well. im pretty new here. but ive already started the long journey of losing weight, so i wanted to hurry up and get myself a before thread and maybe get some motivation to keep going strong with my dieting and healthy living. i started my diet about a month ago at the beginning of august by just changing from pop to water. i didnt really think i was on a diet i just wanted to see what it would be like without pop in my diet. a week later i just decided i should pull all the stops and just go all out on a healthy diet. its been about a month of this and ive already gone from around 270 pounds down to 255 pounds when i weighed myself this morning. that is already pretty good so far by sticking with my diet but unfortunately havent really seen much physical change yet. ive been exercising lately and hopefully that will help me make my body a much more healthier one. The pics ive included are the ones i took a few weeks ago before i started the diet. will take more probably this week or next to maybe update my progress. like i said. there havent really been any noticeable physical changes for me yet...=/...also....sorry for the smallish picture sizes...im using an older webcam that i found and i didnt even think it would work anymore...=p

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these are pictures i took today to show the progress from 275 to 255. not much has changed but hopefully the next pics i take will show a lot more change.

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any comments or suggestions would be really helpful to me. also, if you have had some experience with losing large amounts of weight, im kind of worried about stretch marks and loose skin. Im hoping that it will be worth losing the weight because the stretch marks or loose skin will be minimal but input would be appreciated.

I know you want to keep your privacy, but one of the places most people tend to show their weight loss first is in their face. It would be a lot easier to tell if you didn't black it out. If you're worried about Acai berry ads or whatever taking your photo, watermark it in some other way.

You can really tell in the two front photos. In the first one, right around your belly button it appears that you have a fat flap and it's more or less gone 20 lbs later. Good job!

Also, try to take the same position photos wearing the same clothing if you can. It makes it much easier to see a difference. Keep up the good work man, you're doing it!

thanks a lot for the comment. its good to see im not the only one here you know. i wasnt really sure how to watermark my photos or what to put as the watermark or anything like that. if i can reupload the pictures then i probably will if you can tell me how to watermark them. thanks for the comment and advice.

Just open the photo up in MS paint or something similar if you have a mac (I don't know what it would be) and use the type tool to put your name, current weight, measurements, etc. Small enough that it doesn't affect the photo, but big enough that people won't want to steal it.

thanks for the info. i edited and reuploaded my photos. i hope that will be a sufficient enough watermark. but yeah. thanks for the advice and comments. any and all comments will be appreciated. =)

Hey Jack, first of all well done on your progress to date.

I am losing a large amount of weight also. I started at 320 and am currently down to 255. In fact I had to go clothes shopping today, ended up with pants 6 inches less in waist size and dropped a size in my shirts, 2 sizes in some depending on the brand.

So far I have shown weight loss the most on my face, my arms, my chest (man boobs are ALOT smaller now), my legs, and the pubic region.

I was convinced my stomach wasn't getting smaller at all but it has gone down at least 6 inches. I think the stomach is the last thing to go for pretty much everyone, though I have heard some ladies complaining of their thighs haha.

If you provide your body with proper nutrition and don't crash diet, your skin should rebound pretty nicely, as you also have youth on your side. Water helps the health of your skin a lot too.

Stretch marks should fade to white over time, and they will also become less visible as the skin around them loses its tension and returns to normal.

hmmm...thank you very much for your comment 7th...full of information and motivation which is just what i need...congratulations on losing all that weight....cant wait until my clothes start to loosen their grip on me...if you dont mind me asking...how tall are you and what target weight are you shooting for?

I'm 6'2 and aiming for 190-220 (low end high end) but basically I will stop when my gut is gone haha. I think that will likely be around 200. I would then like to bulk up a bit to 220ish. I'm 255 but still with a sizeable gut, some fat on my face still (really annoying actually because it makes me look baby faced haha) and my ass is still fat.

Target weights are hard to decide, i think, unless you have a really accurate measure of your current body fat % (I dont). Even then you might aim for say 16% body fat but find you look great at 18%.

Clothes are def the best way to measure progress though. I am wearing a hoodie right now that I got for christmas. When I tried it on in December it was ultra tight, and today it fits quite nicely.

Another nice way to motivate yourself is, if you go to a concert or sports event and you want to buy a shirt or jersey, get one a size or two too small with the attitude "I will be wearing this comfortably in just a little while". I did that at a Disturbed concert in May and that shirt was one of the two I had left that wasnt totally baggy 2 months later!

(I'm a 20 yearold male university student by the way)

keep it up i went down from 255 to 184 now from june 23rd & today sep first am at 184lbs

thanks for the info 7th and thanks for motivation jorge. i am probably going to be shooting for around 185 or maybe even less. not quite sure yet but unlike you, height wise, im only around 5'8" or 5'9". Havent really gotten my height measured in a while though. i havent really noticed too much physically yet but my shorts do seem to be a bit loser. but maybe i just didnt realize it before. have you had any problems with saggy skin or stretchmarks? i agree with you that my skin might have a good chance at rebounding but i just like knowing more i guess. its a long process so what else can i do but think and worry you know?

i dont have losse skin at all because i work out DAILY never have stop working out daily since june 23rd

well hopefully if i workout more then i wont have any either...=P

Well I have stretch marks but those came as a result of weight gain, not weight loss haha. My skin is not sagging at all I see no reason for it to start as I support it very well with proper nutrition and lots of water.

Get the proper fat content into your diet will do wonders for your skin, especially the omega 3 fatty acids. Load up on good ole water too.