Can I deal with saddlebags even if I can’t lose more weight?
oliviaedwards121
Posts: 3 Member
I’m 172 centimetres/5 foot 8 and I weigh about 53kg. I have a low bmi of 18 and I’ve always been lightly-moderately active. I have a low body fat percentage and am probably on the weaker side when it comes to muscle mass, although am a little on the stronger side in the legs for some reason. I carry almost no fat/muscle on both my arms and my torso but seem to carry most of this on the legs and at the butt. My fat goes straight to the tops of my thighs to form saddlebags - although they aren’t large, they’re quite angular so they’re noticeable against my other skinnier body parts. I feel the need to get rid of my thigh saddlebags although don’t know if I’ll ever be able to even with strength training- any help? Thanks xx
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Replies
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Sometimes it's genetic. Aiming for recomp might help, though, or even gaining muscle. I'm also someone who stores weight on my butt/thighs (my BMI is 20-21). You also might see something others don't--at an underweight BMI I doubt the saddlebags are noticeable to anyone else but you. I say this as someone who used to have mega bad body dysphoria.6
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Are you a young woman? It's really common for young women (16-20) to have some dismay when their bodies become woman-shaped. If you are 18 BMI, your "saddlebags" are merely a woman's body. I remember being mortified about my "fat legs" when I was about 18 years old. No, they weren't fat, I was just not 12 with stick legs anymore. Your new adult shape is genetic. Embrace it! I doubt very seriously that it is disproportionately large at 18 BMI.16
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I have very large saddlebags and have since I was young. I know EXACTLY what you mean about “angular”. Neither of my parents held weight in their legs. As I gained weight, they got progressively larger, then when I lost weight, they remained. I got to 120 (lowest normal BMI of 18 at 5-7”) and still had them. This is a case where liopsuction could really help. The other would be intense weight training focusing on building your quads, hamstrings and glutes. I have seriously considered getting really, really lean (like underweight at 115) to see what happens, but decided against it.11
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Building muscle can help. I am similar height to you and have more definition, better body shape and less fat at 61kg vs my lowest of 55kg due to having more muscle.
In your case I would recommend running a slow surplus to put on muscle since you are underweight. If you are uncomfortable with that idea you can start with maintenance but at some point you will need to put on weight for best results.8 -
strength training can help.3
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Most of the time, saddlebags are genetic. They for me. Weight loss and strength training can firm them up but they will still be there. At your BMI, I doubt that they are that noticeable, as others have said. I know how it feels to wish them away ... I sure did in my younger days. But now they are just a part of who I am ... and I don't think about them much ... until I am out buying jeans. LOL2
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Building muscle can completely change your shape over time. I'd definitely focus on strength training!6
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Building muscle has helped me with mine (which I’ve had since grade school). Not so much in shrinking them but in building my glutes, hamstrings, and quads so they don’t stick out so much. Having more muscular legs has also changed my outlook on what kind of legs I want/look good—at 5’4” I’ll never have willowy, thin legs (I mean, I m just happy now that I have some calf muscle you can discern an ankle), so I’m going to play up my genetic gift of strong, short legs instead of trying to trade it in for someone else’s gift.10
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This might sound like cheating but I have always had the same problem and I do a lot of strength training. I went to a lot different like spas and beauty center and got a bunch of consultation for different types of body sculpting. I ended up going with cool sculpting (cryolipolisi) which is non invasive and I had great results.1
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Same here - its where you genetically store fat. The only way to get rid is to lose fat - which may make the rest of you look too thin. Alternatively, as others have suggested, build a bit of muscle all over which will make you look more 'balanced'. This is what I am trying to do.1
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try building your shoulders back and chest with strength work for a more balanced look0
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I have very large saddlebags and have since I was young. I know EXACTLY what you mean about “angular”. Neither of my parents held weight in their legs. As I gained weight, they got progressively larger, then when I lost weight, they remained. I got to 120 (lowest normal BMI of 18 at 5-7”) and still had them. This is a case where liopsuction could really help. The other would be intense weight training focusing on building your quads, hamstrings and glutes. I have seriously considered getting really, really lean (like underweight at 115) to see what happens, but decided against it.
Can't imagine why this got all those woos.1 -
most likely because of her mention of considering going underweight? MFP'ers get real skitsy about that sort of thing or maybe the lipo comment.
She is right tho. Those of us who have lost and gained weight a LOT of times know that when you regain it's never ever muscle but always a lump of fat somewhere you dont like or cellulite or you name it. Me at 130 at 19 yo was a LOT different then me at 130 at 58, Probably if you could get an accurate bf reading it would be 25% at 19 and 35% at 58. Which means gaining and losing the same 20-30 pounds 10 times in 40 years is probably the worst ever thing you can do to yourself. Where was MFP when I was 20??!!!!! 6 -
SummerSkier wrote: »most likely because of her mention of considering going underweight? MFP'ers get real skitsy about that sort of thing or maybe the lipo comment. She is right tho. Those of us who have lost and gained weight a LOT of times know that when you regain it's never ever muscle but always a lump of fat somewhere you dont like or cellulite or you name it. Me at 130 at 19 yo was a LOT different then me at 130 at 58, Probably if you could get an accurate bf reading it would be 25% at 19 and 35% at 58. Which means gaining and losing the same 20-30 pounds 10 times in 40 years is probably the worst ever thing you can do to yourself. Where was MFP when I was 20??!!!!!
The lipo talk draws the woo’s. I knew that going in. Here’s the deal......sometimes you can learn to love a perceived flaw, or maybe just live with it. And sometimes, you can fix it. OP’s situation, should she have the money, and inclination to spend it, is the dream lipo case. Very localized fat deposits. A few incisions, suck, tape the holes shut and back to work the next day. There’s practically nothing to it. Super safe when performed by a wall trained plastic surgeon.
Yes, it’s vanity. But as someone who has what they call “classic saddlebags” on an otherwise not-so-bad bod, would love to rid myself of the triangle crease in jeans. Just waiting on the lotto to roll my way.6 -
SummerSkier wrote: »most likely because of her mention of considering going underweight? MFP'ers get real skitsy about that sort of thing or maybe the lipo comment. She is right tho. Those of us who have lost and gained weight a LOT of times know that when you regain it's never ever muscle but always a lump of fat somewhere you dont like or cellulite or you name it. Me at 130 at 19 yo was a LOT different then me at 130 at 58, Probably if you could get an accurate bf reading it would be 25% at 19 and 35% at 58. Which means gaining and losing the same 20-30 pounds 10 times in 40 years is probably the worst ever thing you can do to yourself. Where was MFP when I was 20??!!!!!
The lipo talk draws the woo’s. I knew that going in. Here’s the deal......sometimes you can learn to love a perceived flaw, or maybe just live with it. And sometimes, you can fix it. OP’s situation, should she have the money, and inclination to spend it, is the dream lipo case. Very localized fat deposits. A few incisions, suck, tape the holes shut and back to work the next day. There’s practically nothing to it. Super safe when performed by a wall trained plastic surgeon.
Yes, it’s vanity. But as someone who has what they call “classic saddlebags” on an otherwise not-so-bad bod, would love to rid myself of the triangle crease in jeans. Just waiting on the lotto to roll my way.
Just one caveat about lipo: I have a friend who got it, and the fat returned in some very weird places she never had fat deposits before. Apparently this is pretty common.
I’m too old now and too imperfect in too many ways to care about my flaws, but I sort of wish I had lipo when I was younger and my lower belly fat was the only thing that bothered me about my body. I spent a lot of years concerned about something which would have been an easy fix.1 -
SummerSkier wrote: »most likely because of her mention of considering going underweight? MFP'ers get real skitsy about that sort of thing or maybe the lipo comment. She is right tho. Those of us who have lost and gained weight a LOT of times know that when you regain it's never ever muscle but always a lump of fat somewhere you dont like or cellulite or you name it. Me at 130 at 19 yo was a LOT different then me at 130 at 58, Probably if you could get an accurate bf reading it would be 25% at 19 and 35% at 58. Which means gaining and losing the same 20-30 pounds 10 times in 40 years is probably the worst ever thing you can do to yourself. Where was MFP when I was 20??!!!!!
The lipo talk draws the woo’s. I knew that going in. Here’s the deal......sometimes you can learn to love a perceived flaw, or maybe just live with it. And sometimes, you can fix it. OP’s situation, should she have the money, and inclination to spend it, is the dream lipo case. Very localized fat deposits. A few incisions, suck, tape the holes shut and back to work the next day. There’s practically nothing to it. Super safe when performed by a wall trained plastic surgeon.
Yes, it’s vanity. But as someone who has what they call “classic saddlebags” on an otherwise not-so-bad bod, would love to rid myself of the triangle crease in jeans. Just waiting on the lotto to roll my way.
Yup. I don’t have saddlebags, but I’ve got scar tissue from poor insulin injection rotation as a child, that was layered by lipodystrophy (I don’t blame my parents — what were they supposed to do when their toddler/preschooler/school-aged kid cries that she only wants her shots in her tummy?), and no matter how much weight I lose, that bottom bulge will always be there. I don’t even necessarily want to be underweight these days, because I fear it still wouldn’t go away, and then what’s the point. I’m 8 pounds away from being underweight and it’s just as prominent as it’s always been. My hip bones/iliac crest literally stick out on either side of it.
But I could get lipo and a tummy tuck. (Cool Sculpting is not guaranteed to work — and for the price of repeated treatments, I want lipo and a tuck so I *know* it’s gone.) But it’s $10K that I don’t have, and insurance won’t cover it because it’s technically cosmetic. (Yet ironically, if I’d done it to myself by becoming obese and losing weight, they would.)
The minute I can afford it, I’m getting it.1
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