Anyone else like me?

Im a little over a year out. Went from a size 24 to an 8. The 8's are a little loose and could probably go to a 6 but dont want to. My dr doesnt want me to loose anymore because Im now 20 lbs under goal. In my mind I still ahve more to loose. Im trying to maintain but secretly pray Ill loose more. I cant figure out if Im having body image issues or if I want people to worry about me so I get attention. I keep thinking why do I want to loose more. I work out a lot. My dh thinks obsessively (honestly its like 1 1/2 hours a day which I think is reasonable). My dh doesnt want me to loose more he says I dont want to look like a stick girl. Some of the girls he thinks looks like sticks I think look pretty good. Not that I want bones sticking out or anything like that. He thinks Im trying to loose extra skin and thats why I still wanna loose weight. I dont know if thats true or what it is. Am I the only one? Im not doing anything behavior wise that indicates an eating disorder or anything. I eat the amount of calories my nut said to maintain. I havent increased my excercise. I am quite happy when I loose another lb though Im not trying to. Maybe Im addicted to seeing the scale go down and am wondering when it will stop. I truly dont know. I dont freak out if it goes up a tiny bit or anything. Im at 139 and Im 5'7. Im not too thin i dont think. I guess the biggest issue is I dont think Im thin at all. I know I look better and Im smaller. i wouldnt and will never use the word skinny for me. Maybe thats me not letting go of the fat girl. I dont know. Im in an odd place. When I was big I was the fat funny crazy loud girl, Im not quite sure what I am right now. Im still loud and funny and crazy but I feel like I dont have the size to pull it off. That sounds weird right? Anyone else out there like me? That depression thread really stuck in my mind and made me decide to put it out there.

I feel for you.  I'm 5'8" and my surgeon's goal for me was 150.  I'm currently around 138-140.  I started wearing size 26 jeans and am now in size 4 jeans.  My husband thinks I'm WAY too tiny.  I still see some flab I could use.  I haven't seen my surgeon yet but I'm sure he'll put the brakes on my weight loss too.  I LOVE watching the scale go down.  Even if it's just a couple ounces. lol  I walk 4.5 miles a day with my best friend.  I did join a gym, found I hated it and am now just letting the membership go.  I eat what I'm supposed to eat.  I may even eat a little more.  I'm still losing.  I just figure my body will know when to stop.  I'll NEVER look "tiny" to me. I've learned through this journey that I'm going to be the girl *I* want to be.  I used to be the quiet one in the room.  You know, the one who dressed to match the wallpaper.  I LIKE being talked to now.  I LIKE meeting people.  My weight loss has given me a new-found freedom to actually *talk*.  Be the person that makes you the happiest!  If you want to be loud and funny and crazy, there's nothing wrong with it!  My best friend and I eat lunch together every week day at Cracker Barrel.  The staff certainly knows us and never knows what to expect.  Yup, we're loud!  We have fun!  We show up at lun*****lown costumes.  And, ya know what?  There's not a darned thing wrong with having FUN! Be who YOU want to be!!!!

we all go through this. your body will level out. at 3 years out I still have body images and watch the scale. I have a hard time looking at pants, and I still think the size 4-5's are big! Go figure! Takes longer than I've been out to get the body image in shape. I'll let you know if I ever get there. I went as low as I could, and looked skeletal. I loved fitting into size 3's, but I looked bad. I look healthy now, and feel heathy, and am healthy. So that is what matters. Honestly 1.5 hours a day is obsessive....you need to be realistic with your workouts, but I am proud of you for exercising and making it a part of your life. That is so essential for maintaining! You're normal...and things get better. Just don't slip into bad habits....don't forget where you came from, and never give up, no matter how hard maintaining can be!

I agree with Tami. You're just going thru the normal process. Your weight will stabilize at some point and you might even gain a few pounds back. Enjoy right now and worry about maintaining when you need to -- later.

OMG, girl!  I so feel for you.  I am in a size 4 right now, but just keep thinking...10 more lbs....that's it.  I have worked out like crazy, done that pouch test thingie, etc., but I know in my heart that I really don't need to lose any more.  I was the one who posted the depression thread, and I will be the first to tell you that I am addicted to the amazing feeling of that weight coming off.  At least for me, I have so many issues to deal with.  I had coped with them for many years by burying them with my food addiction (which I was totally in denial about).  I am getting help now and trying to also be mentally as well as physically healthy.  I have an addictive personality.  I was not overweight until my first pregnancy, but I was as wild as all get out until then.  I partied a lot until I got pregnant, and just switched to food after that.  It's no surprise that the "high" of the weight coming off was so euphoric.  I still can't get past the body image of the fat girl, but then, I have weighed this before, and have been this size before.  When I was in the past, although not overweight in the slightest, I was constantly picked on and harped on about my weight by my mother (God rest her soul), who had a weight issue of her own, and desperately did not want me to have the same struggle.  I believed everything she said because she was my mother, after all, and although I was completely normal, I always felt fat and unattractive, even though I was skinny.  I have had to find a balance, and I have had to learn to stop trying to please her, but sometimes it is so hard to not want to see the scale keep moving.  I don't know if this in any way resonates with you, but just so you know, you are not alone in this struggle.  I think our minds are half the battle - it is more difficult to change them than it is to change our bodies!

I am also 5'7" and currently weigh 145... when I hit this point I moved to maintain it instead of trying to lose. My NUT had reccomended 145 be my low point and I had gone on a plastic surgery consult and was also advised 145-155 would be an excellent weight for surgery... I had addressed with the PS I didnt want to end up too little or too small etc.  Its hard for me to not want to keep losing weight... I look in the mirror and see the excess skin, excess flub and think "if I lose more weight it will get better"... but I know it wont... Im really at the point that I need PS to improve whats left... I try and just keep my focus on that instead of wanting to lose more weight. Ive also tried to keep my focus on exercising and weight training to try and help whats left instead of trying to lose more pounds to do so.  Its not easy to transition from "weight loss" to "weight maintenance"... for the past year you have been 110% focused on losing weight... Im sure its been something in the back of your mind for life... then suddenly you are there - its like.. well now what? How does one go to being normal? It really took me a while to get out of the weightloss mentality... Ive had to put my effort into the weight maintenance mentality instead... I would say it honestly took me about 6 months or so to really adjust.. but it also took me a while to reach my current weight which gave me time to adjust. I can honestly tell you I still think about losing just five more pounds but I never push to try and do it... overall Ive found a happy medium where I find it easy to maintain this weight... I get nervous that if I do lose more that it will be difficult to maintain and I will keep struggling at that weight... who knows.  Either way you are not the only one... just keep working each day on shifting your focus over to maintaing what you lost and know that losing more weight isnt going to fix any excess skin or wiggle jiggle that you have... either way for your height you are still well within a normal BMI but I would pick a low point and high point for your weight that you stick to not going under or over and commit to it.

I'm like the others - I think you're going through a normal thing. And it's OK if you drop a little below your goal because you'll probably gain a little back. I didn't mean to get below 160 and ended up in the mid-120's and looked pretty bad. I don't see it in the mirror but in pictures I look like a scarecrow and my family's all over me about it. But let me shoot up a couple of pounds and I'll live on spinach until it comes back off. I looked best about 145 pounds and now I'm hanging around 130, and real upset that I didn't maintain 125, knowing all the time that's too little for me. I was crossing the parking lot at WalMart the other day and I heard these two overweight women in a car call me a "skinny *****" It was meant as an insult but I loved it. As long as you put the word skinny in front of it, you can call me whatever you want. I also catch myself thinking normal-sized women are too heavy. I'm hoping the next couple of years will correct some of this delusional stuff. From what I've read and witnessed, it's pretty common for us to go through this.

I just keyed your numbers into the bmi calculator.  You are at a 21.8 bmi which is in the normal range.  The range is from 18.5 - 24.9 so you are right in the middle.  I would say that is a good place to be.  If your doctor says to stop, and the bmi calculator says you are normal, right in the middle of normal, smack dab, then I would say maybe he and the bmi is accurate.  I was on the low end of normal...but I felt sickly and feel my best right where you are... right smack dab in the center.  Now with your exercise, that is great because you are doing a lot of toning and defining of your muscles.  But keep in mind that muscle weighs and that as you increase your muscle tone, your scale might not show a decrease but definitely your clothes might start fitting looser.  I wish I could say that I exercised as much as you!  I need some muscle toning!  I will be honest...  There was a time when I wanted to keep losing weight.  Every month when I went to our support meetings, and I had reached my goal, everyone else was losing weight, looking great, having great metamorphosis/transformations, and I was done.  Stuck.  Stopped.  Nada, nothing.  I was just "me", the person I was going to end up being, well here she is.  I was so into the groove of losing and announcing how much I had lost, and suddenly I had to say "I didn't lose anything."  I felt like a Weigh****chers meeting where the person hangs their head in shame because they didn't lose! lol.  But eventually I had to grasp my mind around the idea that I had arrived to the destination where everyone else was so feverishly trying to get to!  They wanted to arrive where I was, so how come I was hating that I had gotten there?

What IS your goal?  You currently have a BMI of 21.8 (normal).  If you got below 120 you'd be BMI underweight and THAT I think would be too low. Pick a number and stay there, that way you won't need to worry about being too thin.