Does loose skin occur during or after the weight loss?

It happens as you lose weight, and can tighten back up (fully or partially) after losing weight, over a period of up to a year or more.

Ashlove5 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

It happens as you lose weight, and can tighten back up (fully or partially) after losing weight, over a period of up to a year or more.

But you’ll notice it as your losing weight right? It’s not something that happens way after you lost the weight ?

Yes, why?

CLICit wrote: »

I noticed it most near my weight loss goal, but then took more time to strength train and don't really notice it anymore.

Completely normal.

Think about it: As you lose weight, but aren't all the way at goal/thin weight yet, the fat can deplete from anywhere in your fat mass, not just from the outer layer then proceeding neatly inward. The remaining fat conspires with gravity to keep skin stretched.

It can be like a water balloon that goes from full to partly full: It goes from firm and full to sort of floppy/squishy, but the balloon skin doesn't drop in size until the balloon is mostly empty of water. Until the loose skin is kind of thin wrinkles, like wrinkles in a medium-weight fabric (denim, say), the skin probably won't shrink much. Larger folds or rolls, 1/2" plus, probably still have some subcutaneous fat that limits skin shrinkage.

Even then, skin takes more time to shrink than the balloon does. After the remaining-fat/gravity conspiracy ends, it takes time for the skin to shrink. If there is a fairly big amount of loose skin, and depending on some other factors, it could take months or even years at goal weight to reach a final state. ("Other factors"= age, genetics, nutrition, exercise, blah blah blah.) My loose skin kept shrinking at least into year 2 of maintenance. (I'm old, lost 50+ pounds.)

Strength training may help, but I suspect time and skin health** are larger factors. (** Skin is an organ. Things that keep other organs healthy also keep skin healthy so elastic. Exercise is one of those things.)

This is all really personal and depends on a variety of factors some you can control, some you can’t - I am in my mid fifties, lost 76 lbs at a decent, but not overly fast pace (over about 18 -24 mos, at a pace of about 1lb a week after an initial faster weight loss at the very beginning), I am relatively tall (5’8/5’9 - I shrunk !) and I lost to the very bottom of the healthy BMI range for my height starting out at a weight that was in the low range of obese for my height. I haven’t had children so my abdominal muscles and skin have only been stretched by weight gain from being overweight. I carried my weight fairly evenly distributed over my body, not concentrated on my midsection or hips etc.. I had an athletic build under my weight bc I was a hiker. I gained weight largely because of medical reasons over a fairly short period of time and did not stay at my high weight for a long time.

I have almost no loose skin at all - what I do have I attribute more to muscle loss than fat loss. I was a serious mountain hiker and had especially strong glutes and thighs. One of my medical issues put me on bedrest and unable to walk for a length of time and I lost a lot of that muscle and that is where the loose skin is (saggy flat butt and inner thighs). I have a small amount of loose skin on my abdomen that is visible if I bend over in a downward dog pose. So I don’t do that naked!! It is totally invisible if I am standing, sitting, walking around, or doing other normal things even in a bikini.

Bottom line - everyone’s experience will differ. There are only minimal factors that can be controlled. Most depend on your medical history and build, so control the one thing you can - don’t lose too fast. But do lose whatever amount of weight your doctor recommends is healthy for you to lose. You will feel better, sleep better, have more energy, more life, and you will look better even if you have loose skin.. It can be hidden easier than fat, after all.

You are beautiful, you will be beautiful. Seize your health and your life.

Lietchi wrote: »

Ashlove5 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

CLICit wrote: »

I noticed it most near my weight loss goal, but then took more time to strength train and don't really notice it anymore.

Completely normal.

Think about it: As you lose weight, but aren't all the way at goal/thin weight yet, the fat can deplete from anywhere in your fat mass, not just from the outer layer then proceeding neatly inward. The remaining fat conspires with gravity to keep skin stretched.

It can be like a water balloon that goes from full to partly full: It goes from firm and full to sort of floppy/squishy, but the balloon skin doesn't drop in size until the balloon is mostly empty of water. Until the loose skin is kind of thin wrinkles, like wrinkles in a medium-weight fabric (denim, say), the skin probably won't shrink much. Larger folds or rolls, 1/2" plus, probably still have some subcutaneous fat that limits skin shrinkage.

Even then, skin takes more time to shrink than the balloon does. After the remaining-fat/gravity conspiracy ends, it takes time for the skin to shrink. If there is a fairly big amount of loose skin, and depending on some other factors, it could take months or even years at goal weight to reach a final state. ("Other factors"= age, genetics, nutrition, exercise, blah blah blah.) My loose skin kept shrinking at least into year 2 of maintenance. (I'm old, lost 50+ pounds.)

Strength training may help, but I suspect time and skin health** are larger factors. (** Skin is an organ. Things that keep other organs healthy also keep skin healthy so elastic. Exercise is one of those things.)

I am still confused, does the skin start stretching during weight loss and something you notice as your losing weight or it happens months after the weight loss and you wake up one day with loose skin?

It doesn't stretch during weight loss: it stretches when you gain weight. When you lose weight, the same amount of skin is not as filled out, and starts to get looser/'droop'. Depending on how 'resilient' the skin is, it will shrink to fit the smaller body pretty much at the same speed of the weight loss (in which case you won't see loose skin) or it will shrink back slowly/not fully (which is when you see loose skin, temporarily or long-term).

This.

Think about it: In one sense, our bodies are an oddly shaped bag full of Stuff (bones, blood, fat, muscles, etc.). The bag is the skin.

When we lose weight, fat comes out of the skin-bag**, so the bag gets wrinkles and folds in it, or droops, or whatever, because the remaining stuff isn't big enough to hold the skin-bag outward firmly.

It's a little bit like a plastic bag, if you filled it with . . . I dunno, butter or something . . . to the point where it's stretched to its maximum capacity. If you then start taking out the contents, there's slack in the bag, and it won't be full, firm, rounded anymore.

The difference is a plastic bag is an unchangeable size, but skin size is dynamic: It can grow and shrink. As we gained weight, skin grew to accommodate the extra fat (it stretched, probably added cells in order to do it). When we lose weight, skin will shrink . . . but it takes time, and we have to reach the point where it's not stretched out by remaining fat before it can even start shrinking.

Loose skin is a "leftover" from being fat, when we become less fat. Then it can shrink, slowly, to some extent. How much it shrinks varies by person.

** I can't resist saying this: Where does the fat go? Around 80% of it is exhaled as gases. The other 20%-ish is water, so it becomes part of sweat, urine, saliva . . . .

Bodies are weird.

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

Just a slight side note, I’ve seen some great images to help people visualize the hunk of fat or butter etc. that they have lost at various points on their journey on these boards (can’t remember exactly where or I would link). Whenever I am cursing about having to lug home multiple ginormous bags of pet food or litter, or wrestle an unwieldy wheelchair in and out of my car, or put a big suitcase in an airplane baggage tray, I always remind myself that I used to carry around more than that on my body day in and day out. It is amazing what punishment our bodies can take from us and yet bounce back into shape!

I hope someone can find and post those! I couldn't find anything that looked authoritative and had something for scale, but I will offer this, of 5 pounds of fat:

noodlesno wrote: »

So I lost 100 lbs in 11 months. It was aggressive. I did experience some loose skin but it was helped ENORMOUSLY with weight training and just a bit of time. Attached are some photos if that helps. The first one is before the weight training and the second one is two months after I started. I am the same weight in both (160lbs) but actually a smaller size in the second

I really appreciate these photos.

In my PP on this thread, and many other times in other similar threads, I've said something like "Until the loose skin is kind of thin wrinkles, like wrinkles in a medium-weight fabric (denim, say), the skin probably won't shrink much. Larger folds or rolls, 1/2" plus, probably still have some subcutaneous fat that limits skin shrinkage."

Your loose skin is exactly what I mean by that. There's not much subcutaneous fat within the folds you're pulling at.

Part way through weight loss, people see folds of droop that are thicker than that, and think that's loose skin. The thicker folds are more than loose skin, they have fat helping keep the skin stretched. Eventually - we all hope - the fat will deplete more, and the skin has a better chance to shrink.

Will everyone's fat loss pattern leave them at goal weight with just skin (little/no subcutaneous fat clinging just inside the skin layer)? Probably not. I've only seen a few technical medical reports about skin removal surgery, but most have reported removing partly skin, partly fat (in the surgical removal, irrespective of contemporaneous liposuction). Different people lose fat in different patterns, it seems.

Only when we reach goal weight will we know our personal pattern. Fear about that, sooner than we can know, is natural and normal. But I'd encourage OP and others to try to move past that, see what happens. From looking at many threads here (in almost 8 years on MFP), most people get a better result than they had feared, I believe.

Will everyone's "just loose skin" (no much subcutaneous fat) shrink as beautifully as yours has? Probably not. That, too, we need to wait with patience for time (at goal weight, in maintenance) to see the final result.

Your results are amazing. I agree with you about the value of exercise. I think I didn't post on this thread the list of things that I think may help avoid or minimize loose skin (in the long run, months into goal, for the final results). IMO, a key thing is to realize that skin is an organ. The things that keep other organs healthy will also tend to keep skin healthy, which means elastic and more willing to adjust. These include:

* avoiding fast loss (because it's a physical stress to lose fast),
* getting good well-rounded nutrition (macros and micros, especially but not exclusively protein),
* getting regular exercise (both cardiovascular and strength),
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

Some people advocate collagen supplements, which I've not used so don't have an informed opinion. Some recommend externally-applied creams and lotions, dry brushing, and that sort of thing. I'm skeptical about those, but they're not likely to be harmful, so fine to try. Sometimes it feels good to feel we're taking control of a situation, and that in itself can be helpful.

Again, @noondlesno, thank you for these photos and congratulations on your hard work and truly outstanding results. You look fabulous.