[Jmm3389]

Hello,
I am new to this, and kind of new to the idea of being overweight. Ever since i was a little girl I have felt beautiful and have loved my body. I was never overweight growing up, I played sports and was active. Both of my parents are in great shape and my siblings are as well. I was told I was beautiful when I was young and would get compliments on my figure. Recently, within the past three years I have gained about 70 pounds, going from 160 to 230. I have been on weight watchers for two months and am down to 205. The point of this post is that, I never felt overweight, or fat. I would look in the mirror and think I looked great! My mom would always say I have reverse anorexia, jokingly, but I'm wondering if I do/did have some sort of body image issue. The only reason I started to lose weight is because my doctor suggested I do, which I was blown away by. I still wear bikinis and tight clothes and feel confident. I'm not saying overweight women shouldn't, but I truly felt like I looked closer to the size of my size 6 friends than my true size 14 self. Is this common? Does anyone else experience this? The only time I would be like oh ya maybe I am bigger is when I would see pictures of myself, but even then I'd say it's just the angle, I don't look like that in real life. Am I crazy or lucky to feel this way??

[Kalaya]

Hey don't knock your confidence if it comes naturally! That is a gift that not everyone gets to enjoy. As far as body image, I can only comment from my own personal experiences. Generally speaking, I have found that it always takes a while for my head to wrap around what I realistically look like. To me, I just always look the same regardless of my weight. Is that accurate? Of course not! After some undetermined amount of time I then have a sort of revelation where the image in my head starts to incorporate reality and it balances out. I too was the same appearance for most of my life. Then had a period where I got heavier, and was completely oblivious to it for a while. Now that I'm smaller again it's just the opposite. I have to remind myself daily that I am much smaller than what my mind believes.

[Palestrina]

You are very lucky but it also makes sense that you feel this way. You've always felt confident and it doesn't occur to you not to. But that might be because you haven't spent an entire lifetime being brought down by others. This is usually what happens to most people who are overweight since their childhood. When you're a kid other kids are terribly mean. Do you know what it's like for someone to call you gross or to whisper when you walk by, or to give you backhanded compliments or be ignored altogether? It's systematic abuse and it wears down people. I remember feeling very confident when I was a teenager. It never occurred to me not to be confident. I always wore bikinis since I was very very little. And then one day as I was laying on the beach enjoying the hot sun a group of guys walked by me and made gross noises and I heard them saying "nobody wants to look at that!" and I felt so violated and so ashamed and embarrased that I have never worn a bikini since. I'm mad about that now but for decades that was just par for the course. Around that same age I remember sitting in gym class in my gym shorts and a group of girls made fun of the wrinkles on my legs (cellulite) and I never wore shorts ever again.

Slowly I'm gaining my confidence back and pushing myself to not be apologetic about my body. Sure my legs aren't perfect but does that really mean that they are so offensive that I shouldn't allow myself to wear shorts in public? Sure I'm not a size 2 but do I really need to avoid a bikini? I'm really gearing up to wear a bikini this summer!

So hold on to your confidence and don't let anyone chip away at it. Being heavier does leave us vulnerable to people saying mean things but I hope you can learn how to stand strong if you are put down.

[Rechyl]

i dont think its an issue at all. i think its a good thing that you feel happy, confident and comfortable in your own skin.
id give anything for that