Anyone notice stretch marks as they're LOSING weight? Or other bizarre new changes.

vegaslounge

So I've lost ~50lbs in the last year/18 months, and a lot of it has been "sudden", as in I lost a bit of weight in drips and drabs over the years but really dedicated myself in 2017 (365 day logging streak as of today!) and lost the majority relatively recently. While I'm thrilled with my results, I was pretty astonished to see a couple of stretch marks on my pelvic/stomach area yesterday. And these are OLD marks...I noticed them because they glittered like Edward Cullen in sunlight as I was posing in front of a mirror (come on, we've all done it). They're scars, white and fully healed, not anything new.

Weird thing is, I never before noticed them before the other day. I know they're from weight (I've never been pregnant) but I guess the "folds" covered them up. That area– right above my Iliac crest– has been baggy for most of my life...my hips/lower abdomen has always been a stubborn spot on me and now that the skin has shrunk down I can apparently see the damage I did to myself over the years.

I don't feel self-conscious or anything– they're actually pretty cool, they look kinda like an iridescent claw mark– but it was startling to "discover" them. It's just bizarre to me that I know I must have had them for over a decade and never noticed because I was too lumpy for them to be noticeable. I'm discovering all sorts of things about my body and it's just so strange to learn new things about the "home" I've been inhabiting for over 30 years.

~VL

Phaewryn

Hey, congratulations, that's an impressive weight loss! They become more noticeable as the skin gets looser and they are less stretched. They start off very light and iridescent, then get darker and more pink as they have less pressure on them. I think it's because they actually have less pigment (and the skin is thinner), so whatever's underneath shows through them more? I have a ton of them. Feel free to check out my pics of what mine look like after losing about 15 inches off the waist (your results may vary, but my skin was not the elastic type). I find the color is less weird than the fact that I can see the height difference between where the mark is (they are lower) than the undamaged skin next to it. The most disgusting and bothersome thing I have found that happens to me when I lose "enough" weight in the belly is I get a recurring sore inside my belly button because the loose skin hangs down and it closes, so I think maybe I'm getting "grit" or something in there rubbing a sore, and because I can't see in it (or let's be honest, wash in there) without some serious "pick up and pull back and twist and crane the neck" action, I often don't notice it until it gets bad, then I put effort into cleaning it and putting ointment in there, and it heals, then it comes back again.

I'm hoping to someday be able to afford surgery to remove that extra skin because it's a pain in the you-know-what (and I'll be honest, it looks awful to me).