[JollyGreenSteen19]

I'm a tall girl, and had a lot to lose (130-160lbs), so I know that I wasn't going to really notice the changes, but stepping on my scale today I've officially lost 40 lbs (330 to 289.8)... my "goal weight" being set by my doctor being anything from 160-200 lbs. Just looking in the mirror and putting on clothes, I don't feel any different. I had a photoshoot done for a job I'm working when I was 330 and looking at those photos and at me now, I feel like they look about the same. It is sort of discouraging but I know if the numbers on the scale keep going down and I keep counting calories and exercising and building muscle... I'm going to be dropping sizes even though I can't see those incremental changes adding up.

I am on week 4 of couch to 5k so in a fitness level, I do feel different, which is nice... but I still feel tremendously heavy and out of shape.

Does anyone else struggle with a case of the "what's the difference?"

[niafabo]

I didn't start to see a difference till I lost about 50 pounds but I kept at it and now I'm finally in that range where every 5 or so pounds makes a big difference. Just stick with it you are doing amazing and I'm sure other people have noticed the difference. Sometimes it's just hard for us to see our own results.

[ShanIAm]

Completely agree with niafabo...it is VERY difficult for us to see our own losses. It's commonly known as phantom fat. We see fat that simply is not there anymore. I struggled with this big time up until I lost 30 pounds. My clothes were loose, I started feeling bone again BUT... I still saw the fat there. Really weird. Thankfully my perception of myself is changing now and eventually yours will too!

You are doing an amazing, amazing job and do not get discouraged! You ARE looking slimmer, you ARE losing weight and you ARE going to succeed!!

[Coondocks]

absolutely agree - it took about 50 lbs before i noticed a difference, and even now it takes 5 or 7 to see a change.
You really are the last person who is going to notice, but trust the process and know that you are doing something great for yourself!!
Congrats on C25K!!!

[carter]

Same here - I did not start to really notice differences in either my appearance nor how I felt until about 55 or 60 pounds were gone. Then, it was like a switch flipped - I suddenly felt more energetic and wanted to move around more - I became the sort of person who bounds up the stairs two at a time.

At 75 pounds, another switch flipped - my appearance changed very quickly, and other people started commenting on it.

The good news is, the more you lose, the more those small differences matter. Think of it this way - when you are at your biggest, the relative change is smaller. The more you lose, the greater a difference each 5 or 10 pounds makes. Search the forum for "paper towel theory" to find a number of posts quoting an insightful essay on this topic.