I feel like this is going sooooo slowly! When am I gonna start feeling and seeing a difference? Evidently I was so fat that I'm gonna have to lose a crap load before I even am able to notice

Thanksgiving was hard people...

I had 2 dinners to attend... one on Thursday, and one on Saturday. I have starved myself everyday this weekend just so I could take extra small portions of all that yummy Thanksgiving food... and guess what... the scale went up!

I've been so busy with all the Thanksgiving stuff that I haven't been able to exercise since Wed... and I feel so guilty, and I dread starting back tomorrow... cause I know it's gonna be brutal.

I just want to see some fruits of my labor... is that too much to ask????

I'm afraid the only answer is in your title, all you can do is keep chugging along.

When you've got 159lbs to lose, no, people aren't going to notice 24 of them; but your body is, and is thanking you for it.
You may well need to lose another 24 before people suddenly notice it - and then, typically, they'll seem to notice every pound after that.

Well done on planning for your Dinners; but if you starved yourself, does that mean you were ravenous by the time you got to the yummy food, and maybe the portions were bigger than you thought?
Plus, if the yummy food was turkey, then no problem; if the yummy food was (insert what all the other stuff is, I don't know but it always sounds high calorie and delicious) then a very little of it contains a very lot of calories.
Plus, if the y.f. was cookie-y, cakey, pastry-y, then there may well be a water retention factor, which is a pain but not permanent.

You need to have overeaten by 3,500 calories to have regained a pound of fat. If you did that, tie a knot and go on, you can't undo it. If you didn't, then it's a temporary glitch which will sort itself.

I really sympathize, I've felt that 'when will it ever/I try so hard, why doesn't it?' very often this year. From my experience, all I can say is to keep on chugging (in my case, plodding) and the snowball effect will happen, and the pounds will gradually accumulate.

Congratulations on the 24! Now, head down and chug on for the next 24.

It doesn't matter how "hard" you think you have worked, and it doesn't matter how much you think you "deserve" to lose weight. The body has its own agenda. Your weight will go up and down in ways that sometimes seem random.

What you must do is stay with your program. I am assuming it's a healthy, reasonable program. That's what you can control. So get back to exercise/activity, back to the food plan, and stay with it.

It may be slow, but it is much better than going the other way.

Jay

I feel your pain I started at the end of August, have only lost one size in jeans, and someone just noticed for the first time about 1 pound ago... it just takes longer than we would like. However, at the recommendation of 3FC members, I stacked 25 pounds of books (my high school year books ) on the scale. Just picking them up, lifting them over my head, and being able to see and feel the amount of weight I've dropped from my body amazed me. I don't "feel" any differently 30 pounds down on a day to day basis, but when lifting that amount of weight (or imagining carrying it around in a backpack all day), it was pretty hard to deny that it's a large amount of weight...it made me feel much more successful

I was 287 lbs and it took about 50 lbs lost for people to start mentioning it.

Those rewards? They're coming, they're coming, they're coming. And the soonest way for them to show up (if that's what you're interested in), is for you to be majorly consistent.

Keep plugging away and plugging away and you'll keep chipping away and chipping away at the pounds lost and before you know it, you WILL see and feel the difference as will others.

Time really does fly by and provided you stick with your plan, time won't be the only thing flying - the pounds will be flying - off of you.

I know it is really hard. But yes you are still chugging along...so am I!
I did the same as you it was lite lite lite all week with the eating (or not so much eating) and then I had a large meal Thanksgiving day. The next day was football day- I had chips and dips. I didn't weigh Friday. So when I weighed Saturday (gulp) I had gone from 200.0 to 203.2!
I got to thinking that I ate ham and chips during those day's. That is lots of sodium and calories. Along with the cake . So right back on plan Saturday! Lots of fruit and I walked a lot.
So I weighed this morning and it was 202.0 So maybe a bunch of the gain was water retention from all that sodium.
Anyway, just like rockinrobin says keep plugging away and plugging away and you will keep chipping away at the pounds and you and everyone will notice.
You are doing good girl with your weight loss. Look how far you have come

Keep plugging away! 24 pounds is an amazing loss but I do know how you feel. I've lost about 20 pounds and no one, including myself, can even notice a difference but I know that my body has to be healthier on the inside even if it's not really showing yet on the outside.

Soon enough people will be noticing but until then we just need to keep going!!

Patience, patience and more patience! I know it's hard. Just stay the course and you'll get there.

Thanks guys... I really appreciate the support. It really helps to know I'm not the only one that goes through it

I have lost 23 pounds since June. It is very slow progress.
I am counting calories and losing 1 pound per week.
No one noticed the weight loss so far, but I do.

My shoes are looser, my hands and face are thinner.
I have lost 1 dress size, so my wardrobe has changed.
And I have more energy to do things.

By April or May I should be down at least another 20 pounds. It seems so far away.
But I will be into a smaller size again by then, and that is my payoff to plodding along.

Just be patient. The next 20 pound loss is when people will start noticing.

You joined in October and it's still November and you've lost 24 pounds. That's progress, whether you can feel it or see it or not! Keep that up for a few more months and people will have to be blind not to notice.

Like everyone else is saying, chugging along is the only way to do it. It's not sexy like dropping 50 lbs in 2 weeks is sexy, but like investing/saving money, regular gradual steadiness produces the big wins.

It is frustrating as HECK sometimes but we're all in this together. Stay strong and remember, if you're sticking to a good plan there's NO WAY you won't lose.

Definitely keep chugging!! It is SO worth it! The beginning is hard because it's hard to really feel the effects but soon enough, you will really start to feel completely different and it will amaze you!!!

Thanks, you all are great inspiration to me!

Hey girl! I feel you on the not "noticing" I have lost about 17 lbs. since June (I know uber-slow) and I can't tell at all and my hips have actually gotten BIGGER! WTF?!?!?! But I know it will pay off and then I think, "if I lose at a moderate pace, maybe I won't have a bunch of saggy skin and junk" lol...that's my consolation now, I want to be able to wear sexy stuff when I make goal! But seriously, you have had great success and you just gotta keep chugging along...like you already said

I think I was about 30 lbs. heavier than you were at your start - it took about 40 or 45 lbs. before anyone noticed it in my face, and after that about another 30.... but I noticed it! I could feel my pants loosening up, my thighs rubbing together a bit less, breathing a bit easier walking around etc., so I keep going for THOSE reasons, not the few peeps who noticed I was losing a bit of weight.

Don't sweat two meals out of your entire year, they were eaten and hopefully enjoyed to the fullest, and now you can move on. It's not all ticker-tape parades, just boring choice after boring choice lol, and keeping your head down and ploughing though the negative thoughts and temptations, you just gotta keep going for its own reward