Will I have loose skin with a loss rate of 2 lbs per week?

What's your goal weight?


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Possibly. It's not the RATE of loss that usually determines loose skin, but how much weight you have to lose overall. My experience with clientele is that 80+lbs of weight loss will usually result in some loose skin. Other considerations are genetics and age.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I know there are some great long threads floating around on loose skin if you poke around a bit. Ultimately, it’s something you can never 100% control, so you really just have to accept the possibility and remember that even with loose skin, you will be in a much healthier place.

At 165 with a goal of 135, should I have lose skin when I get to goal?

Weight training won't help with loose skin. People always say that but really, unless you're building a LOT of muscle to replace the fat (which you won't do at a deficit, and won't happen in the belly area anyway), it will not do a thing to help with loose skin (the only place it can help is probably arms and legs if you're a man and planning to bulk up down the line, but that won't happen during weight loss).

As people said, it depends on genetics, how long you were overweight etc. Skin takes 2 years to bounce off (when it does. Still waiting for mine to do so after 3 years), so losing faster or not will have no impact on it anyway...

Weight loss has a good chance of being faster than skin shrinkage, unless loss is very, very, slow. Furthermore, skin shrinkage isn't likely to make much progress while a layer of subcutaneous squishy-fat is still conspiring with gravity to pull the skin downward.

Folds that are 1/2" or more are likely to still contain fat. Actual loose skin is thin wrinkles, more like medium-thick fabric - think about how thin skin is when you pinch some up on a bony part like kneecap, elbow, or back of hand. The thin wrinkles are more likely to shrink, IME.

I lost 50+ pounds at age 59-60 in just less than a year. The true loose skin (thin wrinkles) kept shrinking well into my 2nd year of maintenance. Some of those areas improved a lot. The areas that still had thicker folds, or areas where I kept losing/regaining that last 5 pounds or so ( ) - not much shrinkage.

Everybody's experience is different. Just don't assume that what you've got at day 1 of goal weight is permanent.

"Fast weight loss causes more lose skin" is sort of a myth. The reason why you see more lose skin after fast weight loss is because your skin couldn't keep up. If you lose it slower, your skin can adjust more as you lose it, so you'll notice it less throughout the process. However, it really only matters at first.

Whether you lose it fast or slow, skin will keep tightening over the next few years after reaching your goal. Fast loss can make lose skin more noticeable at first, but after a few years of maintaining both methods will likely yield the same results. The only things that really matter are your genes, muscles, and how hydrated/healthy your skin is.

With 90 pounds to lose, you will likely have some minor to moderate loose skin after reaching your goal. The damage has already been done. Don't lose hope, most of that can disappear over the next few years. If you lift weights and bulk after reaching your goal, you can likely still achieve great results.

I lost 100lbs over the course of a couple of years nearly 10 years ago and still haven’t got any loose skin. However, like with anything, there’s no guarantee that that’s the case for everyone. I would just say, focus on your health and your goals and don’t let the thought of loose skin put you off.