Body comparison is usually framed as something we do with other people. We compare ourselves with friends, celebrities or people we see online.
But sometimes the person we are comparing ourselves with is our past self.
A new study published in Body Image suggests that repeatedly comparing your current appearance with an earlier version of yourself may be linked with how you feel about your body and how you eat.
Researchers studied more than 1,800 U.S. adults and asked how often they compared their current appearance with the way they looked in the past.
One pattern stood out.
People who often looked back at a version of themselves they considered more attractive were more likely to report body shame, negative body image and symptoms of disordered eating. They were also more likely to report lower body appreciation and less intuitive eating.
That could mean thinking back to how you looked before pregnancy, illness, menopause, aging or a weight change and wishing you still looked that way.
The study does not show that those comparisons cause body image problems or disordered eating. Because the research captured people at one point in time, it cannot tell whether the comparisons came first or whether people already struggling with body image were simply more likely to make them.
Still, the findings suggest that comparing yourself with your own past may matter in ways researchers have not paid much attention to before.
“There’s so much literature on social comparison, especially in body image and eating disorder literatures, and there’s virtually nothing on self-oriented comparison,” said lead author Tracy Tylka, a professor of clinical psychology at The Ohio State University.
The researchers also found that not every comparison with the past looked the same.
People who compared themselves with an earlier version they considered less attractive tended to report less body shame and more body appreciation and pride.
That difference is important.
Looking back at the past may feel harmful when the earlier version becomes an ideal you believe you should still match. But it may feel very different when the comparison brings a sense of progress, relief or appreciation for where you are now.
The researchers found that women were more likely than men to compare themselves with past versions they thought looked better. Men were more likely to compare themselves with past versions they viewed less favorably.
The study also has some limitations.
Participants were recruited online, and the sample was mostly white and relatively well educated. More research is needed to see whether the same patterns hold across different cultures, life stages and experiences.
The research also focused on appearance, not other changes people may notice over time, such as strength, mobility or physical ability.
For now, the study adds another layer to the way we think about body comparison.
It may not only be about who we see around us or online. Sometimes the standard we are measuring ourselves against is a memory, an old photo or a version of ourselves that no longer exists.
And when that past version starts to feel like something the present body is supposed to live up to, it may be worth noticing how that comparison affects body image, eating habits and self-esteem.
The research was supported by an Ohio State Joan Huber Foundation Fellowship Grant. Tylka is editor-in-chief of Body Image but was not involved in the paper's peer review.