Loose skin on my arms bringing me down

holliesterr

I lost 35lbs on my weight loss journey so far and I am 15lbs from my goal. I'm about 4'11 and I went from 170lbs to 135lbs (my current weight). It definitely takes a lot more effort to lose fat at this point. Most days I feel great and thankful of how far I've gotten, but then there are days like these, where I look at my loose skin (on my arms in particular) and feel down. I'm hoping that when I reach my goal weight, it won't bother me as much, or maybe that area won't look as bad to me.

I don't know what I'm trying to achieve with this post, maybe I just want to hear from someone else who is in the same boat as me. Either way, thanks for listening.

AnnPT77

It's pretty common to have some loose skin after weight loss, but IME it has the potential to shrink for quite some time after reaching goal weight. Mine kept shrinking well into year 2 of maintenance, and it can't really even start the shrinking process until most of the fat from an area is gone (because any significant remaining fat can conspire with gravity to keep skin stretched). So, stick with it, there's hope, if you have patience!

Beyond that, there's an issue that many women have with arms, that I want to check in with you about. (Truth in advertising: It's a pet peeve of mine. 😉)

Many women hold their arm out horizontally and see some floppiness under the upper arm. They identify this as fat or loose skin. In every case where I've discussed this with another woman in real life, they have been misidentifying some of their nice, useful upper arm muscles as loose skin. (I'm not saying there's zero fat or loose skin, I'm saying maybe it's not *entirely* fat or loose skin.

Here's the deal:

Everyone, even very fit people, have some underarm tissue that moves when they hold their arms straight out. Relaxed triceps do that, with gravity. Triceps are slack/mobile when relaxed, and only tighten up when they contract to do work. When you hold your arm out straight, they're relaxed.

Hold your arm out horizontally, relaxed, then grab a handful of the hang-y bit with the opposite hand, grabbing up as close as you can get to the upper arm bone with your fingertips. Hold on.

Next, while continuing to hold on with the opposite hand, take the extended arm and flex it like you're a bodybuilder. Get the upper arm and elbow at an angle above your shoulder, curl the lower part of the arm down toward your shoulder, curl the wrist downward/inward, and just generally work as hard as you can by positioning and intention to tighten up every bit of your arm that you can, especially that upper arm. (Basically, it's the position in my profile photo, but with the elbow up so the upper arm is raised maybe a 45-degree angle above horizontal, more wrist curl, and more tightened. In my photo, the triceps muscles aren't really engaged.)

Anything that you have grabbed with the opposite hand, that you feel tighten up or get firmer when you do the flexing, is muscle, not fat or loose skin. It's just that when that muscle is relaxed, especially with the arm outstretched, gravity makes it hang a bit. (If it didn't, how would it contract to do work?) Any large/long muscle in your body can act like this, such as hamstrings in the back of the upper legs. The triceps just happen to be located in an area where its easy to see them and obsess about it. Sometimes women misidentify some hamstrings as fat, too - in the seated, relaxed position, part of the upper thigh that squishes out horizontally is just relaxed hamstrings. If one raises the leg while lying down, but keeping the hamstrings relaxed, they'll wobble, too.)

Even quite fit women (and men) can typically make the upper arm area wobble, if they hold it in the right position with triceps relaxed.

So, check it out, see if some of what you have is actually relaxed muscle. 🙂

Congratulations on your amazing success so far, and stick with it: You'll see further improvements, including - very likely - improvements in loose skin after some time in maintenance.

Best wishes!

Lietchi

I get moments where I look at myself and think 'ugh'. I particularly remember a recent moment where I was bending over forwards to grab a shirt to put on and I caught a glimpse of my stomach from a perspective I hadn't seen before, wrinkly misshapen rolls drooping downwards. Not how I imagined I'd look at 38 😬

But to offset that feeling of horror 🤪 I feel proud of the weight loss I've accomplished so far - 60lbs down and probably 5 or 10lbs left to go. And while I don't particularly like how I look naked at the moment (some parts), I feel 300% better about how I look dressed! I also feel 300% more fit than I was. And as for the loose skin, I'm hoping lowering my bodyfat will 'empty' those loose rolls of skin, and strength training will help firm up some areas, along with time.

88olds

Try to accept that goal weight is not going to result in perfection. Something I read in a different context when I started weight loss has stuck with me- perfect is the enemy of the good. Something we all have in common is that we think that somehow weight loss is going to make our lives better.

And each have individual ideas about what a better life will be. But better is not going to be perfect. It’s just not the nature of the universe.

Personally I got into dressing up. No kidding. I went from dressing like an unmade bed to one of the best dressed guys where I worked. My imperfections remained hidden. It was fun.