The first reply to your thread was amazing.. I've been having the same problem and I haven't been sure how to address it. At my heaviest, I was probably 300 pounds at 5'8. I never got on the scale after I saw the 290s though, so there's no way to be sure. Looking at pictures is shocking because I always felt like I was just overweight.. not the "morbidly obese" tag they stuck on me. Today I am 234 and the only time I even see a small difference from 300 is when I wear a girdle I bought from walmart... Even my program coordinator said, "Oh look at your waistline!" haha. Not so much without the girdle . So it's super difficult to see what other people see.. I told my mom that even though I'm down about 50 lbs, I feel like people I haven't seen in awhile are just like, "Did you get a haircut?" haha. It's nice to see the pant size going from a 24/26 to a 16/18, but I think body dysmorphia is definitely a contender in all this. The only thing that really helps me, other than monthly pictures.. which are super embarrassing.. is my measurements. I bought some cute ribbon and each month when I tally up my total lost inches, I cut that off the ribbon spool and keep it somewhere I'll see it, like right now it's tied around my rear view mirror in the car. My biggest motivation would my mybodygallery.com ... it's amazing to see the differences in the women that are my height and weight, to the ones that are my goal weight. Whenever I feel really down about my weight loss I click around on there for awhile and it helps a little. The biggest help is the guys that pay attention to me now though, that wouldn't have looked twice 50 lbs ago. Definitely an ego booster! Okay, off for my fill in a little bit.. Good luck to all of you, and congratulations on at least taking the first step, plus any weight loss you've achieved!