Is there a real difference?

Okay, I'm having a hard time seeing it.  My trainer (who has seen even the God awful sports bra shots) suggested I take another revealing one.  I did, and yet I find it discouraging. Am I just being hard on myself? Is the difference visible?  It's posted on my blog (see "flaws"). I get "blocked", sometimes, and sometimes feel like I've made no difference for all the hard effort.

You will get there. I felt the same way and I am doing it. From 315 to now 197lbs. Here are the before and afters I sent in to the chocolaterave site. I've been eating their product and sent it in. They put them side by side so you can really see how I look now. I don't work for this website, just believe in the product! http://www.chocolaterave.citymaker.com/page/page/5258983.htm

Your arms are changing, but honestly, there is not a huge difference - yet. Don't be disouraged, just stay determined.

This takes a while...and also, know that in pictures, it's harder to see. We tend to shrink, not exactly morph this early on. You seem to have a pear shape - therefore you will look like a smaller and smaller pear! Don't get down about it - you recognize that you are taking the long way on this journey! Enjoy this trip and trust that you are making headway.

Well done for perservering. It is hard once you want to achieve when it seems to take forever.

What I have learnt:

It tooks years for me to gain the weight, it is hardly realistic to expect to lose it like magic. 

The magic will happen, every time you workout... every step.... you are one step closer to your goal.  The goal may seem a long way off.... but every step is one step closer. 

You seem discouraged with the comparision images- perhaps you tell your trainer that you are happy to have them taken but you don't want to see them.  Give it 6 months of regular workouts and a sensible healthy diet THEN take a set of photos and compare them to the start.  You will see a much bigger change.

While you waitn, focus on those important signs that this is working- like your jeans and shirt becoming loose. Congratulate yourself on that.  Remember this also make a difference to your health, and your body will thank you.

Keep going, you are worth it!

Em

I noticed I was losing weight after the first 5 pounds.  I swore I was "slim" LOL  I started at 352 pounds.  Anyhow, it was really not until I had lost 80 pounds that anyone even mentioned a word to me.  How depressing is that?   It will come, as most things do.  Definitely don't be too hard on yourself.  This is definitely a process and everything comes in time. Keep doing what you are doing, you are obviously on the right track! Donna

Yeah, that can be hard. Thanksgiving, no one said ANYTHING.  Now...this is from a family that comments easily on my weight.  When I lost the same amount before while just dieting they noticed.  Why not now?  I have to think the muscularity changes the perception of the weight loss?

How much have you lost overall?  You are losing, like Neecee said, proportionatly (spelled wrong, I know)  so you will shrink the same way.  If you lose on a "diet" per se, you will notice it more in certain places first.    As far as muscular changes go, you will actually look leaner, so smaller.  I have a pic from December of 2006 and now, and frankly I am around the same exact weight but I look a LOT different, much leaner, in the newer photo. Sucks when people don't notice or say anything.  Wait until you lose it and people are so excited for you, they comment all the time.  Then wait until you are at that weight for a while and suddenly nobody is saying anything anymore because they are used to you.  That takes a lot of getting used to as well!

I'm seeing a good difference in your pictures! In the first frontal and the the more recent one... I see quite a difference! You need to look at your ARMS... the area by your sides- there is a good difference there- also your hips & tummy.  I always TRY to look at a pound as a pound of burger (LOL) I picture a pound of burger spread out evenly on my body.... THAT isn't going to show a lot. But now you take 22 pounds... and that is going to show!  I'm going through the same thing here- nobody says a thing. But that's okay- to heck with them! I'm doing this for ME :) Keep up the good work!!!!

it will take a while for weight loss to be visible for both you and I.  lets face it 30 lbs is just 10% of our bodyweight...  and 30 lbs spread over the frame of a 300 lb woman is spread pretty darn thin.

Plus, I have found that one of two things seems to happen when people are losing weight... they either choose to tell no one that they are losing, and as a result people dont say anything about it or they start telling everyone about their losing and people stop asking so that they dont have to endure the sermon....