While out shopping, she fears that she’ll bump her hip into a shelf and break something. A few years ago when she was heavier, she accidentally knocked over and broke a wolf figurine and had to pay $60 for it.
And every morning when she looks in the mirror while getting ready for the day, she sees her former, heavier self. “My brain says, ‘Yep, still fat.’”
“It's been really hard to change my self-image,” says Hicks, 37, of Chesapeake, Va. “I still feel like I'm this enormous person who takes up tons of space.”
While many people are thrilled when they lose excess weight, not everyone is as happy as they expected to be — or as society assumes they surely must be.
Body-image experts say it’s not uncommon for people, especially women, who have lost a lot of weight to be disappointed to some extent to discover that they still aren’t “perfect.” The excess fat is gone when they reach their goal weight, but they may have sagging skin, cellulite or a body shape that they still deem undesirable. Like Hicks, some even continue to see themselves as though they are overweight.
Some specialists use the term “phantom fat” to refer to this phenomenon of feeling fat and unacceptable after weight loss.
“People who were formerly overweight often still carry that internal image, perception, with them,” says Elayne Daniels, a psychologist in Canton, Mass., who specializes in body-image issues. “They literally feel as if they’re in a large body still.”
Daniels and other experts suspect this may happen because the brain hasn’t “caught up” with the new, leaner body, particularly for people who were obese for many years and then experienced rapid weight loss.
“Body image is a lot harder to change than the actual physical body is,” Daniels says.
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- groups:
- News, Psychology, Body Image
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- tags:
- News, Psychology, Weight Loss, Weight, 1 more + add
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- singrrr
- added this
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I can relate 2 years ago I lost 70lbs and went down 7 waist sizes, but when I go shopping I automatically look for anything in size XL. I almost always have to take a friend shopping with me cause I will end up buying things that are waaay too big for me.
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I wonder if the opposite is also true.
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I wonder if this is similar to the way that I hate every haircut that I have ever gotten for about 1 week afterwards.
I am in shock that my head looks so different, and just interporate it as bad.
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- good_stuff
- 5 months ago
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@weightjournal on twitter says "♺ @KCLAnderson: RT @tisfan That's me!! (Hicks, from Virginia) ;-)"
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- twitterbot
- 5 months ago
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Yeah, this is hard to deal with. And yes the opposite is true. I had no idea how fat I had gotten, until, as though someone had flipped a switch I realized it. Then after loosing 60 maybe 70 pounds now I have and still do see myself as being hugely overweight. Then at other times I may catch my reflection in public and be caught off guard at how different I look. It is a really bizarre thing.
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- reactionforce
- 5 months ago
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@LifeFitness on twitter says "Interesting article from MSNBC: Losing pounds doesn't automatically shed larger-than-life self-image"
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- twitterbot
- 5 months ago
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