It is important to maintain positive motivation when you are trying to lose weight and a way to really destroy your motivation is to focus on seeing an immediate reduction in your weight on the scale. Ultimately you want to lose body fat when you are losing weight which is different from just decreasing your scale weight. If all you want to do is decrease your scale weight then limit your fluid intake and sit in a sauna and you can quickly lose five or ten pounds of water which you will see on the scale immediately. But such weight loss does not last which is why your focus should be on losing body fat which is ultimately what makes you look overweight and what causes so many of the health problems related to being overweight. There are several ways that you can tell if you are losing fat. You can have you body fat checked periodically which is the most accurate way to tell if your body fat is decreasing however this method usually requires the assistance of a fitness professional for either a skin fold measurement or underwater weighing which will cost both time and money. Great if you can check your body fat this way but if you can not I have some simple methods that will cost you nothing. Since fat is less dense than muscle it means it takes up more space on your body so one of the best ways to tell if you are losing body fat is if your clothes begin to become looser fitting. Another great way to tell if you are losing body fat is to take photos of yourself every week or so and you will begin to notice the positive changes in your body. A tip on taking the pictures is to take them in exactly the same way wearing the same clothes, in the same place, etc. Ultimately when you lose body fat you will eventually notice a decrease in what you see on the scale however you should never judge you overall weight loss success in this way.