Body image

Thank you

You are not alone in this. Many of us struggle with body image. Am I thin enough. What is normal. Take Birdies advise and reach out to your centre for help. They are well aware of this issue. Perhaps they can suggest someone for you to see in Barrie

For me a large part of loosing weight was receiving all those positive comments from people who knew me before-during & after.  Even store clerks who say "oh but you are so skinny"!  I had become hooked on this positive reinforcement when I had lost 75lbs. on Weigh****chers 15 years before my WLS.  I realised I had become "addicted" to this positive attention and when it finally stopped - because thin was my "new normal" I really missed it.  I stopped taking care, tried to loose more - where are those comments? - then couldn't possibly manage my weight that low and started to pile it on.  I was only a low weight for less than a year!

So post WLS I was hyper aware of this movitating exterior talk and really abhored it.  I realised that for people observing they will make those comments because yes, it is astonishing, but I don't want to hear it.  I just wanted to get to the "new normal" place and then blend in.  It seems to be working for me because I am keeping my weight steady - at the top end of my BMI range, and manageable.  

I think when I read many posts on these forums that people really feel the pressure to get down to the low end of their BMI range, maybe because they have never been there before.  But it is just not realistic not sustainable and not psychologically healthy.

For some of us overweight BMI range is a good and manageable place to be.

I hope you are able to examine where you are now, where you have been...and where your happy place is.

If it is an obsession, then maybe you do need to talk to someone. That being said, I do not think there is anything wrong with wanting to lose more weight. How tall are you? It is much easier to lose weight the first 2 years than later on.

Personally, I like being lean. Right now my BMI is 21. I feel better at this weight. I am about to turn 50 and I know it is easier on my joints when I weigh less.