loose skin abd bf%

does loose skin affect bf% reading? about 6lbs ago i had a 7site skinfold test and came up at 20.8% body fat. now, im not one to brag, BUT...my body is pretty damn solid....except my poochy mommy tummy. i swear if i got rid of that friggin skin i'd be seeing the outline of some abs the fat in that skin is very loose and everythings all stretchy and pliable(tmi, i know). when i look at the #s over my entire body (in mm) the bulk of that body fat % is comming from my belly.
does the skin count against me?

The only thing that gives you muscle definition is losing fat and lifting weights.. heavy lifting will give you abs, but you don't want to always lift heavy. I did for over 30 years and it did not do as much for my definition as changing it up (but it did give me a good muscle base). Ever since I changed it up last year and learned to eat at the correct calorie deficit for myself to lose the fat my muscle definition finally showed. I am 52 and I have a lot of loose skin, it's just the way it is and I'm not going for surgery at this stage in my life. Some of the loose skin will adjust over time, especially if you are younger. My life is half over and I'm not going to waste my precious time left getting surgery and recovering and limiting my ability for awesome workouts while I recover.

Lifting weights is KEY. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am.

Start lifting now, lift heavy and change it up often, find a lot of weight routines with free weights, make it fun, embrace it, make it part of your life. Only 3 days a week is all it would take. Crank up your tunes and learn to love it, because your body will love it and it will make your quality of life better in many ways, especially when you get older like me.

Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

If you are a girl you don't have the hormones to get big naturally. I lift heavy and I'm still really tiny. My lean body mass is only 104 lbs and that is fairly heavy for a 5'1" female, and quite a bit of this is due to my having very dense bones from 30 years of lifting, not all muscle, and I'm still quite tiny.

My muscles really are not that big, but they show a lot of definition because I'm quite lean. If I gained some fat then I would have a softer more toned look (which is OKAY too!). Then if I gained more fat I would look bulking and hefty like I did most of my life until last year. YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU WANT. Lean and ripped, soft and toned, or hefty, it all depends on how much fat you leave on your body. Calories are the only thing that changes fat. Exercise is for changing or maintaining your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the best bang for your buck for shaping your body. I finally changed my shape by putting lifting first and cardio 2nd. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

I now put weight lifting first and cardio second, but I still do cardio (mainly running). I change up everything all the time. My running is sometimes long easy runs, sometimes HIIT, sometimes shorter medium pace runs. My weight routine changes each day, each week, light circuits, heavy low rep sets, pyramids, a little bit of splits, constantly changing it up. I mostly do a lot of full body workouts with a lot of leg work. In addition to DL's and Squats I do Bulgarian Split Squats, Lunges, Reverse lunges, Curtsey lunges, Step Ups, Crossover Bench Step Ups, and a Lunge Matrix. And then I constantly change up the routine with Circuits, Intermittent Super Sets, Fibonacci Pyramids, X-sets, Progress Venus Pyramids, and some splits, everything a variety of Strength, Hypertrophy, and Endurance.

I hope this helps!! -Bobbie

Hi
Firstly congrats on your great results!
In regards to the loose skin, it will not affect your bf%. I have had two children 9&2 and just recently competed in a body building competition (2 weeks ago), where I got down to 7.5% bf for the contest. I had weekly check in's and while my 'pouch' did significantly improve over the last 4 months while I was 'cutting', it did not go away completely and getting down to 7.5% meant I only had 'essential' body fats (and not enough of them to boot!!) - I could still grab a good chunk of 'skin' between thumb and finger and stretch it quite a bit!!. Keep eating well and exercising and the skin will eventually be absorbed by the body - it may never go away 100% but it will get better. Good work!