worse! I wore a cute dress to my neice's wedding this past summer and thought I didn't look too bad in it. Then I saw a picture of me at the reception sitting at the table and omg I looked like a fat cow in that picture. I certainly looked much worse than what I thought I did in the mirror. I was horrified. And that picture will be around forever. :-(

Wow! At least we can breath a sigh of relief...we may be overweight but at least we know that we are not psychos. The "fatorexia" must be the brain's way of ensuring that it stays alive. Had we known just how bad we looked, we would have been in danger.

Let's be kind to ourselves and try and think positively about the final outcome for slenderness! : )

Wow, I thought I was the ONLY one out there with this syndrome...I was at the gym a couple of weeks ago and about died when I looked up in the mirror...my first reaction was who is that fat b@$ch that stole my body!!!