Adjust your self-image after losing weight
After months of dieting, your target weight is finally in sight. Yet you still automatically walk to the plus size section of the clothing store. Your girlfriend suggests celebrating your weight loss with a beach vacation, but you can’t help but think about putting on a bathing suit. Does this sound familiar? Then you are one of the many dropouts who find it difficult to let go of the old mirror image. How is that possible?
For many people it is easier to lose their pounds than the image they have of themselves. Even if you have lost a lot of weight, in the mirror you still see someone with overweight. You receive compliments from those around you about your new figure and your dress size and the scales tell you that a lot of kilos have been lost, but you do not see yourself that you have become slimmer. Your body has changed, but your self-image has not yet.
Take a long time to get used to
It may take a long time to get used to your new look. The longer you have been overweight, the more time it often takes. “If you’ve always avoided certain situations out of shame about your weight, you’ve created a thought pattern that’s lodged in your brain. It can be hard to let go of this conditioning, even after you hit your goal weight,” says Abby Aronson, a psychologist specializing in eating disorders.
According to experts, you can solve this problem by adjusting your body image from the moment you start losing weight. “Ask a friend or family member you trust to take a picture of you in your bathing suit and have it done again for every 5 pounds you lose,” advises psychologist and body image expert Yvonne Thomas. Having concrete evidence of the change your body is going through can help you accept your new body.
It can also help to always go shopping when you’ve finished quite a bit and try on anything you don’t think you can wear. “Choose a size, color or style—anything you’ve taught yourself doesn’t suit you because of your weight—and try it on,” says Thomas. While not everything will look great, you might be surprised at how much better you’ll feel and looks.
Distorted body image
If you are still not used to your slimmer figure a year after reaching your goal weight, there may be more to it. You may then have a distorted or distorted image of your body. That means that you feel and see yourself differently than you really are. According to research from University College London gives the brain a reflection of the body that can be up to two-thirds wider and one-third shorter than you really are. So to some extent it is a normal phenomenon. Severely distorted body image can also be a symptom of a Eating Disorder.
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