A conversation with my husband got me wondering about self image and weight loss. I was trying on clothes I bought and I told him no matter how much weight I loss, I'll always be fat in my head. (With the exception of my dad pointing out I was too thin, referring main to my upper body I think.)
My lower half is where I've always gained. And when I look in the mirror I truly see wide, fat thighs, hips and butt . It looks the same to me now (size 8) as it did as size 18.
With that my husband said he is skinny in his head. As he was always rail thin growing up and just packed on the weight in the past 5 years (he gained 100 lbs!)
I have spent my whole life "dieting", while my husband just seems to be in denial about his weight and the health issues its causing.

Are you "fat" or "thin" in your head? Does that ever change? Does it effect out motivation to lose weight?

I am always fat in my head. Always have been. When I was 21 years old & had gained up to (gasp!) 121 pounds. I was FAT. Was I really fat? Of course not. But I was in my head.

I see pics of me at 192 lb and I think "wow, I was such a pig" ... and now, 37 lb later, I KNOW I'm still "officially" overweight, but not FAT (like I was)... and yet, I AM STILL FAT IN MY HEAD. I don't think that will ever go away.

I think I am a little fatter than average. But then, that's what I thought when I weighed 285 too!

I will always be fat in my head. People keep telling me I am skinny now ( which I am not!) and it really embarrasses me cos I know they just mean compared to how big I was!

I think I have a fat face - so even when I reach target weight I will still look chubby!!

I have never been "fat" in my head. I was a normal-sized young person and young adult, and I never worried about weight. Young girls and teens were not weight-obsessed when I was growing up, or if they were, I didn't know those people. My mental image didn't change as my weight went up.

So part of my challenge has been actually seeing myself as overweight/obese when I have gotten there.

Jay

It keeps flipping for me. When I was a teenager and weighed 100 - 120 pounds, I thought of myself as a beached whale. Didn't help much when I joined a gym at 16 and they told me I was overweight and had to lose pounds after my initial assessment.

In my twenties I weighed 145 - 150 and thought myself normal and continued to think of myself as normal until after about a year of being over 200. Then I noticed I would give people extra space to walk around me and stuff like I weighed 500 pounds, but I still didn't "see" a fat person in the mirror even this year when I started to lose weight.

I need to take photographs of myself to see the fatness.

Now that I am 165, I no longer give that extra space to other people and but I now notice my 'fatness' in the mirror even though I am really only 15 pounds overweight.

I'm fat in my head.
When I look in the mirror, it's not that I don't see and appreciate weight lost, I really do. Can't wait to start seeing the difference any kilo now! but even when I lose weight, I know I'm slim but my in my head I'm a fat person who's become slim. Not explaining it well.....
Partly, it's because my mother was a fat child who had a horror of me being fat but fed me fat and then was embarrassed by me being fat. I have one amazing picture of me aged 2, when I look like I'm helium filled! but I have a high school photo of me that makes me sad - I bet I'm no more than a UK14, aged 16, and already I knew I was F.A.T. and lumpy and horrid. What I wouldn't give to be that size overnight!!
I'm working on it.

I'm fat in my head due to being an apple shape. I have slim thin legs, slim arms, a tiny butt and tiny little hips, but my stomach protrudes out like I'm 5 months pregnant. My BMI is in the healthy range, but my waist circumference is in the obese category.

Parallel lives, Beach Patrol. Parallel lives. I'd give anything to be as "fat" as I was in high school at 120 pounds!

And like you GlamourGirl, I carry most of my extra weight in my hips and thighs. And because it is isolated like this it doesn't matter what is going on above my waist. I still feel and look (in my opinion) fat. I'm just less fat than when I was in 18's.

I've been fat/heavy/obese for such a long period of my life, I'm not sure I could see myself in any other way.

Oddly, I think of myself as thin in my head. I'm forever trying to squeeze through spaces I don't quite fit into, or brushing people unintentionally. I -know- I'm fat in an academic way, but in my head I'm thin.

I've been "fat" in the sense of over a healthy BMI since puberty though, and I've only attempted to diet a handful of times.

I will always be thin in my head which is not a good thing because it makes losing weight very difficult cos when I look in the mirror I still see a thin person too. I always think I look thinner than I actually am so I say to myself 'oh one burger/pizza/bar of chocolate won't be too bad. I'd kill to be the the size I was at 18. I gaze longingly at the ball skirt my mum made me and look shocked at the size of the waist band.

I see myself as HUGE, I don't see any difference from my high weight (about 215) to now (150) and I don't think there is a number small enough to make myself be anything but FAT. In highschool I weighed 125ish and was still HUGE (legitimately, I was a size 13). I think I need to weigh 100-110 to look 'normal'.

I'm thin in my head. I was thin for most of my life, gained about 30-40 pounds over the last 5-6 years and have trouble getting it off. I think because I am still thin in my head, and since I'm tall I can "pass" for normal sized. It's shocking when I see photos where I am large. It's also nice to realize that being fat is not the end of the world, which I always thought it was when I was thin.

But I'd like to get back down to a lower weight since it makes the activities I love to do easier.

My sentiments exactly!

I was at chiropractors office this past week, and my son was getting adjusted. I was sitting on a chair, waiting...the door had a mirror and to my horror I saw my HUGE gut. -- I usually look at myself from head down, and I don't look "that bad" when standing....the image on that mirror gave me a huge jolt....I realized I look like I have a beer gut (I hate beer ;lol )

I was TINY when young. I was 96 pounds when I got married. After I had kids, I went down to 108 pounds....even 5 years ago I was between 125-130 pounds and I looked healthy. Now at 160 pounds...not so much; but I have to get that skinny person image out of my head and realize I am big