Hello Everyone,

When i started my diet I wanted to be 170lbs from 305 lbs and I am 225lbs now and I started in January. Now when i started I said that I would be happy to be between a size 12-14. I am 5'8" and a bit, but I am 225lbs now and I just went to the store yesterday because my size 20 jeans are falling off me literally and I am a size 16 at 225lbs, and I know muscle mass and bone density etc changes how everyone looks at a certain weight. But I guess I am wondering if anyone else was disillusioned about how their body looks and what they thought it would look like at a certain size. Because I certainly didnt think I looked 305lbs at my heaviest although I am sure others thought I did, and now its hard for me to remember even what I looked like then (I should have taken pics)...because now even though I am 80lbs lighter I dont think I look any different even though everyone else does. I dont know I guess I am just trying to get acquainted with my new body and I am trying to figure out where we are going together in this weight loss journey. Anyone else have the same confusion?

Jaime -- Oh my yes, I hear you. I feel like I'm a moving target and am having a hard timme gauging my size. I've lost 95 pounds but am still obese! And yet I know I am smaller... much much smaller. I can't really wrap my mind around it.

Do you have any of your old clothes? If you want to see how far you've come, just try some of those on. Well, put them on over your current clothes and watch them fall off!

I know exactly how you feel!

Last week, 2 ladies at the gym I work out at told me that I was an inspiration to them because of my weight loss. They went on about how much weight I'd lost since I started working out there.

Well...*I* don't see it. I just don't. What I've been telling everyone about how I feel is, "The shape is the same, but it's getting smaller." Everything on me is still where it was 60 lbs ago, the same belly, the same flab on my arms/legs, etc. I don't even see it getting smaller, others do! I just know that it's all still there, rolls and all.

So what I've decided to do is that when I get about 15 lbs away from goal, I am going to reverse my work-outs. Right now I do about 1 hr 45 mins of cardio and about 30 mins weights. I am going to reverse that to about 45 mins cardio and the rest on weights. Maybe that will help change my overall shape. I sure hope so.

Hang in there, and congrats on your weight loss so far! At 225 I still wore an 18! It wasn't until I was at about 210 until I felt comfortable in a size 16, and I was about 185 when I felt comfortable in a 14. Slowly but surely, I'm accepting that *I am* losing weight.

*maggie*

I can definitely relate on this one!! I've lost a total of 23 pounds and feel like a total fraud every time I post. I don't see my weight loss at all, I may have dropped from a 20 to a 14, but where is it coming from? Mostly I just figure clothes are being made bigger and thats why I can fit into the smaller sizes. BTW - how did you lose so fast? I've been working pretty steady at this since Dec and have only dropped 23 pounds... I'm ready for this to go a little faster.. heh..

-Aimee

I experience this, too. I'm 260 and wear a 18W. I know that 22s and 24s are now too big for me, and that seems to be the only tangible "proof" of my smaller size. Since everything is mostly still proportional, I see myself the same.

As for sizes, at 200 pounds and 5'5" I am a 16W or an 18 in "regular" sizes. I feel like a whale when others give their weights and sizes! It seems that everyone wears a smaller size than me... or people who wear my size weigh a lot more than me... though maybe you are all just really tall.

I try not to stress about it though. We are all built differently I guess.

Aimee -- I don't know what you weigh, but you may be losing slower because you weigh less! Nothing wrong with 23 pounds since December, you know!!! though I know it's frustrating to feel you're losing slower than others.

Like my size seems higher than others, you are losing at a different rate than others and that's okay.

I have a hard time seeing the weight loss until I look at my own pictures. The doctor's office took before pics, and then they will take them monthly. I also have started my own little album with before pics and will add pics in 20lb intervals, so I can "watch" myself shrink. I know it sounds silly, but I don't see it. Shoot, I KNEW I weighed 350lbs, but after I started exercising regularly, I didn't feel like I figured someone who weighed that ought to feel and I didn't "see" that I was "that" fat. My before pictures are a huge wake-up call. Wow. I do alot of reflecting with them. When the doctor took my 1 month progress picture, you could see a huge difference already!!! I was so shocked - I knew my clothes were looser, but I haven't lost a size yet. I look alot better, even only losing 23lbs.
I need to have the progress pictures to keep my motivation. I also have identity issues because I don't know who I am without the weight. I recommend that everyone do their own Progress Picture Album....it is so simple, but it sure has helped me so far.

I am almost to goal and don't really see myself as that much different. When I get a glimpse of myself in a mirror or window, that's when it sinks in. Or, when I pick out my clothes to put on and they look so small that I think I could never wear them. Everyone is built so different. At 234 lbs. I was in a size 20. At 200 lbs. I was in a 14. Even now many people don't understand how at 146 lbs. that I can wear a size 4-6. To me, that's an easy one. I have bird legs and that 90 yr. old man butt thing going on. I am also 5'7 which helps.

Swimgirl: I eat around 1200-1300 calories a day and a work out on the treadmill for an hour everyday burning close to 700 calories at 3.4 mph and at a 6.0 incline. Its hard work but the results are well worth it. You are doing great too, I cant wait to be between a size 10 and a size 14. Maybe then i will accept what I look like.

I have lost a fair amount and I am still a 16 the same as when I started.

I am 5'7" and wore a tight size 18 when I started at 195+.

160 - size 16
150 - size 14
140 - size 10
128 - size 6-8

I hear you about accepting what your body looks like, I have been really kicking up my excersise this last month or so but I have stalled on weight lose, it was not until Canada that I noticed there really was a diffrence, my daughter b-day is that day and my ex always spends that day with us, he took some pic of me and Nahonni and I actually liked them (it a first, maybe I should post this in mini-goals)lol. Anyways I could really see that my face and arms have toned up.. It so nice to have a nice candid family pic that I am not ashamed to show people..

I hope to post some progress pic soon just want to lose another ten pounds or so to make it an even 30 lb lose..

Trust me if you feel it in your clothes people do see it..

Here's a thread about size and weight in the Ladies who Lift Forum you might find interesting.

When I hit my goal weight, I felt like a "mini-me" version of a fat lady. Changing the actual composition of my body was the key to achieving the look I wanted, not just changing the number on the scale.

Mel

LOL lilybelle!!! You are so funny! 90-yr-old-man-butt-thing.... ~giggle~

You know, I think many of us have a "fat voice" and a "fat eye" in our head... that whenever we DO lose weight, we still hear that "fat voice" and still "see" fat in the mirror. I know when I lost weight the last time (god I get on my nerves sometimes! .... lose-gain, lose-gain, lose-gain, ad nauseum...) I was at 138 and STILL just felt FAT.

I think I need a carrot dance. There! Much better!

I see you are in the UK - your sizes are not the same as US. Your 16 is a US14, I think. And hang in there - it'll change.