Call for help: Excess Skin?

LoudmouthLee

Waldo,

I'm the OP, and thank you for taking the time to respond.

I do a lot of Tabata Training with weights (approximately 3x a week, targeting chest, bicep/tricep, shoulders, back and core.) I also do core exercises every day. I have seen significant change with my upper abs, as noted by the picture, but much less change from the lower abs, regardless of core based exercises I'm doing.

I've been told that it's impossible to target fat loss to specific area of the body. I have two young children, so I can't spend hours in the gym, I do a lot of cardio but I also strength train. Perhaps not enough?

waldo56

You just need to keep losing weight. Another 10-15% BF or so will do wonders.

You're right, you can't spot reduce. Working consistently > Working more. Just give it time.

About 3/4 the way toward your goal (assuming your goal is the ab zone) is about the peak of loose skin issues. Way too many people freak out about it at that point and do drastic things whereas the best course of action is stay the course and reach your goal, by the time you get there a lot of it will be cleared up.

It is usually a smaller issue for men because men tend to be much better at goal setting. Men will typically target the ab zone, a body composition goal, and press forward on to that goal. Women are much more prone to picking some seemingly random round number for weight, a "good enough" point, getting there being still fat, then blaming their remaining fatness on loose skin. Having body composition goals tends to avert this problem; men in general are much more intuitive about it (who cares what the scale says, you've got abs or you don't).

LoudmouthLee

I'm at least giving it another full year. We will see how much change I notice at that time.

Allow me to reiterate: I really don't want surgery. I just want it to get better. It looks worse (as you correctly noted), and although I look better in clothing, I feel I look blah naked. Disproportionate.

Maybe some therapy will help as well. I don't remember looking this good, and being so unstable, mentally. :P

april1445

insurance will cover it? To me that's a no-brainer. Get it done. The recovery will suck, but you'll never regret it. I honestly view my loose skin as a...well....it's not part of me any more. It's from someone I used to be. I don't think I should be punished forever for old choices. That's my view.

waldo56

Think about this little thought experiment for a moment.

What's between you skin and your muscles/bones/organs?

Fat.

and.....

Nothing. There isn't air under there. You aren't a big aquarium. Aside from the fat , the space between your skin and your muscles/bones/organs is a vaccuum.

When you see someone with sharp abs and details in all their mucles, that doesn't happen because their skin is so tight it shrink wraps them. Your skin is not full body compression gear. It happens because your body is vaccuum sealed by your skin. Get rid of the fat and your skin has to have the vaccuum sealed look.

And this is true even with loose skin. Someone that has real loose skin issues will still looked vaccuum sealed by their skin. Like anything vaccuum sealed (which usually uses a fairly inelastic wrapper), there will be tabs and flaps around the edges; the wrapper vaccuum sealing itself. But there are very few pictures of this. Why? Virtually everybody with "loose skin" that reaches that point magically no longer has loose skin.

Most people at a low BF that have that vaccuum sealed look, actually have fairly loose skin that can be pulled away a fair bit. But it doesn't look like that, the skins elasticity hides it well.

Edit - Purely anecdotally, a little bit of sun seems to help things a bit. I'm not talking about tanning to leather skin levels, but a little bit of sun, hour or so a week, does seem beneficial. Like most things, just right exists somewhere between too little and too much.

SanteMulberry

Think about this little thought experiment for a moment.

What's between you skin and your muscles/bones/organs?

Fat.

and.....

Nothing. There isn't air under there. You aren't a big aquarium. Aside from the fat , the space between your skin and your muscles/bones/organs is a vaccuum.

When you see someone with sharp abs and details in all their mucles, that doesn't happen because their skin is so tight it shrink wraps them. Your skin is not full body compression gear. It happens because your body is vaccuum sealed by your skin. Get rid of the fat and your skin has to have the vaccuum sealed look.

And this is true even with loose skin. Someone that has real loose skin issues will still looked vaccuum sealed by their skin. Like anything vaccuum sealed (which usually uses a fairly inelastic wrapper), there will be tabs and flaps around the edges; the wrapper vaccuum sealing itself. But there are very few pictures of this. Why? Virtually everybody with "loose skin" that reaches that point magically no longer has loose skin.

Most people at a low BF that have that vaccuum sealed look, actually have fairly loose skin that can be pulled away a fair bit. But it doesn't look like that, the skins elasticity hides it well.

Edit - Purely anecdotally, a little bit of sun seems to help things a bit. I'm not talking about tanning to leather skin levels, but a little bit of sun, hour or so a week, does seem beneficial. Like most things, just right exists somewhere between too little and too much.

Very interesting, Waldo. Since this seems to be a common problem here, it would be great if you would post a thread on it. Thanks for your input on the issue. :flowerforyou:

Would you think that one of the problems in losing too fast is that the rigors of the diet might mean that one is probably missing nutrients that would benefit the skin in its "shrinkability"? I have lost a fair bit and so far, don't seem to have much of an issue with loose skin--especially since I took up weight training a few months ago. But I lost the body fat over a fairly lengthy period (about three years) and I have made a real point to eat whole, nourishing foods. I have gone from approximately 50% body fat to about 27-28% at the moment. I think you are right about "residual fat" as those who get their body fat down (like anorexics) look like their skin is tightly stretched over their "sub-structure".

waldo56

I don't know that type of food plays a role. Doubtful.

More likely an anabolic/catabolic thing. Same reason you can only build muscle in a surplus. Your body shuts off some inessential functions when in a calorie deficit. Muscle building is one of them. Likely something to do with the skin is too. Enter a surplus with strength training, your growth hormones surge, your body turns on all those other functions and good things happen, one of which unfortunately is storing fat (remember to your body, fat = good).

When cutting your skin has a softness that it doesn't have at other times. It goes in waves, between soft and firmer when cutting, the frequency decreasing as you get leaner. Going from obese to not obese has a huge soft-firm wave that you likely are out ahead of, whereas once in the ab zone the soft-firm waves might only last a day or two. Raise to maintenance and it stops, the skin firms up fast. The softening of the skin is in fact one of the first physical clues that you are in a calorie deficit, signs of it appear within a couple days of starting to cut.

While it may "look" like skin is tightly stretched, that is not the case at all. In reality it is vaccuum sealing, not tight stretching. Loose skin will absolutely not prevent you from having shrinkwrapped looking abs or other sharp defined details.

GlassslippersAndFairyDust

bump to read later

Yellerie

I don't know if this will help you as a guy but alot of women use belly binders like the squeem one after pregnancy or alot of weight loss they say the have to be worn pretty much all day for a few months but that it does help however this being said it is in conjunction with exercise. They are pretty expensive but before going the surgery route I would give it a try.