30F. I have such awful self esteem. I feel like it’s mainly because I’m about 40 pounds overweight – I think sometimes that if I could lose that weight I’d be so happy and never think a mean thing about myself again. AND I’d wear the clothes that I want to.
I was underweight when I was 21, and looking back I was absolutely miserable and still had awful self esteem. So will losing the weight fix my issues? I wonder. I swear I’ve only ever been underweight or overweight (thanks eating disorder).
What happened to your self esteem/ body image after losing the weight you wanted to?
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I think in part, yes. But the real thing that fixed my self esteem was eating food that was good for me, not eating until I felt disgustingly full and moving my body. Those things led to weight loss but even better they led to me caring about myself and seeing myself totally differently.
There was a time in my life when I was way younger and lost a ton of weight. I was only interested in fitting in a certain size and looking a certain way. I felt good about myself on the outside… but since I did it through majorly restricting myself and basically hating how I looked to begin with, I didn’t feel as good on the inside.
No, learning to love and accept myself at my largest size was the only thing that helped me lose weight.
Lol, no absolutely not. What really helped was therapy. I lost all the weight and I was still the same person inside and in my head.
I’d say it helped my self-image and general physical confidence because I was no longer uncomfortable in my body and clothes. I can wear whatever I want now which is truly a joy. Plus, anytime there’s a clothing clearance sale, they always have my size. Hooray.
However, it did not fix my self-esteem. That’s a constant work-in-progress and I did some sessions in therapy to get started working on that challenge.
tl;dr: body confidence ✅, self-esteem ❌