This is a 50+ question but zero cycling content, I hope that's ok here. If a transgression ok to move to "Foo."

I am 60, soon to be 61, and I noticed JUST IN THE PAST YEAR that when I look at myself in the mirror, I think I look ok and even maybe "youthful" but when I see pictures others have taken of me I look REALLY OLD.

I am pretty sure this is a new thing in the past year.

Comments? Maybe it's just a normal part of aging, but I don't like it. Unclear if this is a common occurrence or just my quirk.

Interesting. I'm just a bit older and that's just about the age I started looking "older" to myself in the mirror. I looked at myself and thought "who's this old guy looking back at me?" Not exactly what you asked, though.

I'm 56 and have been experiencing this to some degree for probably a decade. I see and think of myself as young (people always told me I looked younger than my age until my mid-40s), and a little overweight around the middle, but fairly muscular everywhere else, but I see pics from holidays or from the group rides I do, and I see an old and way overweight guy. Photos definitely add 10 lbs, and they also make my hair greyer and eye bags puffier.

That old, overweight guy is starting to be visible in the mirror lately, too, though I still feel youthful in spirit, adventurousness, attitude, etc., aside from all the aches and pains. So...my youthful days may or not be numbered. I've got my power up pretty well already this year, so I'm going to try shifting my focus from building fitness to maintaining the fitness and getting the weight off for the next 6 months.

Don't be too hard on yourself on how you look. As long as you're feeling good and are healthy and fit for your age that's all that matters.

I am totally ok with how I look, luckily married and out of the dating pool. But I do NOTICE this. I accept it but was curious if it might be a common thing or just quirky me.

You're still able to look in a mirror, and a picture, and recognize yourself. No guarantee you're going to like what you see.
Feel fortunate you don't know how you look to others, and how much change they see..

Yep... Brush your teeth, trim your beard, shave, get a hair cut, wear nice clean cloths, smile often, make eye contact, tell a joke, don't get confused... Baby You Look Marvelous!

A little earlier than 60 for me. Looked at a pic of me and thought what's my grandfather doing?

I look at it like living room paint: day to day you really don't notice a big change but after 30 years when you remove that picture on the wall and discover what color the paint used to be, it's surprising.

But as long as nothing is wrong with the wall, all is good.

I figure if I'm still around for someone to take a picture of me, I'm ahead of the game. If their camera still functions, bonus points!

+1

For pics, even when I don't necessarily want another pic taken -- and people today feel the need to snap waaay too many self portraits -- I remind myself to give it a big smile. I'd rather look good, healthy and happy in their pics rather than reflect the awful truth.

I think a day like this comes to all of us sooner or later. Honestly, I'm just grateful that I can still put on the miles on my bike.

If I cover up my face, the rest of the body still looks middle aged.

But the face and hair are a dead giveaway.

Not my looks so much... I'm still a catch, and I'm not heavy.
But my posture is undeniably old, and when I see videos of myself I'm surprised by my geriatric movements.

When I turned 65, I thought I looked OK in the mirror. Then I got my driver's license. HFS, who is that guy? In the picture, I look really old. I still think I look good in the mirror, but pictures suck pretty badly. I just turned 70, and it's not getting better...

Although I gotta say, I look pretty much like Alan Ritchson. He's a fair bit taller, maybe a lot leaner, and a bigger here and there, but I think the resemblance is striking. Nobody tells me this, but I think they just don't want to make me feel uncomfortable with the attention.

It's your brain at work.

Trust me on this... today's my 77th birthday, I know exactly what it is you're bringing to the Forum here.

Freud is frequently discredited a lot these days, but he was onto something with his Id, Ego, Superego theories.

Essentially this breaks down to: We are who we think we are, while at the same time we are who we are to the people around us, but in every instance we are who we are in reality.

One of the differences between the first two states has our mental image of ourselves as being different than how others perceive us.

I know I certainly don't feel like I'm 77. OTOH my body often tells me I'm not 40 anymore.

I can barely remember being 25 save when the cohort of teen part-timers are around at work. They're mostly under 20, memories of mine from that era are truly faint.

Neither mirrors nor photography depict who we are as we choose to perceive ourselves, just as the colors we perceive are the work of our eye + brain 'organ' interpreting the wavelengths of visible radiation as colors instead of simply vibrations of energy.

I'll post this before reading what others have posted in reply to your topic. I reserve the right to come back and edit should I feel the need to do so.

I'm sure you saw this study. It made all the major news services not long ago. It suggests that we age in spurts, and one of them is ... ta da! ... at 60.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00692-2

I think there is some merit to the study, but it also has its limitations.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...ging-in-bursts

As others have mentioned, I think also at play is the same effect you see with grandchildren. Parents don't see how much they change in a matter of a month or so, but grandparents do ... because we are not seeing them daily.

Either way, I've stopped caring so much about how I look (I never did that well in that department anyway). It's how you feel that counts!

If only I didn't feel like crap.

Don't compare your twenty something photos with your now photos. It will make you feel worse.....LOL @66 I know I'm no kid anymore. As long as I wake up, I'm happy.

In the same boat. I see we have a lot of paddlers!!!

Yep, just trying to stay above water.

I am sitting at the breakfast table serving my Dad, now 99 years old, his Migas and Beans, his favorite. What changes has he seen over the years. Civil Service Air Force x34 Yrs. Traveled Europe in the 80s with his Flamenco Guitar, built several houses and properties, and still hungry in the AM. Who cares about the walker and diapers? When do you know you are getting there?

For me it was when I realized it was too late to climb Mount Everest, and all the baby girls were just under 50...

OK... Time for a RIDE!...

It's been so long since I cared what I looked like . . . Well, that's not true. Actually, I'm quite vain. I compare myself against what others my age look like, not those youngers, and I think or tell myself that I'm doing quite well. My wife does a good job of pumping up my ego and I return the favor. Lots of exercise and outdoor life has helped us, cycling, hiking, backpacking, skiing, snowshoeing, etc., etc. We've been tandeming since '06 and that's helped. Maybe the white beard and hair help, not that they make me look younger of course, but they hide a lot of defects. I think we look a bit outdoorsy. But all that said, I really can't spare the emotional cost of caring about what I look like - my wife cuts my hair and beard about every second month and that's about it. Lots of thing I care a lot more about.

Back when I was climbing, I thought about Denali but didn't have the spendable to get serious about it. We enjoy riding plenty and I enjoy talking about it. We still participate in the Sunday group ride, the Church of the 700, though these days we take shortcuts. I have to get back to sorting my supplements . . .

I stopped worrying about looking old looong ago.
Just as long as long as I look sane and stable.

taken by another person, btw......

Uh . . .yeah . . . maybe . . .