I think it really depends on where you lose it at first. Years ago when I was a WW member, when I dropped the pounds, people could tell because I was losing alot in my face. Ahh those were the good 'ol days lol. Of course now I've gained all I had lose plus like 50lbs. I wouldn't base my success on what people say though, some tend to keep their thoughts to themselves.
Just the other week I had 6inches cut off my hair and not one person at my job has said anything. And that is really noticable
Having successfully lost weight many times, and then packed it back on, I have a few thoughts on this. I think the people you see most often, like co-workers do not notice until you buy new clothes. I think the first to notice are the people you only see once a month or so. And, I think if you have been down this road a number of times, some people might notice and not mention it at all.
It took about 50 pounds for people to start commenting. I don't know when they noticed, it might have been earlier, but still weren't quite sure. 50 pounds seemed to be the magic number when people would come up to me and ask what I'd been doing.
Around 18 or so for me - for people who know I am dieting. But, no one who doesn't know (which is a LOT of people in my life) has noticed. I am hoping they'll notice soon... seems like 30 is quite a lot. It might be that they are noticing but won't say anything until they are really confident so as to not accidentally offend or something?
I agree with beerab, I haven't spent much on new clothes and when I do, I imagine that people will have a better idea then. I hope.
I think it depends on where you start! For me, people I see a lot noticed after 25lb, but it took 50-60 before random acquaintances to notice or comment...
I think it depends on how much you have to lose honestly... our neighbor is quite overweight... doctors might say grossly obese. She's an AWESOME lady. I don't know exactly how much down she is... but over the past few months... my mom and I have noticed her shrinking... it's awesome to see.
For me... I was asked by one person if I had lost weight when I was only 3 lbs down... I guess it's visible in my face... *shrugs*
I have no idea when anyone noticed - but I lost 50 pounds before anyone commented. Even then, I only got 2 or 3 comments. When I passed 75 pounds, about a month ago, some kind of switch flipped - I have since lost count of the number of comments I've received.
Search the forum for "paper towel theory" for a very nice discussion of why this is the case.