The Paper Towel Theory.

I found this incredible little diddy someone posted in the T-Tapp forums, and just had to share.  

Here's the link to the original.

Let’s assume you go out and buy two rolls of paper towels, each with 84 paper towels on it {one towel for each day of a 12 week challenge}. You put one aside, and keep it for future reference (your “before” picture). The other one represents you (I’ll call your paper towel you “Ed”). The {cardboard} core represents the lean Ed. The towels represent the fat that is covering the lean Ed. For sake of argument, let’s say that Ed wants to lose 21 pounds of fat, so (84/21) each sheet represents a quarter-pound of fat lost. Let’s also assume that Ed loses his fat equally during each day of the challenge.

Each day during the first week, you tear a sheet off of Ed, representing the fat he has lost for the day. Next, you put Ed next to the full roll (“Big Al”) for comparison. No noticeable difference!!! Even at the end of the week! This can’t be working for me!

But, being a good Ed, you continue to follow {your fitness routine}. At the end of weeks two and three, you continue to compare Ed to Big Al, and still notice very little difference. That stinkin’ {inspiration person or trainer}  MUST be a liar!

But Ed is determined! He works hard! {Working his fitness goals}. Three more weeks go by, the sheets peeling off day after day, before Ed gets up the courage to stand next to Big Al again. Holy Myoplex! Ed is skinny! OK, not skinny, but less huge!!!

The lesson to be learned is that fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that outside towel sheet. The closer you get to the lean you, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.

While the outside sheet may only cover 1 layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times. That last sheet looks like it gives you 4 times the results of the first sheet, but in reality, the results are the same – your perception is just different! And you’ll never see the inside, if you aren’t patient while the outside is coming off! - Bob White 

Isn't that a great analogy?!  I totally get it.  Except that, of course,....

(all images from google images)

But I do totally get it.  I think this is great encouragement for us 'more to lose' folks who also happen to think we're 'slow to lose' as well.   I especially love the part about how the first towels wrap once around the whole body, but the last few wrap 4 or 5 times, so *seem* to mean bigger results.  The results are the same, they just show more cause there's less 'body' to wrap around. So cool.  That really encourages me to keep at it even after I reach that size 12-14 plateau I have gotten stuck at several times in the past.  Hooray!