I saw a thread about this topic a few weeks ago, but can't find it this morning after searching for it, and I need to let out a little frustration, so I'm starting a new thread.
The topic is losing a significant amount of weight, and other people noticing it, but you yourself being unable to notice any difference when you look in the mirror. I'm a short girl, only 5 feet, so my "healthy normal" weight should be anywhere between 105-125 from what I have read. I have never been a skinny person, nor do I believe I ever will be truly skinny. To me, getting down to 135-130 would be my ideal weight, because I was at that weight when I started college, and I liked the way I looked and how I felt. I ballooned up to 187 this past spring, which for a person of my height is a lot. I am now at 160.5, and have lost almost 30 pounds, BUT I DON'T SEE A DIFFERENCE! My clothes all fit much better, and other people have noticed the change, but I cannot see one change when I look at myself in the mirror. Even though the scale has been moving downwards since I started my diet in April, and I see the difference in how my clothes fit me, I am still very frustrated that I don't see it when I look at myself.
I have set a "realistic" first goal of 140 pounds for myself. I would like to get down to 130 by next summer for my family's beach vacation, and tone up some. I'm hoping that by the time I get to my 140 goal (keeping my fingers crossed for Christmas time), I can see a difference, because all of this hard work doesn't seem worth it when I can't see a difference.
A lot of us go through this. We still see our old selves in the mirror. It just takes time to get over this. You have obviously noticed other things - your clothes are fitting better! That is a great thing to notice So you do know, in some other way than the scale, that you are losing.
In my case, I SHOULD have been in 18s when I was at my highest, but I refused and stayed in 16s and 16ws. Well it took 40 pounds before I started getting into 14s. That is a lot of weight to lose without having to go buy new clothes! But like I said, I SHOULD have been in 18s and I refused to buy them. Could this be the case with you? You might have lost enough to go down a size, but weren't wearing a bigger size to begin with.
First congratulations on your weight loss! I think it's hard to see the changes because we see ourselves each day--remember on the show The Swan and they removed all the mirrors so participants could not see what they looked like until after all their plastic surgery??? LOL that's what we need to cover our mirrors for 6 mths then go VIOLA! OK all joking aside did you take a before shot to compare the way you looked then to now--if not see if a friend/family member maybe took a pic of you at some event and maybe they can share. Also, did you log your measurements-sometime seeing those numbers going down are a real "measure" of your success. I also agree w/post above maybe you need to check your clothes and get new sizes and once you see yourself wearing those smaller sizes you'll see yourself in a different light.
But you have seen yourself every day--and so the changes have been very gradual. What you need are photos--one from before you lost, and one taken now. You'll see that there IS a difference.
Also, the heavier you were to start, the less of a difference weight loss makes initially. But the more you lose, the more obvious the difference will become.
I know in time I will see myself differently in time, I tend to get impatient sometimes as I'm sure everybody does. (My BF has told me the same thing you have all mentioned - it just takes time to notice changes in yourself since you see yourself in the mirror daily. I'm stubbon and don't like to listen to him all the time. He has lost 50 pounds and I see a huge difference in him, but he says he doesn't see much difference - I guess we are in the same boat).
In ways of measurements, I didn't take any measurements of myself when I started my diet. I think I was just so disgusted with myself for getting so overweight so quickly without noticing, that all I really noticed was my pants size and didn't think about taking measurements. I was wearing a size 18 pant, and usually x-large or large tops when I started in April of this year. I'm down to a size 14 pant and still wearing some x-large tops, mostly large (the girls up top are kinda big for a person of my height, and I haven't noticed any weight loss in them so my tops size hasn't changed much.) I haven't really had to buy new clothes because I still had size 16 and 14 bottoms from last year and the years before that I kept in the hopes that I would fit into them again. I went from a size 14 to an 18 in a short year (I'm amazed at how quickly I grew in size over a year!) so I still have plenty of size 14 pants. I even have a couple of size 12 pants from earlier in college that I kept in the hopes I would need them again some day.
I have always hated being in pictures, but have especially shied away from them the past year and a half because of how much weight I've gained. I had a picture taken at my work Christmas party in January 2007 and I was about 185 pounds then. I recently had a picture taken with my boyfriend at a family party, and I looked at both the pictures and did see a very slight difference. I tend to wear bigger floaty shirts to hide my protruding belly so it's hard to tell that much of difference, but I do see some.
Thanks for everyone's support and advice. All I can tell myself is that I have to keep going and doing this for myself and my health, and one day, who knows when, I will see the difference!
I agree with those who said you need to see a picture. When I had hit 17 pounds, I didn't see any difference and thought all the people who kept saying that I looked so different were just being nice. But then I saw a picture of myself and was amazed that they were right. My face and stomach were way different (that's where I lose weight first anyway). And that was just 17 pounds.
Plus, yeah, you see yourself every day in the mirror or in reflections in windows. Sometimes it works doubly well if it is unexpected. I was in a crowd of people walking past a mirror in a storefront, and I saw someone's reflection and I was thinking to myself "See, that girl could stand to lose some weight, but she looks good, hopefully I can look like that in a few months" before realizing it was my reflection. I was skipping the rest of the day. I think when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we're expecting to see the "bad" that we've always seen, and we find it, and we're not expecting to see the good, and therefore we don't. Comparing an old picture and a recent picture works a lot, too.
I started in July 2004 at 200 lbs - in October, I went to a fun event in New Orleans, I weighed 165 lbs. There were LOTS of pictures taken, and for the first time in my life I couldn't stop staring at the pictures, I could definitely see the changes.
It was posted recently that people don't realize how heavy they are until they saw pictures. Something about the way cameras capture us is very different than the way we see ourselves in the mirror (while smiling, changing expressions, gesturing, moving). Cameras are much more realistic than mirrors.
Personally, I don't trust mirrrors very much. When I was heavy, they told me I still looked okay. Now that I'm thin, sometimes they tell me that I still look fat. It's like my mind interprets the mirror, mirrors are a reflection of my inner mental workings, not necessarily what I really look like.
You can still take your measurements, that would be a good record for future weight loss. You can save your biggest skirt/pants and keep trying them on, watching them slip off your hips still zipped/buttoned. You can buy a smaller pair of pants and keep trying them on until they fit. You can listen to your friends/family who are commenting on your weight loss. Take some current pics, compare them to older pics.
You have lost 30 lbs - that is significant. People are noticing. Your clothes fit better. You can't see it in the mirror because mirrors are notoriously untrustworthy when it comes to weight.
Noticing your own weight loss . . . frustrated
