Skin

jsiricos

Pesky flabby stuff, how does anyone deal with it, besides a knife and a surgeon?

jsiricos

Um.. I meant on humans...

Beaudom91

I dunno, mine is from pregnancy, two 10 pound babies plus dangerously excessive amniotic fluid. At the moment I just hide it with clothes. I've heard it takes a couple years after weighrloss for skin to snap back as much as it's going to

TavistockToad

jsiricos wrote: »

Pesky flabby stuff, how does anyone deal with it, besides a knife and a surgeon?

If it's flabby it's not just skin...

richardgavel

One reason I like DEXA scans, because they will tell you have much fat you have in specific areas of your body.

ClockWorKitten

I am actually worried about excess skin after I lose weight or am I just being paranoid?

AnnPT77

Until you've reached goal weight, or close to it, it's hard to assess. Most of us don't lose the outermost fat cells first, then the next layer. Instead, fat cells deplete anywhere in the fat mass.

So, fat areas may start out with firm-ish fat, and get progressively squishier or floppier as we lose weight until the fat cells are depleted enough that they stop conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched out. Once that happens, the skin can start really shrinking . . . but it's slow.

Actual loose skin is thin wrinkles, like you can pinch up on a body part that's bony, like kneecap, elbow, or back of hand. Thicker wrinkles/folds/rolls still have some subcutaneous fat. Until you reach close to goal, you don't know how much remaining fat vs. loose skin you have.

How fast our true loose skin will shrink, and how much, is a function of age, genetics, and maybe some other general health factors. Any magic techniques or products that are supposed to help are pretty much pure woo.

For me, after I reached goal weight at age 60 (after losing about 1/3 of my bodyweight), my actual loose skin - the thin wrinkles - kept shrinking at least into my 2nd year of maintenance. The areas that were still a little flabby, or where I keep gaining and losing that last few pounds seasonally, extra skin is still hanging around.

Net result isn't bad, and I know I could get better results now via weight training to add muscle and further reduce fat at goal weight (a.k.a. recomposition) . . . but I'm lazy.

corinasue1143

Thank you Ann, for the info. Lots of us needed to know this.

azironasun

ClockWorKitten wrote: »

I am actually worried about excess skin after I lose weight or am I just being paranoid?

Lose the weight first. Second, tone up your body with exercise. Third, if excess skin is an issue, deal with it it after one and two.