Help needed-excess fat or excess skin ?

Hi friends,I wanted to ask a question.
I would like to know ways to make the difference between fat and loose skin,you know ? Can somebody help me ?
For example,let’s say my inner thighs.
When i touch them,it feels lumpy…hmm « bubbly »? If i can say so
Can someone help me to know if it’s fat or loose skin ?
Thank you so much

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    It's likely fat. Loose skin wouldn't feel lumpy.
  • brojustno
    brojustno Posts: 9 Member
    It's likely fat. Loose skin wouldn't feel lumpy.
    thanks for your answer ! Yes I do think so.I also can grab like more than an inch of my inner thighs,I’m not sure I could do it if it was skin ?
    And I feel like there are bubbles underneath my skin when I grab it

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,846 Member
    Honestly, I think it's easier for us to judge from a picture than a description.

    But pure loose skin: easily pinched and 'pulled out', quite wrinkly

    Loose skin combined with still some fat: quite easily pinched and pulled out but thicker, you can lift it up and it drops when you let go. Can be a bit lumpy (but that's due to the remaining fat).
  • brojustno
    brojustno Posts: 9 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Honestly, I think it's easier for us to judge from a picture than a description.

    But pure loose skin: easily pinched and 'pulled out', quite wrinkly

    Loose skin combined with still some fat: quite easily pinched and pulled out but thicker, you can lift it up and it drops when you let go. Can be a bit lumpy (but that's due to the remaining fat).
    well I can’t pinch small amounts of it.Only like 2-3 inches.There aren’t wrinkles too.
    I can pinch it but not really pull it or lift it (only a tiny bit)
    Maybe it’s just fat ?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    You wouldn't have a significant amount of loose skin unless you've recently lost a lot of weight. Have you recently lost weight?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,261 Member
    brojustno wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Honestly, I think it's easier for us to judge from a picture than a description.

    But pure loose skin: easily pinched and 'pulled out', quite wrinkly

    Loose skin combined with still some fat: quite easily pinched and pulled out but thicker, you can lift it up and it drops when you let go. Can be a bit lumpy (but that's due to the remaining fat).
    well I can’t pinch small amounts of it.Only like 2-3 inches.There aren’t wrinkles too.
    I can pinch it but not really pull it or lift it (only a tiny bit)
    Maybe it’s just fat ?

    It's probably some residual fat. If it feels soft/squishy, it may be keeping skin stretched out (the residual fat conspires with gravity).

    Some people report a kind of bubbles-like or granular feeling to their fat areas that happens before a water weight drop (so scale drop) during weight loss. I don't have an opinion on the likelihood of that in your case, since I haven't personally experienced it . . . but I've seen more than one person say they have, so 🤷‍♀️.

    Loose skin - when only loose skin left - is thin wrinkles IME, like wrinkles in a medium-weight fabric such as lighter-weight denim. Folds or rolls that are half an inch or more when pinched tend to still have some fat layer in them, IME.

    If you're not at goal weight yet, just keep going. If you're at goal weight, but aren't happy with appearance in some way that involves residual fat stores, recomposition would be a good next step to consider. It's a slower process, but can give big results in appearance, with patience and persistence. More details about that here:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat

    If you're already at a healthy goal weight, but feel you still have more body fat than you like, continuing to lose weight (via calorie deficit rather than recomp) is likely to make appearance worse, different but not better (not to mention being bad for health). Skeletal is not a good look, but sometimes our minds can distort what we're seeing, especially if we over-focus on "problem areas" rather than the big picture.
  • brojustno
    brojustno Posts: 9 Member
    You wouldn't have a significant amount of loose skin unless you've recently lost a lot of weight. Have you recently lost weight?
    i wouldn’t say recently(it was last december) and I’m still in my teen years so idk
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    edited August 2022
    brojustno wrote: »
    You wouldn't have a significant amount of loose skin unless you've recently lost a lot of weight. Have you recently lost weight?
    i wouldn’t say recently(it was last december) and I’m still in my teen years so idk

    It took a couple years for me after weight loss but the skin did tighten up.

    Did you lose a lot of weight?

    The other thing is - if you're female your body is going through a lot of changes just because of your age. Fat naturally redistributes into hips and thighs for a lot of young women. I remember being mortified at my new more shapely legs when I was your age, and I was very thin.

    If you're male or female, a bit of weight lifting or even biking or other strenuous physical activity will help you fill that out with some muscle.