Embarrassing But Please Explain

springlering62

I am so embarrassed to ask this. So please don’t laugh.

Started at 216 in September, lost 40, haven’t weighed myself in a couple of weeks because I was obsessing but can tell I’ve lost a fair amount more. I’ve done flow yoga for years, as well as a lot of walking, so I was already on the high end of the muscle range when I started to lose weight. I noticed some jiggle, have read enough here to understand that it’s because the skin is looser and doesn’t squeeze the fat like a sausage anymore.

Went to pilates this morning and kept thinking my mat was folded or wrinkled or that I was rolling on equipment, My butt and back were suctioned to the mat and making sucking sounds during roll ups, too, which was new.

I finally realized that in the course of what seemed like minutes, my backside and butt seem to have liquified, and I was rolling over my own self, like a water balloon. WTF? Is this normal? Should I have expected it? Does it go away? It’s not loss of muscle, I’m certain of that.

I am just totally wierded out. It’s like someone flipped a switch on my *kitten*.

apullum

Some people who are losing weight experience “whooshes” when they lose a relatively larger amount of weight all at once—think a pound or two after not losing much for a few weeks. They sometimes feel like the fat seems squishier before a whoosh. There are other discussions around here on this idea, but it could be what you’re experiencing.

springlering62

Thank you. That’s a positive so I’ll go with that. For a moment there I had this really funny experience of pulling my belly button to my spine and wondering if it had fallen through to the other side!

quiksylver296

When I'm sweaty and my shirt rides up, my lower back will suction to my yoga mat and make that sound. It's literally creating a suction and then I'm breaking it by moving. No big. Don't sweat it.

AnnPT77

Even apart from the pre-whoosh water effects, it's pretty common for one's overall fat mass to get squishier/softer during the weight loss process. The rolls, therefore, change.

Fat cells don't necessarily peel off the outside first, then move progressively inward. They can deplete anywhere with our fat mass, leaving it (possibly discouragingly) more droopy, floppy, or squishy for a while. Some people think this is loose skin, but it's mostly not: It's just a point in the process where there's enough squishy fat conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched out. (One analogy is the way a full water balloon is more firm, while a partly full one (no air, just water) is more squishy/jiggly and can be compressed into shapes other than round-y.)

As fat loss continues, the situation will improve. Any actual skin issues can keep improving long after that, besides.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that pressure (massage for sure, but potentially also mat work like yoga) tends to drive some retained water out of my body tissues into my bladder. Maybe some of that sort of thing could be at work in your case, too?

JeromeBarry1

The pilates maneuver you had just completed (I suppose) involved you pressing the small of your back to the mat. This forced air away. Your skin in the area formed a complete seal with the mat. When your back returned to its normal curve, the vacuum was created, the seal was broken and the sound was made. Fuggedaboutit.

springlering62

quiksylver296 wrote: »

When I'm sweaty and my shirt rides up, my lower back will suction to my yoga mat and make that sound. It's literally creating a suction and then I'm breaking it by moving. No big. Don't sweat it.

Yeah but I’ve been doing mat work for years and never had this experience, and it was at the same time I felt like I had something under my back, only to find out it was just very unexpectedly loose skin.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Even apart from the pre-whoosh water effects, it's pretty common for one's overall fat mass to get squishier/softer during the weight loss process. The rolls, therefore, change.

Fat cells don't necessarily peel off the outside first, then move progressively inward. They can deplete anywhere with our fat mass, leaving it (possibly discouragingly) more droopy, floppy, or squishy for a while. Some people think this is loose skin, but it's mostly not: It's just a point in the process where there's enough squishy fat conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched out. (One analogy is the way a full water balloon is more firm, while a partly full one (no air, just water) is more squishy/jiggly and can be compressed into shapes other than round-y.)

As fat loss continues, the situation will improve. Any actual skin issues can keep improving long after that, besides.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that pressure (massage for sure, but potentially also mat work like yoga) tends to drive some retained water out of my body tissues into my bladder. Maybe some of that sort of thing could be at work in your case, too?

Interesting. I did have a massage yesterday. I’ll just wait and see what happens. I remember crunching (“a little more, a little more”), staring at my stomach and thinking “oh cool, my stomach is way flatter than yesterday” but noticing at the same instant my quads were ginormous all of a sudden. When I got up to roll my mat, my leggings were all of a sudden wrinkled and bagging and when I came home and showered, my clothes fit different, and my *kitten* is like jello. I swear it sank ten degrees. It was just really disconcerting that it all happened like *boom*.

It was like the fat fairy waved her wand and playfully moved everything around at once. “I think I’ll screw with her head and see if she sticks with this!”

I’m scheduled for another massage next week. Hmmmmm, maybe my sweet little Chinese masseuse guy Is the fat fairy?!

AnnPT77

springlering62 wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

When I'm sweaty and my shirt rides up, my lower back will suction to my yoga mat and make that sound. It's literally creating a suction and then I'm breaking it by moving. No big. Don't sweat it.

Yeah but I’ve been doing mat work for years and never had this experience, and it was at the same time I felt like I had something under my back, only to find out it was just very unexpectedly loose skin.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Even apart from the pre-whoosh water effects, it's pretty common for one's overall fat mass to get squishier/softer during the weight loss process. The rolls, therefore, change.

Fat cells don't necessarily peel off the outside first, then move progressively inward. They can deplete anywhere with our fat mass, leaving it (possibly discouragingly) more droopy, floppy, or squishy for a while. Some people think this is loose skin, but it's mostly not: It's just a point in the process where there's enough squishy fat conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched out. (One analogy is the way a full water balloon is more firm, while a partly full one (no air, just water) is more squishy/jiggly and can be compressed into shapes other than round-y.)

As fat loss continues, the situation will improve. Any actual skin issues can keep improving long after that, besides.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that pressure (massage for sure, but potentially also mat work like yoga) tends to drive some retained water out of my body tissues into my bladder. Maybe some of that sort of thing could be at work in your case, too?

Interesting. I did have a massage yesterday. I’ll just wait and see what happens. I remember crunching (“a little more, a little more”), staring at my stomach and thinking “oh cool, my stomach is way flatter than yesterday” but noticing at the same instant my quads were ginormous all of a sudden. When I got up to roll my mat, my leggings were all of a sudden wrinkled and bagging and when I came home and showered, my clothes fit different, and my *kitten* is like jello. I swear it sank ten degrees. It was just really disconcerting that it all happened like *boom*.

It was like the fat fairy waved her wand and playfully moved everything around at once. “I think I’ll screw with her head and see if she sticks with this!”

I’m scheduled for another massage next week. Hmmmmm, maybe my sweet little Chinese masseuse guy Is the fat fairy?!

FWIW, the (perceived, but not scientifically confirmed) massage effect is very fast, for me: Heading for a restroom within a few minutes after end of massage, every time. My implication was that maybe compressing various body parts against the mat could have a similar effect. But you'd know.

elisa123gal

yes.. when your fat gets squishy you're getting ready to drop fat.. and you'll wake up one day and that area is smaller and more firm. It happened on my stomach all the time.