How do I lose a belly hang

porkbellygainer

I recently started my weight loss journey and I have a lot of belly fat how do I lose that and the hanging belly?

Thanks!

Alatariel75

Time, or surgery, sadly. For the large part, it's skin, not fat, and skin doesn't reduce with weight loss the way fat does. It will slowly tighten up over time, but the sad reality for many of us (me too!) is that we're always going to have some evidence of our former body in our skin.

There's some controversial (as in not compelling) evidence that collagen can help, and it won't hurt to try (it's good for your hair and nails!) but anything claiming to tighten that up for you is just a scam. There's big $$ to be made in making people think they can get rid of that hang!

AnnPT77

I'm confused. I'm not seeing meaningful belly hang on the left, and on the right I'm seeing a photo of someone who has fat to lose before even knowing whether there will be a hanging belly at a healthy weight, or not.

If that's you on the right, and fairly current, the advice would be too focus on losing fat at a sensibly gradual pace, and see where you end up at goal weight and beyond. For sure, my loose skin kept shrinking at least into year two at goal weight. There was significant improvement.

Until there's enough fat gone from an area so fat's not conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched, there's really no point in focusing on it. Once the fat is gone, the skin can start to shrink, and that takes time, too.

If a person has had excess fat, and loses it, there are many factors that go into whether they'll have loose skin afterward. A couple of those, genetics and age, we can't do much about.

Beyond that, skin is an organ. The things that keep other organs healthy will also tend to keep skin healthy, which means elastic and more willing to adjust. These include:

* avoiding fast loss (because it's a physical stress to lose fast),
* getting good well-rounded nutrition (macros and micros, especially but not exclusively protein),
* getting regular exercise (both cardiovascular and strength),
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

People will say all kinds of things about creams, dry-brushing, etc., but personally I'm inclined to thing those are mainly ways to pass the time while skin does pretty much what it was going to do anyway. Help a little? Maybe. Big help? I doubt it. But it can feel good to feel like we're doing *something*.

Based on posts on MFP, I think many people are more worried early in the weight loss process (or midway) about loose skin, but likely to find that the results are not as bad in the long run as they might have imagined.

There are lots of posts in this "Success Stories" part of the Community here, including from people of all ages who've lost a lot of weight, some who've decided they need surgery to remove loose skin, some who've just let time do its thing. Reading some of those might give you a more well-rounded idea of the range of possibilities. Virtually everyone looks completely normal in street clothes, and many look great even in revealing things like swimsuits.

If that's you now or recently on the right, my best advice would be to focus for now on losing weight at a sensibly moderate rate. Don't freak out if you look worse hanging-wise part way through loss because that's a common thing to happen, and a common thing people freak out about unnecessarily. Only after you've been at a healthy goal weight for a while - up to a couple of years - will you know if you're one who'd need surgery to get the look you'd like.

I wouldn't just borrow trouble from the future by worrying about that now. There will be enough challenges just in losing the weight. You can do it, but it'll take your attention and commitment to make it happen.

Best wishes!