At what weight should I start to NOTICE changes ON my body?

tamarhacopian

I lost 6 pounds so far and I don't notice any difference. Nothing looks smaller, still the same. Is this normal?:indifferent:
When you think about, 6 pounds is kinda heavy, right? I mean, Imagine a 6 pound weight. I should be noticing a slight difference, you know?
That makes me think since its only 4 pounds away from 10 pounds, even losing 10 pounds I doubt I would notice a difference...and I'm sure there will be, but it will be so small its unnoticeable!
At what weight should especially myself (then others) start to notice the decrease in fat (by looking at my body, of course)?

And does anyone know which part of the body burns the fastest AND burns first? Or does the whole body burn fat in unison?

amusedmonkey

The problem with weight loss is that it doesn't necessarily happen evenly and from the places you want the most. Believe it or not, I started noticing real change about 50 pounds in!

The first few pounds are usually water weight, so it's not very noticeable. The small amount of fat you did lose, you may have lost it from internal fat, some obscure area you are not aware of, or from too many places to show a difference in one location. The places where you store or lose fat mostly depend on your unique genetics.

Don't just judge by weight, take a tape measure to your key areas every month and you are bound to see some difference eventually, even if it's hard to gauge by just looking in the mirror.

Nedra19455

I lost 6 pounds so far and I don't notice any difference. Nothing looks smaller, still the same. Is this normal?:indifferent:
When you think about, 6 pounds is kinda heavy, right? I mean, Imagine a 6 pound weight. I should be noticing a slight difference, you know?
That makes me think since its only 4 pounds away from 10 pounds, even losing 10 pounds I doubt I would notice a difference...and I'm sure there will be, but it will be so small its unnoticeable!
At what weight should especially myself (then others) start to notice the decrease in fat (by looking at my body, of course)?

And does anyone know which part of the body burns the fastest AND burns first? Or does the whole body burn fat in unison?

My understanding has always been that you usually lose weight in a top-down kind of way. So I noticed my face and neck looking trimmer first, then my collarbone area, then my waist. My upper body has always been more troublesome than my lower body, so I didn't notice any real differences in my hips/legs before I started noticing new changes to my neck, shoulders and waist again.

It's subtle. I haven't been dropping sizes and nobody's been commenting, but my clothes feel looser and I just look slimmer.

lemon629

It depends on the person, where the fat has reduced, and how heavy you are to begin with.
I noticed a difference after losing only six pounds when going from 186 to 180, I think because it mostly came from my stomach area. However, when I reduced down from 215 I didn't see a difference until I'd lost 15-20 pounds.

Sreneesa

I have lost around 22lbs and went down 2 jean sizes. I really didn't notice any difference at 6lbs. Before starting at 185 on here, I had lost 10lbs a little while prior to beginning MFP. So went from a 14-15 now to a 10-11.

My stats are:

5'10
SW - 185
CW - 163

Hang in there. Give it some time.

sadrithmora

To be honest, I've lost 40lb and I STILL don't feel much different, aside from buying smaller sized clothes. You're always with your body (sounds strange, so hope it makes sense) so it's much harder to notice changes in yourself rather than someone you only see like once a month. What I do is compare photos really, and then I really do notice. But the first change that I've FELT was around my neck and cheeks. Before my collar bones were hardly visible at all. Another indication is feeling better in general. My feet used to get tired a lot more simply due to all that extra weight put on them.

KarmaLaine

I notice after about 10lbs, others start to notice after 15-20lbs.

MaggieLoo79

At 8 pounds lost, I noticed that my jeans - which had been too tight - were fitting right and not skin tight anymore.

Erinelda

I lost neatly 30lbs and 4 inches off my gut but since I guess I am shrinking all over I can't tell yet. I am waiting to feel a bone or something lol. I think the small part o9f my waist may be lower but that's about it.

DianeinCA

I've lost 13 pounds and I'm still wearing the same jeans. They're looser...but not so loose that it's obvious I need to go shopping (in my closet ).

Only one person has asked me if I'm losing weight and that was someone at Easter who hadn't seen me since Christmas.

TonyPillz

I didn't even start noticing until i looked at before and after pictures.

keobooks

I've lost 8 pounds and while I don't look any different, I bought a smaller band size in my bra yesterday. My bras were all old but they were just getting way too droopy to account simply for age. Sure enough my back shrank 2 inches.

ndj1979

First, no part of your body is going to burn fat more quickly then another. Fat comes off from where it wants, when it wants…Typically for men it tends to stick to our lower stomach area the longest, and I believe for females its the hips and thighs area that stays the longest….

Second - you should start to notice changes at about every ten pounds lost. Although, this will depend on what your starting weight is. I would not fret so much over body changes, as long as you are losing , you will get to the body that you want; it is just going to take time, patience, and dedication….

Laughter_Girl

I believe it's more difficult for people to recognize weight loss in themselves. For me, I can only tell slightly when I look in the mirror. Take pictures along the way, take measurements, and observe how your clothes are fitting. Even if you can't notice it per se, those indicators will speak volumes.

LoupGarouTFTs

I didn't notice any difference at only six pounds, but now at 13 pounds I've noticed that my pants are starting to slide off me. I'm still at the awkward stage, though, of not fitting into the next size below that, but I'll get there soon enough. I have noticed that my shirts are a little looser at the bottom, too. As others have said, just keep trucking and you'll get there eventually. Congrats on getting this far! :bigsmile:

zeal26

I see a noticeable difference, in progress pictures, every 10lbs. It's pretty hard to see the differences on your body yourself since you're looking at it every day, but much easier to see it in side-by-side pictures.

arvidsonc

I lost 6 pounds so far and I don't notice any difference. ...At what weight should especially myself (then others) start to notice the decrease in fat (by looking at my body, of course)? ...And does anyone know which part of the body burns the fastest AND burns first? Or does the whole body burn fat in unison?

You should notice that your clothes are looser or more comfortable as some have mentioned. Pictures do help!

According to the textbook on personal training, fat reduction/dissolution is based on genetics and on losing it in the reverse order in which the body added it. I think I remember right that fat takes at least twice as long to lose as it does to gain it.

For example, I am only 3 pounds down and 21 days into my current effort, but my flab on my upper arms is not as noticeable to me either, so I am happy to see that I am losing that fat since I am working out my arms with weights just to help the muscles be stronger when the fat goes away. In the past, I have always noticed that it is time to pay attention to my eating and lack of exercise when something simple like putting dishes away causes me to notice out of the corner of my eye that my upper arms jiggle too much, so today when I noticed less jiggling, I felt better.

Remember this if you are working out, especially with weights: Muscle weighs more than fat so measuring your arms, waist, abdomen, and thighs monthly or biweekly might be more helpful. You'll see smaller circumferences as fat disappears.

christacb

I have lost 12 pounds and I have noticed a very slight difference in the way my pants fit and in the way my face looks. I am tall though, 5' 9". I would assume that 12 pounds lost on a short person might show more than a 12 pound loss on a tall person.

yasoyyo

When going through cycles of dieting/not dieting/general variations in my eating and workout patterns, my weight fluctuates by 5-6 pounds, and even then I notice a difference...Only in my upper body though - at my lower weight my upper abs show when I tense them, at a higher weight they don't. My legs stay the same I think. Oh, and I'm between 132-138 lbs.

lorrennon

Ive lost 40 lbs and still really don't notice much difference. I was amazed to find a ride at the amusement park that I couldn't ride with my daughter I now can. My daughter told me I don't look pregnant anymore as well. So the difference is not as easily noticeable by the person losing the weight, but I assure you, its there.

bizgirl26

Don't just judge by weight, take a tape measure to your key areas every month and you are bound to see some difference eventually, even if it's hard to gauge by just looking in the mirror.

This!

Also I have lost almost 25 and dont really notice but a few others have. I am down a size but everyone is different.

BigVeggieDream

I think it depends on the person. I've lost 49 lbs, but my belly doesn't look any smaller and I measure at the belly button and it has only decreased by 1/2 inch. People tell me they can see it in my face and my waist has dropped from a 44/46 to a 39/38, but in between, nothing. Also my thighs haven't changed.

LessHeavyVeggie

You don't say what weight you started at - for someone fairly close to their goal 6lbs would probably make a lot of difference but as I've got a long way to go (started at 20st/280lbs) 6lbs down was just like a bit of fluctuation for me! I've now lost 16lbs and it hasn't made a huge difference other than my upper arms feeling a bit smaller.

Also if you're seeing yourself in the mirror everyday then you'll notice changes less. I took photos and measured various parts of my body(around 10 places) with a tape measure at the beginning and will be doing that once a month to see what physical changes are going on.

b_anik

For me it was like this:

6 kg (13 lbs) lost: I started noticing that my clothes were looser, and so did people who didn't see me often.
10 kg (22 lbs) lost: Many people noticed my weightloss, but many didn't.
18-20 kg (40-44 lbs) lost: A LOT of people noticed how much I have lost.
Now I've lost 23 kg (50 lbs) and I feel great, but still working on the last 4-5 kg (10 lbs). For the first 10 kg I was often feeling down, because almost no one noticed I've lost weight or they were like "you look like you lost 1 or 2 kg"...

Edited to add this: It was funny because my BMI was 25 at 62 kg, when I lost 18 kg. And it was like that: one day I'm over the normal BMI range, and not many people noticed my weight loss, a week later, I'm in the normal range, and suddenly everyone seemed to notice. I guess they were just used to the fat girl, no matter if obese or just overweight, but being "normal" made the difference

fairygirlpie9

I've dropped two dress sizes and nobody has noticed outside of my immediate family. It's partly because my extra weight was 'carried well' - meaning it was quite uniform all over my body. I think that once I get closer to my ideal weight it was suddenly be super visible. Until then I just keep going. x.x.

bwogilvie

It depends on the person and where you lose weight. I noticed after about 15 lb. I took pictures every 5 lb. or so, and when I compare those that are only 5 or 10 lb. apart it's hard to notice a difference. 15 lb. is noticeable, though, and 20 lb. is quite noticeable. After 25 lb. the difference is pretty big.

Here's one way to think about it: imagine that a 200-lb. (90.7 kg) human being is a cylinder that's 5 feet 9 inches tall (175 cm). (I was a physics major; we did things like that all the time!) The diameter of the cylinder would be 8.5 inches (21.6 cm). Now assume that cylinder lost 5 lb. without shrinking in height. The new diameter would be 8.4 inches (21.4 cm). That's a difference in diameter (width) of only 1.2% - very hard to notice.

Assume that the lost is, instead, 15 lb (6.8 kg). Now the new diameter is 8.2 inches (20.8 cm), a difference in diameter of 3.8%, which is a lot easier to notice. Lose 30 lb. and the difference is 7.8%, and it's obvious.

Of course people aren't cylinders; the point, though, is that as you lose weight, your limbs and torso become progressively narrower, but because the volume is proportional to the cross section, a small loss in cross section appears to be an even smaller loss in width.

Another way to put this: if our cylinder lost half its weight, it would look only 30% thinner. To appear half as thin, it would have to lose 75% of its original weight.

ETA: That's why a 300-lb. man doesn't look twice as big as a 150 lb. man of the same height.

PJPrimrose

It depends on how you are built and how big you are. For example, my DH and I went down 9lbs. He went down a belt loop and I went down a pants size. I was much smaller female to begin with so a small deficit wasn't small. He's a big ole man so a small deficit barely showed.

bwogilvie

Oh, and a followup: a 30-lb. loss, resulting in limbs and torso that are nearly 8% thinner than before (if the loss is mostly fat, it will be even greater, since fat is less dense than muscle and bone), is obvious to someone who hasn't seen you for a while, or if you compare pictures. If it's someone who sees you regularly, they might not notice the change. That includes you!

Taking pictures during your weight loss journey can be a big motivator; if you're feeling as if you've lost 20 lb. but you still look the same, it can be a big help to compare how you look with how you used to look. Take the picture with the same camera, at the same distance and zoom setting, wearing the same clothes and standing in the same posture. I take a front and a profile shot. Close-fitting clothing is best.

seltzermint555

It depends on the person, where the fat has reduced, and how heavy you are to begin with.
I noticed a difference after losing only six pounds when going from 186 to 180, I think because it mostly came from my stomach area. However, when I reduced down from 215 I didn't see a difference until I'd lost 15-20 pounds.

This.

It took me about 20 lb each time to notice a real difference coming down from 307 to around 230.
At 230 down to about 200, I noticed a difference every 10-15 lb.
Now I am around 183 and even 5 lb is noticeable on me, even though I'm still quite large.

sammybingo

I've lost around 13lb in the last 8 weeks, and I've really noticed it. I didn't until about 8lb perhaps? I've had to go out and buy clothes at least one size smaller, if not two. I'm slightly taller than average, broad shouldered and hour glass shaped for a lady though, so the fat is sort of quite spread out - I don't have a big tummy or anything (my waist measurement is 'healthy' despite the fat I'm carrying being very much not!).

I've lost a lot of the muffin top shape at the tops of my hips - the waist to hip area is much smoother now.

I've started taking measurements of key body parts (waist, hip, top of arms), mostly as it's practical for buying clothes, but also so I can see small changes that might not be reflected in the scales; I like data .