Do I look too thin now?

candiceh3

The glare in the first photo made it hard for me to tell if you had a wedding ring on. So I kept looking, and in the second photo, there was none!

I don't think you need to lose weight, just gain confidence .

rgugs13

Thanks for all the responses and encouragement or criticism. Loose skin is exactly what my family calls it, although I'm pretty self conscious about it so I haven't shown them. I do think there is a significant amount of fat still in my abdobmen though. If I squeeze it feels more like warm play-doh than loose paper (most of the articles I've read say if you squeeze the skin and it's more than a few mm thick, there's fat there. I can still squeeze a solid 2-3 in roll of abdominal skin while standing, which isn't the case for chest, arms, or legs).

I have in fact considered the male tummy tuck surgery, but definitely wouldn't do that for another 12-18 months assuming I maintained something close to my ideal weight/bf% (which I envision as probably 180 lbs at 10%) and saw no improvements. Even then, the scars from the tummy tuck surgeries often look pretty bad, maybe even worse than the original problem in some cases. I don't scar well, another minus in the genetics department.

I'm glad to hear you're faring a little batter DopeItUp. I expect when I do begin to add muscle that I'll be lucky to get a 3:1 muscle:fat ratio in my weight gain, which is a big part of why I'm careful about how soon I end my calorie deficit and start doing that. The weight lifting routine I've been doing has just been preserving muscle (hopefully), I am only lifting about 10% more weight now than when I was at 220.

I didn't read through all the posts, so I'm sorry if this is a repeat, but you do actually need fat on your body to survive. There is fat surrounding your internal organs that is vital to life. Fat cells also secrete hormones, and there are fat soluble vitamins, also required for life. By trying to lose more weight with such a low body fat, you are causing a lot of harm to your body. If you REALLY want to get to a lower body fat percentage, you actually should GAIN WEIGHT. If you start a heavy lifting program and build a lot of muscle, you will gain weight, but have a lower body fat percentage, because you will have more muscle. Muscle also burns more calories at rest than fat, increasing your metabolism.

Also, stretched out skin will feel different than not stretched skin. That is why you can squeeze more of it on your abdomen that other places..

MinimalistShoeAddict

For more than a few weeks? Probably back in August. I had pulled my hamstring plus I had a bout of some sort of flu, so I stopped exercising and ate 2000-3000 calories per day for about 2-3 weeks. For most of this year though, I have been cutting save for a few binge/cheat days. Usually I aim for 10,500 on weekly caloric intake and 6000 for weekly cardio exercise burn, and I'm able to attain that on a weekly basis, even if certain days get out of hand.

I just noticed this part. I stand by what I wrote above, but I would like to modify my position. If you decide to keep cutting at this point, I highly suggest you reduce your caloric deficit substantially.

If I have one regret from my cut last fall it is that I lost weight too quickly and started lifting weights too late, resulting in losing more muscle mass than needed.

If I understand you correctly 10,500 - 6000 = 4,500 net intake for the week. This will surely result in significant muscle loss. Keeping a large caloric deficit is much easier when you have a lot of weight to lose. When you are closer to your goal (as you are now) that deficit should be decreased substantially in order to preserve muscle mass.

If you aim for a deficit of 250 calories a day you will lose about 1/2 pound a week and reach your 10 pound goal in about 20 weeks. There is no reason to lose weight faster than that at your current body fat percentage.

goodnamegone

You look perfect to me, I don't think you need to lose more weight. You might want to work with a trainer to FEEL more confident and not because you need to change anything. You look lean and healthy.

I don't even see anything wrong with your middle section, I think you look really good. AND I want to say how amazing you are to have lost all that weight, so so well done!

I would focus on fitness now just to feel good and keep what I have, you look wonderful, you really do.