is this loose skin? can I do something about it without surgery ? :'((
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39flavours wrote: »39flavours wrote: »It's my understanding that building muscle while eating at a deficit is difficult if not impossible. I think you're doing the right thing by continuing to lift weights while losing fat as you will hopefully maintain the muscle that you currently have. Once you hit your target weight you can increase your calories and work on building muscle which should tighten up the skin, it'll be OK
If someone has been training for many years then yes, it gets harder to gain muscle without making supporting conditions for growth closer to optimal. Which is why highly trained body builders and strength athlete may have to consider bulk/cut cycles. But that need doesn't translate to the general population. It's like comparing what an international athlete has to do to shave a second off their 5k time compared to a beginer starting out on C25K who will be taking minutes off their time - they don't have to eat and train the same way to progress.
The vast majority of the populations are not anywhere close to their genetic potential and the stimulus required for growth is relatively low. A large deficit is clearly a big disadvantage but someone not lean and not highly trained should be able to gain some muscle if they keep their deficit low and crucially train well.
The predominant reason people fail to gain muscle is because their training is poor or inconsistent- not that they aren't eating enough.
Ah OK, so I guess if OP wants to be firming up her arms then ensuring her deficit isn't too big and making sure she is training correctly is key, thanks.
Yep!
It's training that drives muscle growth, diet is a supporting role.1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »What you see there isn't just skin and fat, part of it is your triceps, which will hang when it isn't being flexed.
If you flex your triceps, you can feel the difference between the muscle and the fat/skin when you pinch it.
As for most skin, you're young, it can still tighten up with time, no despair 🙂 loose skin can still firm up to a year or more after weight loss.PS: why aim for such a low weight? You need to do strength training, NOT lose weight till your underweight to firm up and improve your body composition.
even if I flex the dangly part is there, yes you are right I have heard that skin can be tighten up in certain years but what frustrate me is that my work for a year and a half did not affect( or build a little of muscle) my arms and im getting older. so it is loose skin!!
what do u mean by low weight, 50 or 40? if 50 I can answer you that im still overweight and have fats (I know a body should have fat) but I have excess fat in belly and thigh and as you can see my arms. Despite my effort I only shrunk my size but the shape of fat in each part of my body is still the same only smaller. unfortunately Gym is not an option for me know that's why I do home workouts
You need to do recomp, then. Just losing more weight is not going to help when you're already a healthy weight (you are not overweight).
recomp? do I need special equipments?
Not necessarily. Sorry, I thought it had been discussed upthread, or I wouldn't have just thrown it out with no explanation.
It's eating at maintenance, or in small deficits for a few weeks followed by small surpluses, known as cut and bulk cycles, while you engage in a progressive resistance training (usually weight lifting) program. If you don't have access to weights (either at home or at a gym), you can try a bodyweight program (where your own body provides the weight for resistance).
@lynn_glenmont
That's actually over-complicating recomp.
Mini bulk / cut cycles of calorie surplus and deficiti is entriely optional and most people simply maintain weight (or eat very close to weight maintenance) all of the time.
Recomp is a training goal and not an eating plan.
As the OP still wants to lose some weight then a small to very small calorie deficit would be appropriate for her.
It's simply a posh name for what has been known for generations as "getting in shape". Train effectively and your body changes.
thank you for clarifying the concept39flavours wrote: »39flavours wrote: »It's my understanding that building muscle while eating at a deficit is difficult if not impossible. I think you're doing the right thing by continuing to lift weights while losing fat as you will hopefully maintain the muscle that you currently have. Once you hit your target weight you can increase your calories and work on building muscle which should tighten up the skin, it'll be OK
If someone has been training for many years then yes, it gets harder to gain muscle without making supporting conditions for growth closer to optimal. Which is why highly trained body builders and strength athlete may have to consider bulk/cut cycles. But that need doesn't translate to the general population. It's like comparing what an international athlete has to do to shave a second off their 5k time compared to a beginer starting out on C25K who will be taking minutes off their time - they don't have to eat and train the same way to progress.
The vast majority of the populations are not anywhere close to their genetic potential and the stimulus required for growth is relatively low. A large deficit is clearly a big disadvantage but someone not lean and not highly trained should be able to gain some muscle if they keep their deficit low and crucially train well.
The predominant reason people fail to gain muscle is because their training is poor or inconsistent- not that they aren't eating enough.
Ah OK, so I guess if OP wants to be firming up her arms then ensuring her deficit isn't too big and making sure she is training correctly is key, thanks.
I don't make too big calorie deficit its between 250 -500 that all I deduct, thank you for your comment
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39flavours wrote: »39flavours wrote: »It's my understanding that building muscle while eating at a deficit is difficult if not impossible. I think you're doing the right thing by continuing to lift weights while losing fat as you will hopefully maintain the muscle that you currently have. Once you hit your target weight you can increase your calories and work on building muscle which should tighten up the skin, it'll be OK
If someone has been training for many years then yes, it gets harder to gain muscle without making supporting conditions for growth closer to optimal. Which is why highly trained body builders and strength athlete may have to consider bulk/cut cycles. But that need doesn't translate to the general population. It's like comparing what an international athlete has to do to shave a second off their 5k time compared to a beginer starting out on C25K who will be taking minutes off their time - they don't have to eat and train the same way to progress.
The vast majority of the populations are not anywhere close to their genetic potential and the stimulus required for growth is relatively low. A large deficit is clearly a big disadvantage but someone not lean and not highly trained should be able to gain some muscle if they keep their deficit low and crucially train well.
The predominant reason people fail to gain muscle is because their training is poor or inconsistent- not that they aren't eating enough.
Ah OK, so I guess if OP wants to be firming up her arms then ensuring her deficit isn't too big and making sure she is training correctly is key, thanks.
For the issue the OP has shown - you won't be able to gain enough muscle in the arm to take care of the issue.
This recomp isn't an idea of gain muscle and lose fat in the arms to take care of the lose skin and fat still there. It's likely just normal thick skin layer that isn't going to be helped by this process right now, but keep it up and it may be helped in a year or more.
Those are relatively small muscles that aren't going to take much energy and would take a long time to grow enough.
This is full body involvement needed.
This ability to gain some muscle in a deficit (not the same amount as in a surplus obviously), is also heightened by having more fat available so body not as threatened, if starting workouts with starting diet.
And as a newbie you can run through tapping out your existing muscle usage for form improvement and CNS involvement pretty quick - and really start overloading by weight.
People that wait to start strength training until they reach goal weight are totally missing out on potential not available at goal weight.0 -
I've gone from 98kg to 75kg. I'm in my early 50s. I lost the weight at a sensible, slow rate, as you have done.
Overall I have lost 2 1/2 inches (6cm) from each arm. But my arms look the same as yours when in that pose. In pretty much any other position they look OK.
The advice to recomp that you have been given is sound and is what I am currently doing to get to the shape I want. If you want to bulk up your triceps to fill out the arm a bit you are going to need heavier weights. Maybe not now, but at some point. Alternatively work on body weight exercises. Being able to do a push up was a goal of mine and that involved plenty of tricep work. You can also do things like dips off the back of a sofa.2 -
39flavours wrote: »39flavours wrote: »It's my understanding that building muscle while eating at a deficit is difficult if not impossible. I think you're doing the right thing by continuing to lift weights while losing fat as you will hopefully maintain the muscle that you currently have. Once you hit your target weight you can increase your calories and work on building muscle which should tighten up the skin, it'll be OK
If someone has been training for many years then yes, it gets harder to gain muscle without making supporting conditions for growth closer to optimal. Which is why highly trained body builders and strength athlete may have to consider bulk/cut cycles. But that need doesn't translate to the general population. It's like comparing what an international athlete has to do to shave a second off their 5k time compared to
a beginer starting out on C25K who will be taking minutes off their time - they don't have to eat and train the same way to progress.
The vast majority of the populations are not anywhere close to their genetic potential and the stimulus required for growth is relatively low. A large deficit is clearly a big disadvantage but someone not lean and not highly trained should be able to gain some muscle if they keep their deficit low and crucially train well.
The predominant reason people fail to gain muscle is because their training is poor or inconsistent- not that they aren't eating enough.
Ah OK, so I guess if OP wants to be firming up her arms then ensuring her deficit isn't too big and making sure she is training correctly is key, thanks.
For the issue the OP has shown - you won't be able to gain enough muscle in the arm to take care of the issue.
This recomp isn't an idea of gain muscle and lose fat in the arms to take care of the lose skin and fat still there. It's likely just normal thick skin layer that isn't going to be helped by this process right now, but keep it up and it may be helped in a year or more.
Those are relatively small muscles that aren't going to take much energy and would take a long time to grow enough.
This is full body involvement needed.
This ability to gain some muscle in a deficit (not the same amount as in a surplus obviously), is also heightened by having more fat available so body not as threatened, if starting workouts with starting diet.
And as a newbie you can run through tapping out your existing muscle usage for form improvement and CNS involvement pretty quick - and really start overloading by weight.
People that wait to start strength training until they reach goal weight are totally missing out on potential not available at goal weight.
I agree with all of this.
But I think @Lietchi's point is not being fully understood and absorbed.
OP, much of the droop in your photo is muscle. How much? Can't tell.
It's almost universal for women to do what you're doing, hang that arm out there, look at the effect of gravity on arm tissue, think it's all fat/loose skin. It's not. In any case I've seen in real life (many, women of all sizes/weights/fitness), it's not all fat/loose skin. Some is muscle. How much? Can't tell, from a photo like that.
If you're going to hold your arm out like that, hate anything that hangs down, forever . . . you're going to be hating your appearance forever, probably. (I fear that you may be doing the same with other aspects of your appearance, too, from looking at your post and your weight goals, frankly. Please don't!)
Below is an example: This is my arm, within the last few minutes, held like your arm is held in your photo. Oh, the horrors! Look at all that fat and loose skin hanging down! Despite losing 26+ kg (58 pounds for other 'murcans reading), I still have all that ugly loose skin and fat! And while I'm female like you, I'm really, really old (65), so probably my elderly loose skin won't shrink, and everyone says I can't possibly add any muscles at this advanced age! Whatever shall I do?
Click the spoiler, and I'll tell you what I should do.I should flex, hard. Not just a half-hearted flex, but nice and tight. Poof, minimal hang. Up top, the roundish biceps just above elbow below shoulder muscles; below that, a couple of horizontal-ish lines worth of triceps muscles, in sort of a triangle-ish shape widening toward my elbow.
That last maybe 1/2 inch of tissue, below the lowest horizontal-ish shadow, that *may* be fat or loose skin. Or, it may just be the normal amount of skin that I need to be able to contain the rest of the arm tissue, like the biceps and triceps muscles, once they're all relaxed and gravity's making them take up more space. Even when slim, reasonably fit, some OK-ish muscles going on, a relaxed arm will hang.
I'm not saying you have zero fat or loose skin on your upper arm. I'm not saying that *I* have zero fat or loose skin on my upper arm. I'm not saying that either you or I have a whole big bunch of muscle.
I'm saying that you have much less upper arm fat or loose skin than you think you do, and that if you keep agonizing about that hang-y stuff on a relaxed arm, you'll never be satisfied or happy, because you're not understanding what it is, and you're hating relaxed muscles, at least in part. Don't do that.16 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »What you see there isn't just skin and fat, part of it is your triceps, which will hang when it isn't being flexed.
If you flex your triceps, you can feel the difference between the muscle and the fat/skin when you pinch it.
As for most skin, you're young, it can still tighten up with time, no despair 🙂 loose skin can still firm up to a year or more after weight loss.PS: why aim for such a low weight? You need to do strength training, NOT lose weight till your underweight to firm up and improve your body composition.
even if I flex the dangly part is there, yes you are right I have heard that skin can be tighten up in certain years but what frustrate me is that my work for a year and a half did not affect( or build a little of muscle) my arms and im getting older. so it is loose skin!!
what do u mean by low weight, 50 or 40? if 50 I can answer you that im still overweight and have fats (I know a body should have fat) but I have excess fat in belly and thigh and as you can see my arms. Despite my effort I only shrunk my size but the shape of fat in each part of my body is still the same only smaller. unfortunately Gym is not an option for me know that's why I do home workouts
You need to do recomp, then. Just losing more weight is not going to help when you're already a healthy weight (you are not overweight).
recomp? do I need special equipments?
Not necessarily. Sorry, I thought it had been discussed upthread, or I wouldn't have just thrown it out with no explanation.
It's eating at maintenance, or in small deficits for a few weeks followed by small surpluses, known as cut and bulk cycles, while you engage in a progressive resistance training (usually weight lifting) program. If you don't have access to weights (either at home or at a gym), you can try a bodyweight program (where your own body provides the weight for resistance).
@lynn_glenmont
That's actually over-complicating recomp.
Mini bulk / cut cycles of calorie surplus and deficiti is entriely optional and most people simply maintain weight (or eat very close to weight maintenance) all of the time.
Recomp is a training goal and not an eating plan.
As the OP still wants to lose some weight then a small to very small calorie deficit would be appropriate for her.
It's simply a posh name for what has been known for generations as "getting in shape". Train effectively and your body changes.
Apparently you read right past where I said eating at maintenance -- I just added the bulk/cut cycle as an option, because so many people do like to complicate it, and I didn't want to have to deal with someone "correcting" me if I left if out. MFP = where you can't win ever.3 -
Ok OP - gotta post your guns!
And remember if driving with car window open and arm hanging out - gotta tense it, good extra workout anyway.1 -
What you see there isn't just skin and fat, part of it is your triceps, which will hang when it isn't being flexed.
If you flex your triceps, you can feel the difference between the muscle and the fat/skin when you pinch it.
As for most skin, you're young, it can still tighten up with time, no despair 🙂 loose skin can still firm up to a year or more after weight loss.PS: why aim for such a low weight? You need to do strength training, NOT lose weight till your underweight to firm up and improve your body composition.
even if I flex the dangly part is there, yes you are right I have heard that skin can be tighten up in certain years but what frustrate me is that my work for a year and a half did not affect( or build a little of muscle) my arms and im getting older. so it is loose skin!!
Here is another post of success dealing with the extra skin.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10763291/my-turn-to-overshare-my-adventure/p4
Notice the comment from @springlering62 regarding it was gone in about a year, and what was being done.
3 -
39flavours wrote: »39flavours wrote: »It's my understanding that building muscle while eating at a deficit is difficult if not impossible. I think you're doing the right thing by continuing to lift weights while losing fat as you will hopefully maintain the muscle that you currently have. Once you hit your target weight you can increase your calories and work on building muscle which should tighten up the skin, it'll be OK
If someone has been training for many years then yes, it gets harder to gain muscle without making supporting conditions for growth closer to optimal. Which is why highly trained body builders and strength athlete may have to consider bulk/cut cycles. But that need doesn't translate to the general population. It's like comparing what an international athlete has to do to shave a second off their 5k time compared to
a beginer starting out on C25K who will be taking minutes off their time - they don't have to eat and train the same way to progress.
The vast majority of the populations are not anywhere close to their genetic potential and the stimulus required for growth is relatively low. A large deficit is clearly a big disadvantage but someone not lean and not highly trained should be able to gain some muscle if they keep their deficit low and crucially train well.
The predominant reason people fail to gain muscle is because their training is poor or inconsistent- not that they aren't eating enough.
Ah OK, so I guess if OP wants to be firming up her arms then ensuring her deficit isn't too big and making sure she is training correctly is key, thanks.
For the issue the OP has shown - you won't be able to gain enough muscle in the arm to take care of the issue.
This recomp isn't an idea of gain muscle and lose fat in the arms to take care of the lose skin and fat still there. It's likely just normal thick skin layer that isn't going to be helped by this process right now, but keep it up and it may be helped in a year or more.
Those are relatively small muscles that aren't going to take much energy and would take a long time to grow enough.
This is full body involvement needed.
This ability to gain some muscle in a deficit (not the same amount as in a surplus obviously), is also heightened by having more fat available so body not as threatened, if starting workouts with starting diet.
And as a newbie you can run through tapping out your existing muscle usage for form improvement and CNS involvement pretty quick - and really start overloading by weight.
People that wait to start strength training until they reach goal weight are totally missing out on potential not available at goal weight.
I agree with all of this.
But I think @Lietchi's point is not being fully understood and absorbed.
OP, much of the droop in your photo is muscle. How much? Can't tell.
It's almost universal for women to do what you're doing, hang that arm out there, look at the effect of gravity on arm tissue, think it's all fat/loose skin. It's not. In any case I've seen in real life (many, women of all sizes/weights/fitness), it's not all fat/loose skin. Some is muscle. How much? Can't tell, from a photo like that.
If you're going to hold your arm out like that, hate anything that hangs down, forever . . . you're going to be hating your appearance forever, probably. (I fear that you may be doing the same with other aspects of your appearance, too, from looking at your post and your weight goals, frankly. Please don't!)
Below is an example: This is my arm, within the last few minutes, held like your arm is held in your photo. Oh, the horrors! Look at all that fat and loose skin hanging down! Despite losing 26+ kg (58 pounds for other 'murcans reading), I still have all that ugly loose skin and fat! And while I'm female like you, I'm really, really old (65), so probably my elderly loose skin won't shrink, and everyone says I can't possibly add any muscles at this advanced age! Whatever shall I do?
Click the spoiler, and I'll tell you what I should do.I should flex, hard. Not just a half-hearted flex, but nice and tight. Poof, minimal hang. Up top, the roundish biceps just above elbow below shoulder muscles; below that, a couple of horizontal-ish lines worth of triceps muscles, in sort of a triangle-ish shape widening toward my elbow.
That last maybe 1/2 inch of tissue, below the lowest horizontal-ish shadow, that *may* be fat or loose skin. Or, it may just be the normal amount of skin that I need to be able to contain the rest of the arm tissue, like the biceps and triceps muscles, once they're all relaxed and gravity's making them take up more space. Even when slim, reasonably fit, some OK-ish muscles going on, a relaxed arm will hang.
I'm not saying you have zero fat or loose skin on your upper arm. I'm not saying that *I* have zero fat or loose skin on my upper arm. I'm not saying that either you or I have a whole big bunch of muscle.
I'm saying that you have much less upper arm fat or loose skin than you think you do, and that if you keep agonizing about that hang-y stuff on a relaxed arm, you'll never be satisfied or happy, because you're not understanding what it is, and you're hating relaxed muscles, at least in part. Don't do that.
WoOoOoW !! that's really amazing thank you for sharing this I really appreciate it.
regarding the weight I did not set a dangerous goal im still in the healthy range
plus nowadays its really hard for me to lose 1 kg 2-3 months to lose it 2 -
What you see there isn't just skin and fat, part of it is your triceps, which will hang when it isn't being flexed.
If you flex your triceps, you can feel the difference between the muscle and the fat/skin when you pinch it.
As for most skin, you're young, it can still tighten up with time, no despair 🙂 loose skin can still firm up to a year or more after weight loss.PS: why aim for such a low weight? You need to do strength training, NOT lose weight till your underweight to firm up and improve your body composition.
even if I flex the dangly part is there, yes you are right I have heard that skin can be tighten up in certain years but what frustrate me is that my work for a year and a half did not affect( or build a little of muscle) my arms and im getting older. so it is loose skin!!
Here is another post of success dealing with the extra skin.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10763291/my-turn-to-overshare-my-adventure/p4
Notice the comment from @springlering62 regarding it was gone in about a year, and what was being done.
thank you I will definitely check out
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I've improved my shape a reasonable amount by eating at maintenance and doing home YouTube workouts - try Caroline girvan epic heat series of 50 half hour sessions. Use heavier weights. 2-4kg isn't really going to build muscle. You need to work hard! And you will get good results if you put the effort in at age 28! I'm 56 and have noticed changes for the better.2
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