Dents in sides

melissamcgonigle

Hi everyone, this is a strange question but does anyone know why I've started developing dips in my sides and what it means? Am I loosing fat,gaining it? I'm very confused, I don't know if they are a good sign or bad. I've tried Google but I don't think I'm wording it properly for it to give me an answer.

sollyn23l2

If it's on your hips, it's called a hip dip. Very common for women, it's just how a lot of our bodies are structured.

SilverSage1

I now have dips in my sides. They are my waist. 🤣

Where exactly are your dips? If it’s further down, where the leg band of your panties is, it’s referred to as hip dip. Many years ago we used to call it saddlebags. They will slowly disappear, but probably be the last thing to go. You have to get to the lower end of your healthy BMI before they vanish.

Unfortunately, we can’t choose where we lose our weight.

AnnPT77

SilverSage1 wrote: »

I now have dips in my sides. They are my waist. 🤣

Where exactly are your dips? If it’s further down, where the leg band of your panties is, it’s referred to as hip dip. Many years ago we used to call it saddlebags. They will slowly disappear, but probably be the last thing to go. You have to get to the lower end of your healthy BMI before they vanish.

Unfortunately, we can’t choose where we lose our weight.

I think saddlebags and hip dips are two different terms created so that women can focus on hating different aspects of their bodies.

Saddlebags are fat (and possibly some lean tissue) on the outside of the thighs, at least as we used the term when I was a youth. As you say, they tend to be just below the lower panty line (regular cut leg, not high cut). They're an "out-dent", sort of, but can create a perceived indent just above them, by contrast.

IMU, hip dips are about how the pelvic bones sit on a particular person with respect to the femur. (The science-y name for them is something like "trochanteric depressions".) There are some muscle insertion points there that can vary a bit between individuals, too. There can be an indent there, with particular configurations of the bone/muscle, and there's a genetic component to how pronounced/visible they are. They may or may not decrease with weight loss, or with muscle gain. On most people, that dip would tend to fall around the upper panty line of bikini/low-waist panties.

OP, if you're losing weight gradually over a period of time, and your tape measurements at various points on your body are decreasing over time, you're losing fat. (If both are increasing, you're gaining something . . . probably fat, since muscle gain is slow.)

While losing weight, some strange or surprising things happen along the way. It can be indentations, knobby bits, squishy kind of pocket-y areas, all kinds of things. Some of these "features" appear then disappear, some stick around, some look wildly different later when the tissues around them also change.

I'd encourage you not to worry, generally**, but to keep going until you get to goal weight, and see how things look then. It's pretty common to look a little worrisome part way to goal, then things firm up as goal approaches. It's also quite common to see further improvements after reaching goal weight and staying there a while, as things tighten up and reconfigure a bit. Bodies are weird!

** Of course you should see your doctor if there's anything truly alarming, that you think might possibly be a herniation or tumor or something, but those would be really unusual!

I definitely looked worse part way to goal than at goal, and worse at goal than after being in maintenance for a few months. Now, I don't think I look dramatically different from many women my age who've always been at the weight I am now. Things were a little weird along the way sometimes, though!

There will also just be some bones and things that become a little visible, that we're not used to seeing on ourselves, but that are visible on anyone around the same weight. The xiphoid process (sort of a bump at the bottom of the breast-bone, between the lowest ribs) really freaked me out when it first became visible! 😆

age_is_just_a_number

Hip dips are normal. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/hip-dips-exercises

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/strength-training/a26141012/hip-dips/

https://images.app.goo.gl/gh7BnVB6R8A748VG8

Xellercin

AnnPT77 wrote: »

SilverSage1 wrote: »

I now have dips in my sides. They are my waist. 🤣

Where exactly are your dips? If it’s further down, where the leg band of your panties is, it’s referred to as hip dip. Many years ago we used to call it saddlebags. They will slowly disappear, but probably be the last thing to go. You have to get to the lower end of your healthy BMI before they vanish.

Unfortunately, we can’t choose where we lose our weight.

I think saddlebags and hip dips are two different terms created so that women can focus on hating different aspects of their bodies.

Saddlebags are fat (and possibly some lean tissue) on the outside of the thighs, at least as we used the term when I was a youth. As you say, they tend to be just below the lower panty line (regular cut leg, not high cut). They're an "out-dent", sort of, but can create a perceived indent just above them, by contrast.

IMU, hip dips are about how the pelvic bones sit on a particular person with respect to the femur. (The science-y name for them is something like "trochanteric depressions".) There are some muscle insertion points there that can vary a bit between individuals, too. There can be an indent there, with particular configurations of the bone/muscle, and there's a genetic component to how pronounced/visible they are. They may or may not decrease with weight loss, or with muscle gain. On most people, that dip would tend to fall around the upper panty line of bikini/low-waist panties.

OP, if you're losing weight gradually over a period of time, and your tape measurements at various points on your body are decreasing over time, you're losing fat. (If both are increasing, you're gaining something . . . probably fat, since muscle gain is slow.)

While losing weight, some strange or surprising things happen along the way. It can be indentations, knobby bits, squishy kind of pocket-y areas, all kinds of things. Some of these "features" appear then disappear, some stick around, some look wildly different later when the tissues around them also change.

I'd encourage you not to worry, generally**, but to keep going until you get to goal weight, and see how things look then. It's pretty common to look a little worrisome part way to goal, then things firm up as goal approaches. It's also quite common to see further improvements after reaching goal weight and staying there a while, as things tighten up and reconfigure a bit. Bodies are weird!

** Of course you should see your doctor if there's anything truly alarming, that you think might possibly be a herniation or tumor or something, but those would be really unusual!

I definitely looked worse part way to goal than at goal, and worse at goal than after being in maintenance for a few months. Now, I don't think I look dramatically different from many women my age who've always been at the weight I am now. Things were a little weird along the way sometimes, though!

There will also just be some bones and things that become a little visible, that we're not used to seeing on ourselves, but that are visible on anyone around the same weight. The xiphoid process (sort of a bump at the bottom of the breast-bone, between the lowest ribs) really freaked me out when it first became visible! 😆

I couldn't believe when I started seeing "hip dips" described as some kind of flaw. Like, frig, they'll really come up with anything to make us feel bad about, won't they??

What's next, elbow dents? Knee-cap curve? Forearm tendon outlines?? Vein orientation? What are we supposed to hate about our perfectly normal bodies tomorrow?

Like you, the journey from lean to obese and back was not some straight, continuous line from pretty to ugly and back. My body at different BMIs while gaining was quite different from my body at those same BMIs while losing. Different fat deposits, different textures, different affects of aging and gravity.

Some stages and changes I enjoyed, some not so much, but I try to focus on the positives of each size that I've been and love my past bodies no matter what size or shape, and no matter what knobbly bony bits, or jiggly fatty bits, or saggy loose bits showed up along the way.

claireychn074

Xellercin wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

SilverSage1 wrote: »

I now have dips in my sides. They are my waist. 🤣

Where exactly are your dips? If it’s further down, where the leg band of your panties is, it’s referred to as hip dip. Many years ago we used to call it saddlebags. They will slowly disappear, but probably be the last thing to go. You have to get to the lower end of your healthy BMI before they vanish.

Unfortunately, we can’t choose where we lose our weight.

I think saddlebags and hip dips are two different terms created so that women can focus on hating different aspects of their bodies.

Saddlebags are fat (and possibly some lean tissue) on the outside of the thighs, at least as we used the term when I was a youth. As you say, they tend to be just below the lower panty line (regular cut leg, not high cut). They're an "out-dent", sort of, but can create a perceived indent just above them, by contrast.

IMU, hip dips are about how the pelvic bones sit on a particular person with respect to the femur. (The science-y name for them is something like "trochanteric depressions".) There are some muscle insertion points there that can vary a bit between individuals, too. There can be an indent there, with particular configurations of the bone/muscle, and there's a genetic component to how pronounced/visible they are. They may or may not decrease with weight loss, or with muscle gain. On most people, that dip would tend to fall around the upper panty line of bikini/low-waist panties.

OP, if you're losing weight gradually over a period of time, and your tape measurements at various points on your body are decreasing over time, you're losing fat. (If both are increasing, you're gaining something . . . probably fat, since muscle gain is slow.)

While losing weight, some strange or surprising things happen along the way. It can be indentations, knobby bits, squishy kind of pocket-y areas, all kinds of things. Some of these "features" appear then disappear, some stick around, some look wildly different later when the tissues around them also change.

I'd encourage you not to worry, generally**, but to keep going until you get to goal weight, and see how things look then. It's pretty common to look a little worrisome part way to goal, then things firm up as goal approaches. It's also quite common to see further improvements after reaching goal weight and staying there a while, as things tighten up and reconfigure a bit. Bodies are weird!

** Of course you should see your doctor if there's anything truly alarming, that you think might possibly be a herniation or tumor or something, but those would be really unusual!

I definitely looked worse part way to goal than at goal, and worse at goal than after being in maintenance for a few months. Now, I don't think I look dramatically different from many women my age who've always been at the weight I am now. Things were a little weird along the way sometimes, though!

There will also just be some bones and things that become a little visible, that we're not used to seeing on ourselves, but that are visible on anyone around the same weight. The xiphoid process (sort of a bump at the bottom of the breast-bone, between the lowest ribs) really freaked me out when it first became visible! 😆

I couldn't believe when I started seeing "hip dips" described as some kind of flaw. Like, frig, they'll really come up with anything to make us feel bad about, won't they??

What's next, elbow dents? Knee-cap curve? Forearm tendon outlines?? Vein orientation? What are we supposed to hate about our perfectly normal bodies tomorrow?

Like you, the journey from lean to obese and back was not some straight, continuous line from pretty to ugly and back. My body at different BMIs while gaining was quite different from my body at those same BMIs while losing. Different fat deposits, different textures, different affects of aging and gravity.

Some stages and changes I enjoyed, some not so much, but I try to focus on the positives of each size that I've been and love my past bodies no matter what size or shape, and no matter what knobbly bony bits, or jiggly fatty bits, or saggy loose bits showed up along the way.

It’s armpits - that’s the next “flaw”. Apparently they should be completely smooth, moisturised and not even slightly different coloured to your skin above and below. Can’t remember which company it was but I saw an ad for an armpit-specific moisturiser which clearly indicated that you needed beautiful pits for the summer. I thought WTF?!