More a thread for those that are further along losing 100 lbs, I suppose. I was wondering when you started to feel the difference, and when you had the feeling you fit in instead of stand out because of your size?

I've lost 80 lbs so far, and still have 25 to go (if I make it), I know I'm thinner, but don't feel differently. I'm a real apple shape, and if anything my belly hangs more when I lose weight. It's really obvious whether I wear trousers or a skirt. I do have muscles under the flab, I don't understand, other people here with my height/weight seem to look so much better!

Maybe I didn't manage my expectations very well.

I am just now starting to feel thinner. I never felt like I stood out because of my weight. Look around next time you are out in public and see all the people who would love to be your size.

It is very hard to grasp the idea, that you look different. I've heard that it takes the mind along time to catch up with the body. Especially if you have been over weight for a long time. You think other people look better than you, but I guarantee, they are looking at you thinking that you look better than them!
Ask you friends and family how you look, they will tell you how wonderful you look right now.
Listen to them believe them and keep telling yourself that. Take it from someone who has been there, and couldn't accept how great she looked. Now has to start all over again.

You have done awesome, 80lbs.!!

I know how you feel. I've been over weight my entire life, and I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that my body will be different. For me personally, I had this really weird moment where I discovered that my bath towel could wrap around my body, and that when I realized I was actually losing weight.

do you have a before picture? try taking a current photo and then putting it side by side with the old one. I just did that (and posted them here) and while I still have a long way to go, seeing the photos made me feel a lot better about the progress I have made. You're about twice as far along as I am, but I am also an apple shape and I think that made a big difference for me in not really seeing the progress. But in the photos, it was a lot more clear to me.

Thanks for your responses, it's good to know I'm not alone! I do have before pics somewhere, I'll have to look them up!

Definitely find some pics!

A long time ago I got really sick and lost 50 pounds really fast. I remember rolling over and I wasn't all there, literally. I started having huge panic attacks. I was already very anxious from being sick but I started having huge issues that a huge part of me was missing. Is that weird? I since then gained all the weight back and lost and gained and now am losing it again and I don't feel that crazy feeling anymore. I'm sure everything was dramatized because I was so sick but it certainly has stuck in my brain how it scared me.

Funny that you would ask this question at the 80 lb lost mark as that's exactly where I started feeling like I looked like a normal weight person.

I probably began to feel "slim for me" within 20 to 30 pounds of loss. And around 220 or a little less...since then I have felt pretty "normal" in my weight/size. Part of this is due to fitting into non-plus sizes, part of it is due to working on being athletic, part of it is due to getting my waist back, which has really been happening over the most recent 10 pounds or so (about 4 inches lost in that time and now I visibly HAVE a waist).

I just go through phases. Some days i feel thinner than others...but most of the time, I just still feel as heavy as I've always been.

Frankly, I think it just takes a while for your body and brain to match up again.

Oy, it so depends on the day!! This weekend, debuting my bathing suit...I felt huge! Actually, I was feeling pretty good until DH took a picture. The dude's tall and his pictures of me are always all chest because of the angle. He, of course, thinks I look great.

But today, I'm feeling really good about myself. So go figure.

Honestly, I started feeling pretty normal once I was in a size 16, but I think that's because I have a mental hang up about sizes. TO ME, 16's are normal and plus size is 18+. I think stores consider 14-16 to be plus size, but not me! LOL!

Right now, I feel pretty normal in all but my bathing suit. I'm not particularly thrilled with baring my thighs.

Quillie, I'm your height and still quite a bit higher than your weight.

For me, it really depends on the day.

Sometimes I compare myself to "old me" and I feel tiny in comparison.

Sometimes I compare myself to normal people, and then I go back to feeling huge....

I'm a total apple too, and my tummy just drives me crazy...

And I still have trouble fitting nicely into 14s and 16s because of my tummy...

But, still and all, there is no comparison to where I came from, and most of the time, I'm aware of that.