Thanks Beach Patrol, that is the only way I can describe my lower body and why smaller pants fit me. I exercise almost every day. When I was younger, I had a nice , round butt. Don't know why this time with weight loss, it all just went away. I was talking about getting a breast lift, and my teenage daughter said "mom just get a good, push-up bra. If I were you, I'd get some butt implants, that's what you really need". Lol, kids can be so sweet.

Plus, my own sister said "your butt is flat enough to land an airplane on". Now isn't that sweet. My reply was "yes, but it's no longer wide enough to land one on." I wanted to badly say, "yours is wide enough but it would be a very bumpy ride. LOL, Don't get me wrong, we're sisters and have always made comments about each other, but love each other dearly.

wyllenn - I started at 251 in Dec, and am at 228 now, my goal weigh is 160. I have a fair way to go still.. my body has always either dropped the weight REALLY quickly or beyond slow. It seems to go in phases, weird huh? I have to accept it, but wow.. would I love to lose at a faster pace.

I'm in 14 in plus sizes, and 16's at the GAP are like 1-2 inches from doing up, so hopefully by the end of the month I have a pretty large frame and am pretty darn muscular, and I'm 5'8", so I suppose that explains how I weigh what I do and fit into the sizes I do.

-Aimee

Thanks, Aimee. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I feel large for my weight. It's hard to be too depressed about it when I've gone from a 30 to a 16!

My husband is losing weight too, and while I'm more gradual, he tends to plateau and then have a bunch of losses. Odd how we are all so different!

I'm 5'5" and at my highest weight (225 lbs.) I wore a size 20-22 (or 1X). I now weigh 187.5 and wear a 16-18. I have one pair of size 14 pants that fit but I figured they put the wrong size tag on! I do look much thinner now than in my 'before' pictures (even though I've only gone down one size despite losing 38 lbs.) People who haven't seen me in a while always remark how much weight I've lost.

Since I've lost the weight so slowly (over a period of 2-1/2 years) people who see me every day don't seem to notice the weight loss as much.

It's funny, but some days I feel very fat and others I feel slim. I think a lot of this is in our heads and depends on what mood we're in that day. I also feel a lot fatter when I'm bloated from eating certain foods. When I eat 'clean' I usually feel better - and slimmer.

I do this all the time every time I put on my pants. I say, "golly, they look SO small, how can I possibly fit into them?"

~~~
And I feel like a whale 90% of the time too, especially when I go out shopping and see skinny girls. I want to go up to them, shake them, and scream, "I used to weigh over 300 pounds!!" Like I need to make myself feel better or justify why I wear a size 14 and they wear 2's.

And I have an incredibly difficult time seeing a difference even when I'm looking at my before/current pictures. It's over a 100 pound difference, and it looks to me more like a 30 pound difference. I can stare at those pictures for hours and say, "what are people talking about?" It's awful.

I only feel slim when I'm lying down and can feel my protruding hip bones and rib cage. I also have lots of excess skin too, and that sure doesn't help.

Dangerous thoughts, huh? I know I have major issues and when I get health insurance again, I'll be getting it

It seems like a lot of us have these conflicting fat/thin or fat/less fat thoughts. It is such a part of these mental games!

HarpoChicoGroucho -- I'm starting to feel the same way -- wanting to tell people I've lost nearly 100 pounds.

I'm trying to figure out what size I am, so I try to compare myself to women I see. I seem to usually pick out comparison women who are larger than I am now -- suggesting my mental image hasn't caught up with my weight loss.

My mom and I were at this HUGE event last summer, and I kept noticing people, asking if my body looked like theirs. So we found eachother's body doubles, I'm sure it wasn't 100%, but the person my mom picked out was a lot smaller than I expected. Definitely interesting.

-Aimee

SwimGirl, that's a great idea! (to pick out "body doubles" in public).

I always think my 60 pounds lost looks more like 20 or 30 pounds lost. Some days, I'm amazed at my progress. Other days - usually bad-food-choice days - I feel like a tub o' lard.

So, if you see someone trying to guage your size in a mall somewhere, maybe they're trying to figure out if you are their body double!

When I started out at *at least* 273.5, I was a tight 20 or a fit 21. My shirts were 1X, sometimes 2X (just depends). Now I can wear 13r (some 12s) and wear size L shirts at 199. I lost a good deal from my legs but my butt was never really *that* huge. I can't fill out pants -- never really been able too. I suspect I will have chicken legs when I am done, but that just goes to show how different we all are! My arms are still big though.. my weight goes more to upper body than lower.

I am 5'2". I started out at 200 lbs and size 18. I am now at 178 and size 16. I'm hoping to be down to a 14 or less by my honeymoon in September. I guess I am sort of fortunate in my body shape. I have always had an hourglass figure. When I gained the weight it all distributed pretty evenly and my big hips and chest kind of gave the illusion of a smaller waist. (The only good thing about being a 36F!)

If I really pay attention I can tell the difference in my body shape. I have lost about 3-4 inches off my stomach and a few off my thighs also. The biggest difference I see is in my face. I am almost down to one chin and my cheekbones are more defined.