Small wins nobody talks about, but everybody feels
When you have a lot of weight to lose, it can feel nearly impossible to see progress. The scale moves slowly, if it moves at all. Some weeks it even goes the wrong direction. Clothes are not much help either, because most of us live in stretchy fabrics that politely ignore whatever our bodies are doing.
So you learn to look for progress in other places. At least I do.
I measure my progress by furniture. I notice whether a chair feels a little more forgiving. I notice when there is a tiny bit more space between me and the steering wheel of my car. These tiny moments matter more than people realize. You take wins wherever they show up.
But what surprises me most is this. One of the first things I actually feel is the difference in my knees. Not on the scale, and not in a photo. In my knees.
I notice it in my willingness to move. If I’m willing to make that extra trip to the bedroom to put something away, my knees must feel a little better. If I’m not even willing to cross the kitchen to put something in the dishwasher, they must be a little worse. My knees are like early warning sensors. They tell me how things are going long before anything else.
For a long time, I thought this was just my imagination. Maybe I wanted to feel progress, so I convinced myself something was happening. It turns out my knees were telling the truth. Not emotionally, but physically. This is straight up science.
Your joints do not just carry your weight. They multiply it.
Here is what is really happening inside your knees every time you move:
- Walking puts one and a half to three times your body weight on each knee.
- Climbing stairs loads your knees with two to four times your body weight.
- Standing up from a chair can hit your knees with six or seven times your body weight.
Your knees are under real pressure, and they feel absolutely everything.
When you lose even one pound of body weight, your knees can feel three to four pounds less pressure with every single step. That is a measurable change. That is not wishful thinking. It’s physics.
No wonder my knees notice first.
This means something powerful. You do not need a dramatic transformation before your body starts feeling better. You do not need to lose 50 pounds, or even 20 pounds, for your knees to celebrate. They respond early. They respond fast. And they respond to small wins.
The next time you stand up and realize you did not groan, that counts! The next time you walk to the next room without thinking twice, that counts. The moment you decide to put something away instead of leaving it out, that counts, too. These tiny moments are not accidents. They’re your body whispering that something is working.
If you have a lot to lose, it is easy to overlook these early whispers. It is easy to think they do not matter because the scale is slow or stubborn. But progress is not only measured in pounds, it is measured in comfort, in ease, in willingness, and in movement.
Listen to your knees. They know before the scale does. And when they say things are getting lighter, believe them.