Excess skin...help!

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JennyWestveer
JennyWestveer Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ladies, you know what I mean.....losing weight postpartum and you have that "flat tire" on your lower abdomen. I've lost 15lbs so far, and I've been noticing the start of a little bit of sag. My goal is 45lbs more.

What can I do/use to reduce the skin!!!???

HELP!
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Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Youth and time are on your side. The skin will do what it's gonna do. It will shrink some on it's own.
  • jesikalovesyou
    jesikalovesyou Posts: 172 Member
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    I'm getting it removed when I lose the last weight. I've had it for 10 years or more through weightloss, gain, kids, gain, loss again. I don't think there's anything to do other than cutting it off for me.

    Hopefully you find something that works!
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    Yeah I'm 46 years old and will have lost 130 pounds by the time all is said and done. So i'm thinking I would have to cut it off if it bothered me that much. I doubt if I will. I'm not going to any bikini contests in my near future.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    Youth and time are on your side. The skin will do what it's gonna do. It will shrink some on it's own.

    For some reason I read this and immediately started singing Hazy Shade of the Winter by The Bangles (time, time, time, see what's become of me...)

    Anyway, depending on how long you were overweight, how overweight you were, age, and genetics, you may or may not shrink down a lot or a little. Check out this thread. A few of the ladies on it showed pictures of their post-weight loss stomachs.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10269601/saggy-skin-or-just-fat-i-need-input-please/p1
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    If your, "excess skin," is thinker than a pinch of the skin from the back of your hand, then it's still fat and you still have a chance to lose it.
  • The_Invisible_Boy
    The_Invisible_Boy Posts: 568 Member
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    I can't speak for postpartum since I'm a guy, but from everything I've read about it over the last few years is that most people just simply don't lose enough. Most of the time it's subcutaneous fat adhered to the skin and not loose skin. If you don't get rid of that layer under the skin it has zero reason to shrink back. Skin is paper thin. I looked at those pictures in that thread posted above and that's subcutaneous fat. From what I gathered men need to get down to around 10% and women 15% to burn the trouble areas off. What I don't know is if you don't want to keep your BF % that low is what happens when you go back up a little. If it will even out or hit the trouble spots again. I've read it can take several years for the skin to adapt.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    The_Invisible_Boy wrote: »
    I can't speak for postpartum since I'm a guy, but from everything I've read about it over the last few years is that most people just simply don't lose enough. Most of the time it's subcutaneous fat adhered to the skin and not loose skin. If you don't get rid of that layer under the skin it has zero reason to shrink back. Skin is paper thin. I looked at those pictures in that thread posted above and that's subcutaneous fat. From what I gathered men need to get down to around 10% and women 15% to burn the trouble areas off. What I don't know is if you don't want to keep your BF % that low is what happens when you go back up a little. If it will even out or hit the trouble spots again. I've read it can take several years for the skin to adapt.

    Yeah, I think that a lot of people don't get down low enough. I can't find it now but, several months ago, I read over a site that was authored by a guy who lost a bunch of weight, had excess skin removed, and then lost additional weight. His general thought was that he should not have had the skin surgery at the point that he did because he was not yet at the point where his body fat was low enough.

    When you think about it, it makes sense that it takes a low body fat level for the skin to shrink back. When the skin is stretched, there's more surface area for the fat to adhere to than there is for people whose skin is not as stretched. (I'm trying to describe this with words instead of just waving my arms all around to demonstrate and it is hard so bear with me.) If you just have a slight paunch and then lose the equivalent of four sticks of butter (a pound) from that area, your stomach will seem to shrink back more than if those four sticks of butter were smeared over a larger surface area, which still has fat adhered to it.
  • ohmscheeks
    ohmscheeks Posts: 840 Member
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    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    If your, "excess skin," is thinker than a pinch of the skin from the back of your hand, then it's still fat and you still have a chance to lose it.
    Hmm... I've never read this rule and I like it. ^-^

  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
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    The_Invisible_Boy wrote: »
    I can't speak for postpartum since I'm a guy, but from everything I've read about it over the last few years is that most people just simply don't lose enough. Most of the time it's subcutaneous fat adhered to the skin and not loose skin. If you don't get rid of that layer under the skin it has zero reason to shrink back. Skin is paper thin. I looked at those pictures in that thread posted above and that's subcutaneous fat. From what I gathered men need to get down to around 10% and women 15% to burn the trouble areas off. What I don't know is if you don't want to keep your BF % that low is what happens when you go back up a little. If it will even out or hit the trouble spots again. I've read it can take several years for the skin to adapt.

    Speaking for myself as a guy, yes it is fat.

    After losing 90lbs to get down to 15% BF I had exactly what the OP is calling a "flat tire" or excess skin, other call it skinny fat.
    Even though I was at my goal weight I didn't like the look so I went down to 10% Bf and went from having a "flat tire" look around my belly to a ripped 6 pack. Went back to 15%bf and look great. Obviously the abs are covered in fat again but it isn't hanging there like a flat tire. My experience is as I put the weight back on it was evenly distributed.

    I'll add that during my whole journey from 280 down to 177 the period from about 200 to 185 was so disheartening. The more I lost the worse I looked as the flappy "excessive skin" just got worse, I had to just forge ahead on faith that it was going to resolve itself because I couldn't really find much on the net that addressed what I was facing.
  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
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    Fwiw...... Not saying people who lose a lot of body fat don't or can't end up with excessive skin but in all my searching for answers and the pics I have seen it seems the vast majority of time it is fat.

    Another theory I developed along the way pertains to the 2 year number people give. Perhaps as a alternative to getting down to a low BF% and then going back to a more realistic BF% to recompose my BF distribution from flat tire to evenly spread out, maybe it takes 2 years for your body to redistribute it on its own without having to lose it ? I do not know .... I don't think anybody really knows and if they do the answers are not easy to find
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    You're young. It might bounce back.

    I have skin hanging everywhere. Butt, belly upper AND lower arms and legs - everywhere. And I'm not even done losing. And I'm older, so bounce-back is unlikely.

    I'm trying to learn to live with it (but it's gross!)
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    Put it to use. A few bull dog clips and you have a pouch for storing keys, phone etc that's my plan anyway. Perfect for travelling over seas to protect from pick pockets. :smiley:

    My understand the only thing that might help is lifting weights. But I think for the most part skin will do what it wants.

    But also I hear that what people call lose skin can also be just more fat, saggy fat but still fat.

    But I don't know, weight loss is already filled with lies, half truths and magic, lose skin seems to be just as bad, can't tell what's truth and what's lies to sell a product.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    I don't actually believe that lifting weights helps loose skin bounce back. I think it can help fill it out but only slightly. My suspicion is that lifting weights gives people something to obsess over instead of obsessing over when/if their skin will shrink. It's a healthy distraction :smiley:
  • sistrsprkl
    sistrsprkl Posts: 1,013 Member
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    You may need to learn to accept it. I was overweight for a long time, had 2 babies close together (one 10lbs), and know I will always have a bit of excess tummy skin. I'm ok with it. Lifting is helping everything look better (almost have abs!) but I don't think anything but surgery would get rid of my extra skin. I'm also noticing that as my bf gets lower, the extra skin is looking even more pronounced. So I'm gonna embrace it!! I'd rather do that than surgery.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    If your, "excess skin," is thinker than a pinch of the skin from the back of your hand, then it's still fat and you still have a chance to lose it.

    ^^this! Skin is thin. If the sag is not thin, it is subcutaneous fat. Loose skin looks like tiny wrinkles. Excess fat is thick globs that look like...well fat. I have both and can easily tell the diff. The good news is, I'm not to my GW yet, so I know I will keep losing the fat.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Skin on the back of your hand is thinner than skin in other places. The business about how if it's thicker than that, it isn't loose skin - that's false. It isn't always wrinkly. It BEGINS that way, but as you lose more and more, it begins to hang down, especially off the butt.

    Lifting weights will NOT make your skin more elastic. If you build up your muscles and didn't have too much loose skin, the muscle may fill the space that was left when the fat disappeared.

    If you have the amount of loose skin I have, no amount of lifting is going to fill that space, lol.

    Loose skin can bring it's own physical issues. They can remove it if those issues get to be too much to deal with, but who wants to risk unnecessary surgery?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    I'm almost 54 and I don't a little saggy skin but not much. Even though I was fat for most of my life, I have exercised consistently (running, circuit training) since I was in my early 30's, and then I really got into heavy weight lifting these last few years. I believe exercise helps.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    sistrsprkl wrote: »
    You may need to learn to accept it. I was overweight for a long time, had 2 babies close together (one 10lbs), and know I will always have a bit of excess tummy skin. I'm ok with it. Lifting is helping everything look better (almost have abs!) but I don't think anything but surgery would get rid of my extra skin. I'm also noticing that as my bf gets lower, the extra skin is looking even more pronounced. So I'm gonna embrace it!! I'd rather do that than surgery.

    This is a wonderful attitude.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    Youth and time are on your side. The skin will do what it's gonna do. It will shrink some on it's own.

    This!

    Don't let the loose skin get to you or stop you from remembering your amazing progress.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Kalikel wrote: »
    Skin on the back of your hand is thinner than skin in other places. The business about how if it's thicker than that, it isn't loose skin - that's false. It isn't always wrinkly. It BEGINS that way, but as you lose more and more, it begins to hang down, especially off the butt.

    Lifting weights will NOT make your skin more elastic. If you build up your muscles and didn't have too much loose skin, the muscle may fill the space that was left when the fat disappeared.

    If you have the amount of loose skin I have, no amount of lifting is going to fill that space, lol.

    Loose skin can bring it's own physical issues. They can remove it if those issues get to be too much to deal with, but who wants to risk unnecessary surgery?

    100x this!

    OF COURSE there's still fat under belly skin! Even the leaner people will still have a bit of fat there.. it's normal. Most people don't have fat on the back of their hand, so I really have no idea why people compare both.

    And yeah, the whole 'lifting makes it go away' thing is a joke. It depends on age and genetics. There's no amount of muscle that could fill all the loose skin I have, even if I actually wanted to get that much.

    Hint - if it droops and has a lot of wrinkles, there is loose skin... fat just doesn't look like that...

    And yeah the more inches I lose (been maintaining for a year but lost a couple inches on my hips since), the worse the belly looks. Sure, there's some fat left in there, but the only way I'll lose that is if I go down to 17% body fat or something and I have no desire to do so... considering how skinny I look everywhere else... so at some point you have to be realistic and just telling people 'keep losing, it will go away' is not realistic for everyone.

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