The problem that concerns me is is when you have been fat for too long when you are half way there you tend to think you are further then you really are
Take a fat girls who weighs 250lb, when she gets to 180, she thinks she is king shit and starts going out skimpy and spandex despite have cellulite still but that is what the brain does, when it is so far out it thinks the improvement is good enough
So cswole might have obliques showing and abs and a horse shoe but that is no where near contest condition, he needs to get rid of the scale or he will fail.
No and's, if's, or but's, as long as he keeps stepping on that scale he failed already.