I still feel fat!

Hi Amy! I completely understand what you mean. I know in my head that I just put on a size 6 or 8 pair of jeans, but I still feel 328lbs alot of the time. I'm over 2yrs out and my head still has not caught up with my body. I'm always striving to look better, be smaller, wear clothes that make me look thinner, etc~even though dh tells me I look "thin" in everything I put on~I still don't believe that. So, I guess its normal, but not alot of fun!!! Tracy B 328/150 5'9"

Hi Amy, I also so know how u feel. I am 14 months out and 109lb lighter (starting weight 230 and now 121). I know I am very slim, but my head sometimes doesnt let me feel that way. It's so true what most of everyone said in their posts, it does take a long time for our heads to catch up. If I gain a couple pounds I go nuts, a couple pounds is nothing, and I would laugh at the skinnies who would tell me that when I was bigger. I tell myself that I am an obese person in a skinny body. I always think we will feel this way, the main thing is to stay positive in our day to day actions. I am so glad I'm not alone in this though, and my WLS friends are the only ones who know what this all means. I was talking to my sister in law the other day about all the different diets I had tried over the years, and she told me that if i had put my mind to them i could have really done them and not needed the surgery, i told her that i struggled all my life and that i couldnt stick to any diet. She still didnt understand and said i didnt need to have this surgery. It's amazing how "normal" people do not understand the every day struggles we have gone through to take such desperate and dangerous measure to have this surgery.

Hi Amy. I'm 15 months out and am just realizing that I am thinner - no, I still don't say "thin", just thinner. When friends call me 'thin' (not thinner) I just scoff because I cannot accept the compliment. My BMI is 21.5 which tells me intellectually that I'm normal, but I still don't see it in pictures even though I took them monthly through 12 months. I just took a 15 month picture, and I'll agree my face looks pretty haggard and thin, thinner than at 12 mo even though I've only lost 8 lbs since then, but I still focus on my pot belly abdomen, which I know is mostly skin, but to me, it's fat, even though I'm in size 8 jeans. I'm 23 lbs past my surgeon's goal and 13 lbs past my own goal that I only dreamt of achieving. I hope someday soon my mind catches up with my body! You're not alone! Kathy 5'7" 285 / 137

There's a theory some of us have kicked around.  It goes like this: If you've been heavy for the last 10-15 years preop, you don't really have a good picture in your head of what you'd look like if you were average-sized.  Therefore, it seems to take a lot longer till you stop thinking of yourself as fat. However, if you were somewhat average-sized or perhaps chubby at some point during that time period you acclimate faster to what you really look like. To answer your question, I know exactly what I look like.  It began 3 mos. postop.  I was walking by the mirror into the shower and said, "Ah, I see the waist starting to curve in."  (This doesn't mean I don't have excess skin issues.  It's there all right). Today, I know I'm an average to thin looking person.   I don't feel as if I'm fat and no one would ever suspect I'd been MO.  I fall into the group who wasn't MO the entire 10-15 years preop.  Plus, I had significant thin periods from age 6 (when I became heavy) till I had the surgery. It's just a theory.  No hard facts, but something a bunch of us have been discussing.