Looking for Insight on loose skin

AnnPT77 · January 2019

imxnianne wrote: »

I’ve been researching this for a few weeks. There are too many answers and they all vary. Too really know if you have loose skin or just squishy fats is to lower your body fat percentage. Loose skin is really just wrinkles. Loosing more than 2lbs a week, you’re for sure going to get it if the weight loss is rapid. People think that loose skin is saggy bellys, I thought this too, came to realize that it’s squishy fats. Stubborn squishy fats.. Lower the body fat percentage, eat more lean foods, healthy protein, etc. do lower abs workouts. Leg lifts, butterfly kicks.. it won’t be an over night we but we all can never pull an overnight we with fat.

That’s my opinion and I’m keeping to my word. I’m on that journey right now. Down 4 milestones and need to be more cut to even see the mommy belly vanish.

Hopefully what I said was understandable. Pretty tired from a long day.

I haven't seen evidence that true loose skin (the thin wrinkles kind) is actually worse (permanently) after fast weight loss. But, since loose skin shrinks more slowly than fat is lost, it may be that losing fast will give the appearance of more loose skin.

This is oversimplified, but if some limited skin shrinking can occur during weight loss, then slow loss may let that start happening sooner, so things don't look quite as bad at goal weight; with fast loss, the skin shrinkage has very limited opportunity to keep up. But are results worse after 2 years at goal, comparing fast to slow loss? I haven't seen any sound evidence either way.

I suspect, but have no proof, that since losing too fast is unhealthy, and healthy skin may be more elastic, there could be some relationship there between fast loss and skin shrinkage, too. But that's a comparison that might also be a difference between someone who loses with good nutrition (healthier) vs. really poor nutrition?

magnusthenerd · January 2019

imxnianne wrote: »

I’ve been researching this for a few weeks. There are too many answers and they all vary. Too really know if you have loose skin or just squishy fats is to lower your body fat percentage. Loose skin is really just wrinkles. Loosing more than 2lbs a week, you’re for sure going to get it if the weight loss is rapid. People think that loose skin is saggy bellys, I thought this too, came to realize that it’s squishy fats. Stubborn squishy fats.. Lower the body fat percentage, eat more lean foods, healthy protein, etc. do lower abs workouts. Leg lifts, butterfly kicks.. it won’t be an over night we but we all can never pull an overnight we with fat.

That’s my opinion and I’m keeping to my word. I’m on that journey right now. Down 4 milestones and need to be more cut to even see the mommy belly vanish.

Hopefully what I said was understandable. Pretty tired from a long day.

That might be the case for some individuals, but I'm pretty confident that there are people, particularly ones that have been severely obese, that will genuine have loose skin and a pooch regardless of their actual body fat percentage.
The idea of stubborn fat as I've heard Lyle use it is a different phenomena with a different presentation.
I also don't think the ab workouts are really that much of a difference. The kind of engagement of the abs in heavy compounds is going to do a lot more muscle building in the core than unweighted high rep activities like the way most people do leg lifts or kicks.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · January 2019

imxnianne wrote: »

I’ve been researching this for a few weeks. There are too many answers and they all vary. Too really know if you have loose skin or just squishy fats is to lower your body fat percentage. Loose skin is really just wrinkles. Loosing more than 2lbs a week, you’re for sure going to get it if the weight loss is rapid. People think that loose skin is saggy bellys, I thought this too, came to realize that it’s squishy fats. Stubborn squishy fats.. Lower the body fat percentage, eat more lean foods, healthy protein, etc. do lower abs workouts. Leg lifts, butterfly kicks.. it won’t be an over night we but we all can never pull an overnight we with fat.

That’s my opinion and I’m keeping to my word. I’m on that journey right now. Down 4 milestones and need to be more cut to even see the mommy belly vanish.

Hopefully what I said was understandable. Pretty tired from a long day.

then you must not have seen people with enough loose skin who have to have it cut off,its not squishy fat,its skin that has been stretched too far. losing more than 2 lbs a week for those over 400 lbs is fine short term. I have a friend who was over 500lbs hes down to close to 300 and he has saggy skin,its not fat if skin stretches too fat and you dont have enough elasticity it can tear(causing stretch marks) or it can just be stretched out(sort of like a shirt with a stretched out neck) too far and there is no bouncing back. its not fat.

as for lowering body fat its not going to matter if you have a lot of loose excess skin and all the healthy foods and workouts in the world is not going to help with loose skin. a person can get down to a very low percent of body fat and still have a lot of loose skin. losing weight fast can be the cause but not always the case. There is a difference between loose skin and squishy fat.if its fat it eventually comes off (some small percent made need lipo or something along those lines) if its loose skin and hasnt bounced back then surgery will be needed to remove it if the person wants to go that route.because it wont bounce back. genetics,age,etc all play a part too

walkingfit2016 · January 2019

I lost over 100 lbs in 6 years and I still have loose and wrinkled skin 2 years later.I'm 64 and since I'm not a model by any means it no longer bothers me.

wanderingarcher · January 2019

I want to accept this part of my journey, but it’s hard.
I thought a thread of photos might encourage others, but it’s just not pretty. 😣😛

I’m just entering maintenance/recomposition. I’m interested to see what 2 years does.

sgriska · January 2019

I think, to my mind, the bottom line is that if you have lost a large amount of weight (100 lbs +), what you have left when you reach a healthy BMI may well be a combination of actual loose skin and "stubborn" subcutaneous fat, but in my own experience it's unevenly distributed such that most of your body will be extremely lean, even gaunt, and you'll still have these big rolls of skin hanging off. So, yeah, theoretically you could continue to starve yourself down until you're Holocaust-survivor-esque and maybe there'd then be a small enough amount of residual fat left inside the rolls that maybe it would stand a chance to shrink significantly, but, um... I suppose some people are up for that, but I'm sure not and I don't think it's a reasonable suggestion for most people who have lost massive amounts of weight.

I'm at a good place weight-wise, some parts of me are even leaner than I would like (my neck is kinda scary looking, I think!), but as I head into maintenance the reality is that I still have rolls of skin/fat hanging off my ribs, apron belly, upper arms, and inner thighs and have no doubt gravity is going to keep them from shrinking very much ever. Either I'll just live with them, or I'll get them surgically removed. Not sure just now which way it will go. But I've got to admit I find the whole "if you just keep going until you've got no body fat left at all your skin will shrink!" advice more annoying than anything. Might be true for very young people who have not had to lose very much weight at all, but for a middle-aged woman whose lost 150-ish... yeah, nope, not for me.

wanderingarcher · January 2019

@sgriska That’s what I’m running into right now. Parts of me are starting to look gaunt, I’m dropping in performance, and my energy levels are low. It’s time to stop trying to lose the loose skin (et al).

AnnPT77 · January 2019

sgriska wrote: »

I think, to my mind, the bottom line is that if you have lost a large amount of weight (100 lbs +), what you have left when you reach a healthy BMI may well be a combination of actual loose skin and "stubborn" subcutaneous fat, but in my own experience it's unevenly distributed such that most of your body will be extremely lean, even gaunt, and you'll still have these big rolls of skin hanging off. So, yeah, theoretically you could continue to starve yourself down until you're Holocaust-survivor-esque and maybe there'd then be a small enough amount of residual fat left inside the rolls that maybe it would stand a chance to shrink significantly, but, um... I suppose some people are up for that, but I'm sure not and I don't think it's a reasonable suggestion for most people who have lost massive amounts of weight.

I'm at a good place weight-wise, some parts of me are even leaner than I would like (my neck is kinda scary looking, I think!), but as I head into maintenance the reality is that I still have rolls of skin/fat hanging off my ribs, apron belly, upper arms, and inner thighs and have no doubt gravity is going to keep them from shrinking very much ever. Either I'll just live with them, or I'll get them surgically removed. Not sure just now which way it will go. But I've got to admit I find the whole "if you just keep going until you've got no body fat left at all your skin will shrink!" advice more annoying than anything. Might be true for very young people who have not had to lose very much weight at all, but for a middle-aged woman whose lost 150-ish... yeah, nope, not for me.

If that's what I seem to be advising, then I'm failing to communicate what I intend (something that happens way more than I'd like, despite my efforts

).

I mention the subcutaneous fat issue because sometimes people think, part way to goal, that they're looking at loose skin, when it's more than that. (Some of us look worse at "part way" than at goal, let alone long after.) Appearance can change on the way to goal, and at goal. The actual (thin) loose skin may have a decent chance to shrink more after goal weight; IME, the other parts not so much.

I want to be saying that people should stop losing at a healthy goal weight, not madly pursue losing every last pocket or pouch of fat, which would be grossly unhealthy.

I didn't do that "lose every fat flap" thing myself. I have fat on my inner thighs and abdomen that keeps things stretched out, even at goal weight. I had more locations with that sort of thing part way to goal, and it looked worse. I stopped when I got to a rational overall goal weight, considering all factors (pretty much none of which, in my case, have to do with appearance). At goal, my abdomen and thighs, but especially my rear, had very noticeable droopy thin wrinkles of skin, too. Over 2 years, those shrank pretty well, even at age 59-60 (I may have good genetics; no way to know . . . but it's possible this can happen for others).

Once at a healthy goal, there are a couple of possible options for further progress (not necessarily perfection).

One is the long, slow process of recomposition, which adds muscle mass, and ever so slowly continues to shrink body fat, while staying at the same weight. There are examples of people here who achieved further improvement (again, not necessarily perfection) that way. (Some of them have lost very substantial amounts of weight.)

The other option is surgery, something I would not do myself in my personal case, but it's the best answer for some, certainly those with medical complications from the excess skin, but even for aesthetic reasons. There are also examples of people here who've achieved further improvement (still not perfection, typically) via that route. Some of them have also lost very substantial amounts of weight.

(There's also the "bulk and cut" option; but I think that's less likely to help in this kind of scenario, and I haven't seen as many good examples of large weight loss + bulk/cut. They may exist: Dunno.)

I still think it's important to tell people how to assess their personal situation: Thin wrinkles, good chance of shrinking; thicker wrinkles, not as good odds. I don't intend that to be an exhortation to lose body fat to an unhealthy or extreme state. That would be wrong.

sgriska · January 2019

AnnPT77, I’m sorry. I was speaking from frustration at hearing that advice bandied about pretty much every time “it’s not really loose skin!” comes up on the internet, not in specific response to your post. But I’m glad you elaborated and explained because this is all good and I agree. Certainly, my skin looks a lot better at this point than it did halfway through, and I’m actually pleasantly surprised it’s not in a lot worse shape than it is. Yeah, it sags, but it’s not truly redundant, no problems with hygiene or skin breakdown or anything like that you often hear about. So it is really important to stick with it and see where things land when all is said and done.

AnnPT77 · January 2019

sgriska wrote: »

AnnPT77, I’m sorry. I was speaking from frustration at hearing that advice bandied about pretty much every time “it’s not really loose skin!” comes up on the internet, not in specific response to your post. But I’m glad you elaborated and explained because this is all good and I agree. Certainly, my skin looks a lot better at this point than it did halfway through, and I’m actually pleasantly surprised it’s not in a lot worse shape than it is. Yeah, it sags, but it’s not truly redundant, no problems with hygiene or skin breakdown or anything like that you often hear about. So it is really important to stick with it and see where things land when all is said and done.

I appreciate your initial comment (and this second one, as well). I do post about this issue on various threads (I think people earlier in the process tend to catastrophize beyond probable reality about loose skin, too often).

Your comment has helped me understand that I need to be really, really clear that "ultimate extreme weight loss" is not the answer, and not a healthy goal. Rather, it's about knowing about the time horizons for change, and about how to assess one's personal situation semi-objectively as one moves through the process. In my very strong personal opinion, health should always be the core and guiding goal, even when aesthetics are in the picture for some people.

Thanks! :flowerforyou:

Looking for Insight on loose skin

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