Many people who lose weight, whether through diet and lifestyle changes, medication, or bariatric surgery, recognize their body has changed. While they also experience improvements in quality of life and psychosocial areas, that’s not true for everyone. Some patients don’t “see” they’ve lost weight — a phenomenon referred to as “phantom fat,” “ghost fat,” or “vestigial body image.” “Most people are happy with their appearance, or at least their body shape, after weight loss — although some are unhappy with the loose, sagging skin that can follow weight loss and seek plastic surgery to remedy that,” David Sarwer, PhD, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education and professor of social and behavioral sciences, Temple University College of Public Health, Philadelphia, told Medscape Medical News. “There’s a subset of people who remain dissatisfied with their body image, including their shape.”
Dissociation is another mechanism linking trauma with post-weight loss body dysmorphia, Supatra Tovar, PsyD, RD, a clinical psychologist and registered dietician with a practice in California, told Medscape Medical News. Dissociation from the body is often a coping mechanism for dealing with an overwhelming traumatic experience.
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