Lost 16lbs, yet it doesn’t even feel like I lost 1 😔

mlrtri

I have lost 10 lbs and I feel great! I can tell such a difference with just 10 lbs gone (50 more to go). Then I look in the mirror and at progress pictures and you can’t see much change yet. Sigh.

Trishkit

Find a sturdy bag and load 16 lbs of weight into it -- free weights, bags of flour or rice, etc... Now carry that around the house for a few minutes. I find this helps give me a little perspective when I feel like there's no change, because sometimes it's hard to feel like you've made any progress at all. Just this morning I put all of my small free weights in a bag and weighed it, and it came to 16.9 lbs. I'm currently 20 lbs down and occasionally think I notice it, but still have my doubts. Carrying that bag around for a few minutes really makes you think!

Shortgirlrunning

Progress pictures are seriously so helpful! I take one at least once a month. It’s hard to notice the slow changes in the mirror but typically month to month I can pick out changes in the pictures.

Lobsterboxtops

I’ve given up on relying on my brain to gauge myself and my loss. Just like I realized it lied to me as I was gaining weight.

On the days I feel like I am huge and big and all depressed is the days where the scale tells me I lost, on the days I feel like I look great and surely there would be a loss on the scale is the day I found I had bounced up by a pound.

Now I just ignore my brain and go with the scale and fact that I have to buy yet another pair of pants.

MeganD1704

I'm down about 10 lbs now , and I must say most of the time I don't notice it- except in my face.
My face to face comparison pics are wild. Apparently I carry all my weight there, my thighs and my arms.
Finally have 1 chin again- I will take it!

Trishkit wrote: »

Find a sturdy bag and load 16 lbs of weight into it -- free weights, bags of flour or rice, etc... Now carry that around the house for a few minutes. I find this helps give me a little perspective when I feel like there's no change, because sometimes it's hard to feel like you've made any progress at all. Just this morning I put all of my small free weights in a bag and weighed it, and it came to 16.9 lbs. I'm currently 20 lbs down and occasionally think I notice it, but still have my doubts. Carrying that bag around for a few minutes really makes you think!

This is honestly a great idea. last time I was successful and not fad dieting, I'd take a loaded bar at the gym representing the weight I lost and go up and down the stairs ten times. Amazing what being 35 lbs less did for me, can't wait to get there again!

springlering62

Body dysmorphia is a real thing. Prior to starting, I would have snorted and called BS on any such claim, but having been through it and come out the other side, I’m a believer.

I’ve lost almost 40% of my body weight. Yet, it was well over a year and a half before I could see anything in the mirror except the old version of me. It was disheartening, depressing, challenging. Made me wonder why I was continuing, yet the scale continued to drop, so I listened to what others here, who had been there, said about it.

In all seriousness, it was like a hypnotist snapped his fingers and said “poof! Now look in the mirror!” and the scales fell away from my eyes. Such a trite way of putting it, but that’s exactly what it was like.

For me, it was a friend taking a picture and posting it on Facebook. My first thought was who the heck is that woman with my husband? And then I realized it was me. It was like a punch to the gut.

If anything the scales have now tipped and I can’t stop looking in the mirror. I feel so vain, but it’s just wonderment. It’s like one of those sci-fi movies where the hero’s brain has been transplanted into a younger body.

Stick with it. It takes your head much longer than your pants size to catch up with your body.

Diatonic12

@springlering62 Brilliant. Your confident manner is great.

springlering62

I worry sometimes that I come off like having the big head, but I feel like a little puppy sometimes, chasing my tail, rolling over, feeling my oats, and just generally having a blast. Second childhood. Absolutely life altering. Biking, running, “flying” in yoga. None of this was on my radar twenty months ago.

I wish I could bottle this and share it.

I can’t, but I can sure try to encourage others here.

cugogirl2017

springlering62 wrote: »

I worry sometimes that I come off like having the big head, but I feel like a little puppy sometimes, chasing my tail, rolling over, feeling my oats, and just generally having a blast. Second childhood. Absolutely life altering. Biking, running, “flying” in yoga. None of this was on my radar twenty months ago.

I wish I could bottle this and share it.

I can’t, but I can sure try to encourage others here.

You don't have a big head at all, just a smaller, healthier body that you deserve to be proud of because it was your own dedication and hard work that resulted in such a great accomplishment. I can feel your joy in life so you have bottled it and shared it. I appreciate this inspirational post, at the beginning of my journey and reading posts like this are so helpful. Thank you!

Geneveremfp

I feel this.

I tell myself that if I've lost weight and I can't see it then it's probably internal fat around my organs and I've made myself healthier - I don't think there's any science to this at all but it makes me feel like I've got some success.

EllyhBelly

Yes - I have lost a whole stone and thought (maybe stupidly) that I would look and feel so different but I think I look the same!!! I am a bit depressed/unsettled at the moment so that may play a part. I also took photos at the start five weeks ago and photos now and I don't know they kinda look the same - a tiniest bit more definition if you look really really really hard.

SteppenFetchit

By way of progress pics, I've found, and others have told me this too, that it takes losing between 15-20 lbs before I notice a difference in comparison. Of course, I have a lot to lose so that number may change as I lose more. 😐

BTW, active friends are welcome - let's work on making our pics healthy and lean together! 😀😀😀

amfmmama

take a selfie of just your face, and put it side by side with a picture from last summer. I am sure you will see the difference!

Desikudinspain

You guys are commendable, I've not lost a single pound in the last 03 months despite doing everything right.

LAT1963

NotThatDamselAnymore wrote: »

How are you taking your weight loss?

it depends on what percent of your weight that is.

If you are losing pretty evenly over your whole body, it can be harder to notice the changes at first. If you pile up 16 lbs of butter it looks like a big pile, but then if you imagine all that butter smeared all over you it's not that thick a layer.

freda666

I have lost 80 pounds, around 30% of me, and while I was noticing my clothes were getting bigger and have had to take some skirts in, it is only in this last week that I actually feel significantly smaller. Cannot say why all of a sudden now, but I think because we see ourselves every day we do not easily see the big change.

elisa123gal

The scale and tight clothes don't lie.. but your brain will lie to you as you look into the mirror. The same brain that tells a person, "you don't look fat in that?..until the person sees there photo and realizes OMGSH... I'm FAT! It works both ways.

So.. I use tight clothes.. when my shorts zip.. I know for sure I've lost weight and there is a difference. To heck what my doubting negative mind says. And it is funny when you go down in sizes you almost think the clothes are sized wrong that your really don't fit into that 8..but you do.

KeriA

elisa123gal wrote: »

The scale and tight clothes don't lie.. but your brain will lie to you as you look into the mirror. The same brain that tells a person, "you don't look fat in that?..until the person sees there photo and realizes OMGSH... I'm FAT! It works both ways.

So.. I use tight clothes.. when my shorts zip.. I know for sure I've lost weight and there is a difference. To heck what my doubting negative mind says. And it is funny when you go down in sizes you almost think the clothes are sized wrong that your really don't fit into that 8..but you do.

Sometimes someone says something that explains why you are doing something which is a mystery. I have been wearing a shirt that I couldn't get into last summer but is still a tight fit. I avoid tight fitting clothes. They make me feel fat and usually that doesn't help. So I am wondering why I am doing this except for the fact that I am staying at home so no one sees. You have explained my unusual behavior. I think I want to experience this shirt getting loose as I continue to lose.