Can Gaining Weight Make You Feel Less Attractive?

It is always frustrating to gain weight and sometimes you feel that it is out of your power to stop it. You know that stepping on the scales is only going to make you depressed and so you don't, but you can't ignore the fact your clothes no longer fit you as well as they used to. You struggle to zip-up your jeans, your stomach hangs over the top and none of your tops seem to cover it up effectively enough. It sometimes reaches the stage where you hate looking in the mirror and where you feel so fat and ugly that you won't even let your partner watch you undress.

Clearly, then, gaining weight can make you feel less attractive, especially when you feel you have no control over what is happening to your body. Your weight gain may be the result of pregnancy, taking medication, illness, stress, depression, or just pure gluttony! Whatever the cause, though, you sometimes wonder if it's ever going to stop and if your weight gain is the result of your eating habits, you may just end up eating more to cheer yourself up a bit, even though you know you are only making the problem worse.

You may find yourself with clothes that no longer fit, so that a trip to the shops is required. This can be rather depressing when you take a selection of outfits into the dressing room and find that none of them fit. If you've got no clothes to wear, you obviously have to buy something and so you look for clothes in a larger size, but often you don't really care any more. You may be inclined to buy something that is comfortable, though not necessarily flattering to your figure, just because you don't feel you're worth making the effort for.

When you hate the way you look, it is hard to find the motivation to make an effort over your appearance, as all you can focus on is the fact your thighs are huge, your arms are flabby and your stomach is bigger than you'd like it to be. You may find that instead of getting dressed to look good, you just wear clothes that disguise your size. People around you may notice that you've put on weight, though this may have more to do with your attitude than the actual changes to your body. If you're downcast all the time and try to cover up as much as possible, someone is going to notice.

It doesn't really matter how attractive your partner finds you or the fact that you continue to get chatted up after gaining a few pounds when you hate your appearance. If you feel unattractive, this can undermine your confidence and make it harder for you to enjoy everyday activities that you used to like doing. In the scheme of things, gaining weight isn't that big a deal, but when you're the one piling on the pounds it can affect the way you feel about yourself, so that losing weight is sometimes the only option.