I think most people tend to feel results long before they really jump out at your eyeballs. The reason is that starting out, you're building up your muscle mass and ramping up your metabolism. Yeah, you'll be burning some fat at the same time, but what often happens is the combination of more muscle (which is under the fat) combined with some fat loss result in a net effect of not looking much different.
Eventually you'll reach a tipping point though where the combination of increased muscle mass and revved up metabolism will turn you into a fat burning machine, and in the end those all-too-visible soft spots will simply melt off.
In theory anyways
