To think that once overweight and unattractive (two unrelated separate things and not necessarily related!!) always feel overweight and unattractive?

[teaandbiscuits89]

Just to be clear I dont think overweight equals unattractive.

I spent my teenage years very overweight and unattractive (bad skin, bad teeth, bad hair... you get the picture) at 19 I dropped 3 stone and learnt what tweezers were, got my teeth fixed and got lots of compliments on how i looked, but i never ever felt good! I still felt over weight and unattractive and could never really enjoy it if that makes sense.

Has anyone else ever felt like that? Lost weight and couldn't shift their mindset? Did you overcome it?

In my twenties I had crippling anxiety, hated myself and was generally unhappy. I dudnt even feel worthy of looking people in the eye because I thought I was still incredibly unattractive. Not a stealth boast but I was asked to model, had Male attention but always felt they were mistaken or joking about fancying me.

Now I'm in my thirties I've gained a few stone and feel miserable I'm starting to look how I felt all through my twenties. It's like I didnt appreciate it and now I'm becoming what my head said I was all those years.

I'm not a superficial person, other peoples looks dont matter to me I'm just very hard on myself.

Not unreasonable at all. Weight loss is sold as the answer to everything, you'll be healthier, look great, feel great etc. The reality is that if you had self image issues before, you probably still will after.

I lost 5 stone and was a size 10 and still felt self conscious and fat as I couldn’t shift my mindset. If someone compliments me and tells me I look nice i’ll automatically reply with “no I don’t”.
I’ll always have insecurities and losing weight hasn’t made any difference to my anxiety.

Thanks for your replies, good to know I'm not alone here!

I feel like your self image is set in childhood, I was always the chubby child and it was often pointed out. I also know people who were slim children who seemed to handle gaining weight better in adulthood, they still seemed their confident selves. Although I know they may or may not be feeling confident. I feel like I'm doomed to hate myself forever.