Losing inches/pounds looking fatter

We don't lose body fat evenly across our body -- our genetics determine where we lose it. So as we lose weight, we may get the impression that we're gaining new problem areas. It's just because your body fat distribution is different than it was before. You had the back fat and the tummy fat before -- they just look different in relation to the rest of the fat that you've lost.

I was just feeling this way this morning! You're just losing the fat around those areas so it's making those areas look worse temporarily. Be patient and keep going and it'll work itself out. If would be awesome if we could pick where we lose the weight, but we can't so as you close in on goal, you may end up wanting to adjust your goal, or incorporating exercise/weight training to continue to reduce body fat if you're not already.

And, congratulations on the 40 pounds lost!

Yep. There was a time when my body looked odd and I felt bigger because my waist measurement was smaller, but my lower waist/tummy area didn't catch up yet. Obviously I wasn't bigger, but it was an illusion.

It's not quite the same, but now that I'm smaller water retention and bloat is extremely noticeable. I retain a lot for about two full weeks every month so I rarely feel very lean.

A lot of the issue may just be you are not used to your current body proportions and/or view yourself more harshly than in the past. It's kinda weird sometimes, and I'm not talking about a serious dysphoria thing but just for example I used to kinda just look into the mirror at my "better" areas and TOTALLY overlook my enormous spare tire around the middle and now it's a tiny spare tire by comparison but I look straight at it immediately because I now have different, higher standards for my body.

We are all so used to how we look, and when proportions change it can be weird. I remember maybe 3 months into losing weight I was doing yoga in downward dog and I looked down and I could see my thighs were like... WEIRD looking. They'd gotten more squishy and I don't even know... looser? Like the fat on them was just hanging down. It creeped me out lol. Now, almost 7 months in, that fat is gone and back to looking semi normal, but now my hips are doing creepy loose-fat stuff. I'm also halfway convinced my right hip is fatter than my left, by how my pants sit. And because my ribcage and waist are smaller, it feels like my hips are even bigger than they used to be (and proportionately they probably are) even though I know I've lost 7 inches off of them. Look at the big picture, and try to see some humor in the process. I think having the power to change your body is pretty awesome, even with some bizarre side effects along the way.

One way I look at the changes as a good thing is water retention. I always heard smaller girls complain that their boobs and stomach were noticeably bigger during their period or that they felt their stomachs were obviously bigger after a big meal. I was carrying so much extra weight that I never noticed anything like that on myself and I was half convinced it was just something skinny people said. But it's happening now to me. It sucks when it does, but it's a great thing that I can actually tell now that I don't have that extra layer of fat over everything.