I just don't see the weight loss...

Adah_m

Okay, I've been through this weight loss thing too many times and I've started to think about it like this. I find it to be true.

Think about your body during weight loss like a roll of paper towels. When you remove a sheet or two, or three, the roll doesn't seem to get any smaller.

But the more sheets you remove, the more each individual paper towel wraps around the entire roll and each sheet removed eventually makes a huge difference in the size of the roll when a lot of them have come off. Fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big all around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that first couple of paper towel sheets. The closer you get to your goal, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.

While the outside sheet may only cover 1 layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times! When you reach those last "sheets" on your body, everything underneath will show more.

So while 30 pounds is a very significant amount of weight loss (congrats!), think of it as just those first few sheets of a paper towel roll! Keep going, all of a sudden you're going to look in the mirror and see it!

I also wanted to say that this is the best description of weight loss I've ever heard! It actually made me feel a lot better, as I've been struggling with this too. I haven't been able to get on a scale because I've been traveling for business. I've been trying hard to lose weight though, I've been walking to work every day, staying moving around at work (my job is weird, being a trainer I have the ability to do my job completely sedentary or to walk around the classroom all day), and of course to eat less and log my food.
I've been having non-scale victories, like noticing that the jeans I brought with me on this business trip were size 28, and I bought a 22 the other day. Also I notice that I haven't been able to sit with my legs crossed for about 2 years, and the other day I was just sitting there like that comfortably.
But the main problem is that I don't feel like my clothes are fitting very differently or that I look different. My class and friends say they see it in my face but I really don't. My jeans are like parachutes around my legs, but only a little bit looser around my middle. Is it normal to lose weight like that? My legs were definitely not the last place I gained it, my middle was.
Anyway I was told somewhere that you have to lose at least 10% of your weight before the difference will be noticeable to others. Has anyone else heard this? If so I need to get to a scale quick. That means I would have to drop 30 before anyone would be able to tell. But that 10% theory is in keeping with the theory of the paper towels above (that I just love!)
I wonder what percent we have to lose before we can really see it on ourselves? 20%? 30%? lol I have a feeling I may look in the mirror and always see myself the same.
Per everyone's advice though, I will be taking measurements, and some pics so I can compare along the way.

kindred_fawn

I think it's because the shape of your body stays the same. I know that's how it is with me. The pooches, or rolls, or fullness is still in the same places. So the overall shape of your body is the same, but it is smaller. That's when clothes sizes and inches come into play. Losing weight is not going to make all the spots smooth out right away, you will still carry weight in the places you do before. It happens to me all the time where I don't even have a clue that I'm a smaller size because I look in the mirror naked and the same silhouette is there. lol

I agree with this, You still look the same "shape". But you might actually be just a smaller version of that