"Awkward" stages of losing weight?

melameeee
melameeee Posts: 7 Member
edited November 12 in Motivation and Support
Does anybody else sometimes feel like their body is going through an "awkward" stage while you're trying to lose weight? Every time I try to lose some lbs, it feels as if I'm just getting wider because I'm building muscle, but there is still fat soo... I just look wider. Maybe I have just never gotten over this stage. It just gets really discouraging. Any advice???

Replies

  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
    Keep going! It gets better. I try to not look at myself and see the "fat" on me. If I do, I lose all motivation. Look more for the subtle changes that come out with weight loss. Look for the muscle tone you didn't have. The bone in your faces or hips get more obvious. Thinks like this keep me from obsessing over the fat.
  • erineddy81
    erineddy81 Posts: 43 Member
    I sooo went through this when I started my fitness journey, not the widening part, but definitely an awkward stage. As I first lost weight in my boobs and booty, and I still had a gut lol. My hubby told me I had to quit losing weight and that is when I went into ultra-*kitten* mode and told him this was for me and not for him. That was 50 pounds ago, and now I think he pretty proud of his hottie wife :D lol
  • rodeoedor
    rodeoedor Posts: 1
    Yeah, if anything, it's probably you just thinking too much about the way you look "fat" because you're focusing on your weight more. just keep rocking in the free world.
  • C00lCountry
    C00lCountry Posts: 282
    I not sure about awkward or not.
    I think it has always been there for me just really didn't notice as much.
    I ask myself now when did I get all this one me.
    Just drives me harder to try to lose it.
  • marycmeadows
    marycmeadows Posts: 1,691 Member
    You're not building muscle fast enough to look wider. besides, when you lose weight, you lose muscle too, so if anything you're breaking even on the muscle..... i think you're just being extra critical of yourself - i do the same thing. I have lost over 100lbs and I'm more critical of myself now than when I was over 300lbs!

    sw 303.4 (1/1/11)
    cw 196.4 (down 107lbs)
    gw 160
  • RobynDCrossman
    RobynDCrossman Posts: 252
    Keep! Going!
  • delilah47
    delilah47 Posts: 1,658
    My body has been in the awkward stage since I gained the first overweight pound.
  • Stella_Leigh
    Stella_Leigh Posts: 189 Member
    I understand completely. All I can say to you is this...(in the words of Winston Churchill) Never, never, never give up!!
  • tmcope
    tmcope Posts: 2
    I totally understand what you are saying. I feel like I look lumpier and I just figure I have lost some weight here and there and it just looks worse. I try to think about how my close are fitting now compared to before and I look at weight lost and know I lost something somewhere. Just don't give up!
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    It definitely gets better! There are definitely some awkward stages though, especially when you are sort of in between clothing sizes!
  • iluxoxo211
    iluxoxo211 Posts: 241 Member
    Just keep on going girl! soon enough this awkwardness will pass
  • rlshopp6
    rlshopp6 Posts: 31 Member
    I think the hardest thing when losing weight is to not look for/expect those instant results. I've lost over 100 pounds, but whenever I look in a mirror it's hard for me not to be critical of myself and instead of seeing or thinking about the 100 pounds gone, I see the 50 pounds still left to lose. So I try to step back and not be so critical but accept this as the body I have now and keep logging my food, staying on calorie goals, working out, etc. and since I'm working to change the things I can change, I have to accept whatever my body looks like now.

    Definitely keep going, and look for the non-scale victories. Like the other day I happened to glance in the mirror as I was shrugging my shoulders, and I saw collarbones. I think I knew all along I had collarbones, but i haven't seen them in my adult life, so it was hard to imagine them in reality. And although I've been working really hard the entire month of March, I've "only" lost 2 pounds, but I was encouraged by the thought of collarbones *almost* in sight.
  • rhucksto
    rhucksto Posts: 9
    YES!!!! I've lost over 34 lbs, and the weirdest thing is that I still feel like I am at my heaviest most of the time. Now, I have what I think is a realistic body image, I wasn't angry with myself for being overweight, and I didn't feel really badly about myself...I just saw a picture that made me say "Woah, time to take this weight off".

    The cool thing is that it will take me about a year to get to the size I was 8 years ago, when I was 23. I think the slow change has happened in my body, but not in my mind yet.

    So now, even as I shop for size 6, instead of the size 12 that I was last September, I still look in the mirror and see the same body. Weird!
  • nay1228
    nay1228 Posts: 64 Member
    I know exactly what you mean!
    I have always been bottom heavy.....pear shaped.
    When I gained extra weight my fat was more even. LOL
    As I lose weight, it comes off my boobs and belly first, so my butt and thighs look even more pronounced. I just keep at it and hope that the rest of it will catch up.

    Too bad we can't seem to lose the places with the most fat FIRST! :smile:
  • melbellkid
    melbellkid Posts: 72
    If I could just get the fat to jump off my gut and move back up north to the boobs where it all came off of when I lost the weight it wouldn't be so bad! :)
  • npeters519
    npeters519 Posts: 87 Member
    If I could just get the fat to jump off my gut and move back up north to the boobs where it all came off of when I lost the weight it wouldn't be so bad! :)

    This!
  • zeeeb
    zeeeb Posts: 805 Member
    yep, my tummy looks bigger because everything else is smaller. sucks!!! but hey, at least i don't have hellish moon face anymore.
  • j77r68
    j77r68 Posts: 271 Member
    I noticed the other day that the left side of my body has a smooth contour but my right still has an obvious bulge ! Realized through my physiotherapist (i'm seeing for knee issues, knee caps not in place, making very hard to exercise) that I am UNDER using muscles especially in the glutes and OVER using my quads and hamstrings. Which is throwing my whole body off kilter. But she is teaching me how to find and use my butt muscles (imagine having to be told that ! lol) again and cross my fingers soon enough get rid of the pain that is causing me to overcompensate and drop the pounds like crazy !!

    Another awkward stage is when you are in between sizes. I look like crap in my only pair of jeans right now but my pairs that are one size smaller make me look like crap too because they are too tight !!
  • melameeee
    melameeee Posts: 7 Member
    WOW!! thank you everyone for the advice!! Makes me feel so much better. Just gotta keep goinngggg!
  • melameeee
    melameeee Posts: 7 Member
    Also, yall are funny :)
  • Ttrishaa
    Ttrishaa Posts: 15 Member
    For me, I have a areas that are definitely more muscular, but the fat is still there too. I don't get discouraged by it or anything, but I still find to pretty strange to have a hard spot with some squish on top when I didn't have the hard part before. Hahah
  • dragthewaters4
    dragthewaters4 Posts: 2
    I have lost 20 lbs in a month and the weight came off awkwardly for sure. I had/have big boobs (38H) and i lost no fat in my boobs but a lot everywhere else in my upper body. So now i look like a cartoon.
  • uconnwinsnc
    uconnwinsnc Posts: 1,054 Member
    Yeah weight comes off in the strangest ways making you look like a Picasso painting sometimes...
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