Lost weight, gained...dysmorphia?

Hong Kong Yanpep International
My wife and I are both doing this and the weight she's lost is incredible. Whenever I show her stories like yours, it pumps her up even more.
 
Scale says no change but my smart scale shows I packed on muscle while shedding fat. Also been noticing my heart's racing at night the past few days, even though sleep's still pretty solid. Curious what happens next week.
 
Lost about 4 stone in the 5-6 weeks before christmas, gained a bit back but restarted and holding steady. Thinking about doing slimfast again since it worked before. Really hoping to shift another couple stone by july/aug - turning 46 this september so that'd be nice timing. Chronic pain makes movement tough though.
 
Body dysmorphia after significant loss is genuinely common and underreported. The brain's reference point for 'normal' gets calibrated over years and doesn't update at the same rate the body changes. Down 40 lbs from 208 with the scale now stalling is exactly the profile where composition is still changing even when weight isn't - muscle gain concurrent with fat loss produces that pattern. The clothes-fitting approach is more informative than the scale at this stage. If you're training, your body is recomposing rather than stalled. The disconnect between what you see in the mirror and what's actually happening in the tissues is a real lag, not a judgment about progress.
 
The messing-up-and-expecting-gain loop is the brain not yet trusting the new set point - it normalizes once the body holds the number consistently for 2-3 months.
 
The gap between what the scale says and what the mirror shows takes longer to close than the weight loss itself - the body image recalibration happens on a completely different timeline than the physical changes. Therapy is the right move for that specific piece because it's a cognitive shift, not just time passing.
 
Self-image often lags the actual change after years of weight history - that critical inner voice doesn't automatically quiet with the scale.
 
the point-to-specific-features approach to dysmorphia correction is actually more useful than general reassurance - telling someone with distorted body image to look in the mirror does not work because the distortion applies to the whole, but directing attention to the collarbone, the hip line, the chin definition gives concrete reference points the brain can actually process. having someone else point to them externally is the version that tends to land
 
Body dysmorphia is genuinely real. You've got it. The change in you is dramatic. Totally get that noticing it yourself is basically impossible, and how maddening that must feel. Same exact thing happened to me. Took two full years. Two whole years.
 
That's genuinely how you think you should respond to someone describing dysmorphia and an eating disorder struggle? Their shoulders look completely fine. Nobody asked for a stranger's opinion on random body parts. Come on.
 
Dealing with body dysmorphia myself too. Highest weight 293, starting weight for this round 251, currently at 183. Back at my heaviest I genuinely thought that was my normal size, and now at this size I still picture myself as morbidly obese somehow. Going to take my brain a while to catch up with reality here. You genuinely look amazing though, congrats on everything you've accomplished.
 
Kind of the reverse for me, even at my heaviest and most out of shape I genuinely thought I looked fine in the mirror. Then a photo shows up and I am floored by how much heavier and rougher I actually looked.

Ever think about strapping on a backpack loaded with every pound you have lost and wearing it around all day? Mine would be close to eighty pounds, I would be completely gassed within a couple hours!

Keep pushing everyone, great work out there.
 
Honestly back in February I couldn't wrap my head around my actual size, kept seeing myself as bigger than reality in the mirror. Took several months before that adjusted to match how small things had actually gotten. Feeling pretty close to ideal right now. Might drop a few more pounds just to build in some wiggle room around 125.
 
150 pounds lighter at this point, holding here for years now, jumped from wearing a 24 down to a 14. Genuinely happy with what the tags and the readout say these days, yet somehow the reflection staring back still looks like someone carrying three hundred-plus pounds like I once did.
 
This could be all in your head. A decade back I shed 40kg fast and the mirror looked unchanged to me until other people commented and I took before and after photos, which showed a clear difference I couldn't see myself. Maybe photos would help you too :)
 
This, this, this. What breaks my heart is reaching 50 and being the slimmest I've been in decades, only to question my whole personality, which I built around size. Now that I'm slim or average, I see the world treats me differently. I'm mentally drained, and I think it's because since 13, when I gained weight, I trained myself to be the most accommodating, funniest, most brilliant, most interesting, most 'cool girl' in relationships, always putting my feelings aside because my body was the biggest in the room. Now I don't care, and it's strange and slightly eerie to be left alone, not chasing approval. It's so complicated, but I treasure sorting it out with others here, most of whom I assume struggled with weight since their teens.
 
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