Argh, totally fed up about my weight/bodyshape?

[BouncingCat]

I'm quite short (5ft 3) and before having my youngest child I was always a size 8 and very slim. He's now 5 and I've really worked hard for the past few years eating healthily, running and doing exercise DVDs daily. I am a size 10 now, occasionally an 8 in bottoms but mainly a 10.

On Friday it was my son's sports day and lots of photos were put onto the school website. There are some of me in the background and to be quite honest I look like a barrel! I look like I have a normal sized face and then my upper arms look chunky and flabby, my boobs frumpy and matronly and my tummy looks huge!

I was really starting to get to the stage where I thought I looked 'ok' and 'slim' but my arms/boobs/tummy all looked bigger than ever.

Surely after a few years of hard work I should be toned at least?

I just look awful!

It sounds like you are being way too hard on yourself.

If you weren't aware of the camera you were likely slouching and looking way chubbier than you actually are

You're a size 8/10, you are not hideous

I honestly looked absolutely huge! And dumpy!

How can a size 8/10 possibly look huge? Nevermind 'absolutely huge'?

I know where you're coming from OP. It's not how everyone else views you, or what they think constitutes fat, it's how you feel about yourself. I've went from a 10 to a 12 and I feel disgusted with myself. It's about how you are, compared to how you were. I don't know how to get the willpower to loss this stomach. I know what I should do but can't find the willpower. Sorry I don't have the answer.

Is it perhaps to do with what you were wearing? I can easily look like I've put on 10 kilos if I wear unflattering outfits. I have the photographic evidence! So perhaps a new bra for the boobs? Sleeved shirt if you are self-conscious about your arms? Something that flows/skims over the tummy? I'm sure you don't look that bad btw - I would bet if you looked back on the photo in a few years time you wouldn't be so harsh on yourself.

Photos can be deceitful, so don't fall into the trap of judging yourself based on that alone.

I think a size 10 is healthy, but at the end of the day it's about how you feel. Could also be down to what you were wearing at the time, or it could be that you're particularly self-conscious about one aspect of your body?

i think you must be being really hard on yourself. I am 5'2", size 10/12 on the bottom and size 8/10 on top, so far from perfect. I know I have to pick my clothes really carefully, I can't just buy any old thing because I like it.

Also, when you look at your own friends, are you comparing them to models? thinking ''oh she is five inches too short ot be a model'' or, omg, that fat cow is size 12 not size ten? Chances are you don't hold your friends up against perfection, or 'the ideal' of five foot 8 with a slim waist but a C cup. So few people are like that.

I am a slim size 8. I work ruddy hard to look the way I look.

What do I look like in photos? Awful. I cannot tell you how hard it is for you to get a good picture of me. I have a double chin in photos (never in rl), my posture looks crap, no muscle definition, doughy, rubbish and just disappointing. Honestly, there is a real difference between photos of me and what I look like in rl.

I know how hard I work and I know that after 2 children, I look pretty good. Wish I could prove it through one photograph but I can't.

Blame the camera. I do.

"the camera never lies"......rubbish! Its a lying, evil machine (only beaten by the rowing machine at the gym)
Never listen to it!
Im a size 6 with a fairly pale skin tone.....in photos my skin has purple blotches! I can look at my arm, and a photo of my arm taken seconds earlier and the photo arm is purple and bumpy and my real arm is fine.....