Are You Happy With How You Look As You Lose?

I am doing some light strength training to hopefully tone up as I slim down & am ensuring I don't drop too quickly so my body can adjust, but that's about it. Generally speaking I look better than I did... I am MUCH healthier & that is enough for me! I also know that once I get to a maintenance phase my body will be able to spend more energy "catching up" w/ the weight loss.

I have lots of rippling, dimpling cottage cheesy skin and loose skin. And my face looks weird to me. I mean, better without the three extra chins and re-emergence of my neck, but different. I can get self-conscious about it, if I'm honest. But I also know I'm the only one noticing and that this is still better than the puffy, fat chick squeezing out of my chair or my pants or my bra. And after nursing, my shape is now pear instead of hourglass (esp with how I lose weight - hips last). And it's weird losing in different parts, so I'm in between random sizes (need a bigger size for my arms, but then things are loose on my chest, or whatever).

But it's still better than it was. So I focus on that. The end result will be a lot better, I think.

I am not seeing the flabby part yet, but only down 6lbs but I have worried too ! When I am shopping this week, I plan on buying a loofa or other roughish sponge to wash my tummy area with in hopes that that will stimulate the skin to shed faster and hopefully (maybe I'm dreaming) shed to the new right smaller size.

I could never ever afford any sort of plastic surgery to tighten any thing up and in truth am not a huge fan of cosmetic surgery - so can't imagine trying it if I could afford it; but for some it is a real possibility. Looking at some of the success story pics of folks who lost 2-300 lbs the amount of extra skin would be tough to keep clean, dry and healthy and if I was in that situation I might be more likely to consider/do it.

very happy with how I look...but my weight hasn't changed that to be honest.

I am losing weight for health...I have always been confident in how I look...

I'd rather have extra skin under my clothes that nobody sees versus weighing what I used to. Because everyone can see your shape when you are bigger but not everyone can see your skin. I'll take being smaller any day of the week. The speed at which you lose doesn't have as big an effect as your genetics and health does.

I notice sometimes i hate the way i look and then i will loose another 10lbs and i will be like oh i look so much better…but then after another five i'll feel lumpy again. I don't think you should judge yourself during the journey cause it is all gonna change. As you workout your gonna build more muscle and that will make everything tighter. I don't know if you will have what you think is a perfect body but you will look and feel better then you use to.

And that being said. I feel fat no matter whether I am in a healthy weight range or not. We all have days where we love the way we look and days where we hate it. Losing weight doesn't necessarily stop you from feeling fat. It never did with me

I have a little loose skin on my stomach but I think that has a lot to do with my pregnancy... I don't care about it in the slightest.

As I lose I get more and more pleased with the way I look. Strength training is the key!

I've lost a lot of weight, even more than my ticker shows.

I've gone through periods of looking awful. Why? Because fat doesn't deflate in nice, smooth, even patterns. I've had plenty of periods along the way where I was losing, and the fat got terribly flabby looking; again, the body doesn't drop it uniformly.

But the areas always eventually tighten back up...until the next woosh. Even though I'm a man, I carried an obscene amount of fat in my thighs. My inner thighs looked terrible during the loss. They looked like what people typically call "excess skin"; wrinkly, deflated, saggy. Same with "batwings"; those are almost always FAT that's become loosened and is causing skin to hang. Most people just seriously underestimate how lean you have to get in order to eliminate "batwings" if you're genetically predisposed to carry a lot of fat in the arms.

But what did I do? I just kept losing more fat. Eventually you discover that a lot of the things people call "loose" skin, or "flab", is just body fat that's now become less compact, and is causing skin to hang. The best way to combat this is to keep losing FAT, not just weight, and aim for a lower body fat percentage. If all you're going by is an arbitrary scale number, and not your actual body fat levels, you're fighting a losing battle. Scale weight is only half the story.

I've still got a bit to go, but after losing well over 100lbs and going through various stages of "flab", it's good to know that most of it is turning out to just be body fat that still needs to be dropped.

Yes, obviously I look much better. Sad about the loose skin though... but I have to realize that it's still better than the alternative.

I look more muscular than I'd like though, yet still have too much body fat on my hips (and belly, maybe, but I think it's mostly skin at this point). Damn genetics.

To answer OPs second question about losing body fat and not just weight: 20% deficit from TDEE and no more than that. Solid amount of protein. 80% of calories from foods that provide real nutrition and not just taste. 3-4 days per week weight training. Other people on MFP say cardio is not for weight loss but I disagree. It provides a little extra calorie burn, more importantly it gets those endorphins going so you feel good and are more apt to make better choices. It also helps regulate appetite.