When you shapeshift in an LD, do you actually feel physically different?

What is says on the tin. When you change your dream-body, do you actually feel yourself developing different anatomy and morphology, or do you feel the same but just look different? For example, if you have yourself wings on your back, do you feel the weight of them on your back, and can you touch things with them? Or is at all just a purely visual change?

I know that our subconscious draws from our lived experiences to generate the dream-reality, so I'm sure there's a limit to what you can experience in a dream and have it be accurate. For example, insects are completely different from us, so if I turned myself into an ant in the dream, I doubt I would actually experience what it's really like to be an ant. But at the same time, studies have shown that our brains and minds are extremely elastic. People can experience limbs or bodyparts that aren't there (phantom limbs, the rubber hand illusion, etc.), and actually vividly feel them. Scientists have done experiments with monkeys where they control virtual limbs with their thoughts, and can receive tactile sensation from them. And I'm sure you guys have heard of that lady who was paralyzed whose brain was hooked up to a robotic arm that she controlled with her thoughts. Neuroscience is showing that the human brain can easily adapt to new body parts and limbs, and perhaps even an entirely different body.

So, with that in mind, it should be pretty simple to imagine having a pair of wings attached to your back, and it should feel more or less "real". And with more modest transformations, such as simply making yourself taller or shorter, fatter or thinner, or changing your physique to give yourself a muscular athletic body or a curvy voluptuous one, should all be pretty easy to do. But for those of you who have done this, how does it feel when you do it? If I transformed my dream-self to become morbidly obese, or a beautiful and sexy woman, will I truly experience what it's like to have a physique like that?

Sorry if this is long-winded. I'm just really curious. I guess I'm just asking how realistic and vivid I can expect shapeshifting to be, assuming I stick to alternate human forms. Thanks in advance.

I would say if you believe that you will feel the transformation process then you will feel it, I imagine that It would be a wonderful feeling. I think I would definitely feel different.

Yeah! I feel completely different! It is pretty amazing. Add another finger or something! That is easy, but a weird sensation!

You may not get what it is like to be truly obese, have wings, be a dragon, but it should be exactly what you subconsciously think it will be like. I don't know how your subconscious makes all that info, but it normally seems pretty accurate. Of course you will think that it felt exactly what it should feel like being changed when in a dream.

Good luck with your endeavors. :)

I always feel different in a way. Especially because your body works differently. Like, I've shape-shifted into Godzilla before, and I was very sluggish and it was hard to move, but I fucked some people's day up!!!

Everything is possible in dream! :)
If your awareness is high and you believe without doubt you should be able to feel transformation as fully as you want to. When i fly with my wings i usually feel them and i have experienced various vivid transformations in lucid and non-lucid dreams with various degrees of feeling. It's awesome! :D