File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
Okay, /fit/.

In the past two years, I've lost something like 130 pounds. Now, I look a whole lot better, but there are, of course issues. There's sagging, loose skin under my upper arms, on my back (which has started to tighten up a bit lately), on my thighs, and where my HUEG GUT used to be.

How can I get rid of this without surgery and without just getting huge muscles to "fill it out"? I still weigh a bit more than a BMI chart says I should, should I try to lose more weight and see if some subcutaneous fat under them goes away? Are there exercises that will tighten it up?

Pic is my arm, with my finger poking at the flab.

Help me, /fit/!
>> Anonymous
Bumping for desperation.
>> Anonymous
>How can I get rid of this without surgery and without just getting huge muscles to "fill it out"?

You just listed your only two options.
>> Anonymous
What happened:

You lost a ton of muscle.


What you think happened:

"Loose skin".

There's no such thing as loose skin, what you have is a bunch of fat that is just showing up more because you lost so much muscle on your crash diet. Keep losing weight, but for the love of god incorporate weight training into your life. You don't need huge muscles to fill it out, you just need normal, healthy muscles.

Look at this way:

Someone can be 120 pounds and really fit looking. They gain 80 pounds and go to 200. They lose 80 pounds are back down to 120, but they're no longer the trim person they used to be. Reason? At previous 120, they had good muscles, at the current 120 they've lost a lot of muscle and are retaining pure fat. The only way to fix this is to lose more weight, in which case they'd become a fucking twig, or to replace fat with muscle to go back to their old body.

tl;dr: You don't have "loose skin", you have fat and no muscle mass.
>> Anonymous
>>305204

Also, show us the rest of your "problem areas" so we can get a better idea of what you actually look like. Just an arm is not a good thing to go by.

I wanna see your face and stomach so I can tell if you're really just still fat and making excuses.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>305288

There's my face.

>>305283

Also, that rather makes sense. I've been doing a ton of push-ups lately, so my biceps are actually, I dunno, back in existence, but I suppose I need to basically, er, work out a ton, huh?
>> Anonymous
>>305294
OH FUCKING FANTASTIC

NOW IT'S A CAMWHORE THREAD

INB4RIDICULOUS SHITSTORM
>> Anonymous
>>305296

Sorry, I didn't WANT to post it, but I'll do just about anything to get better advice than my friends and family can provide.
>> Anonymous
Ehm, okay? I didn't really see the need of the second photo but whatever. Depending on how big the sagging is you may need surgical treatment.

Bulking up is an option but you need to be careful, if you don't train right you'll only end up fat again. Talk to someone experienced at the gym of interest. But be warned, this kind of training is a lifestyle and not something that every person is willing nor has time to commit to.

- Other than that, trim your eyebrows and shave properly (or get a small beard when you're older).
>> Anonymous
You're actually pretty good lookin, OP. I'd say just try to work out, build up some muscle mass. I'm assuming you're young, your body should have no problem rebounding. Drink water, keep hydrated, stay active.
>> Anonymous
Hey OP, i'm a young, 25, and lost 100 pounds over about two years. There sure as hell is such a thing as Loose skin. I've had a consult with a plastic surgeon because my arms and gut are all flabby. I have no more weight to loose but still have excess skin. The only thing that will fix this is surgery. I talked to a few doctors who said a lot of toning and lifting weights will help but not cure it. So, I figure i'll wait til I have kids one day, since they'll just fuck up all the work anyways.
And yes, you are good looking :)
>> Anonymous
>>305388

Flabby means you're still fat. Loose skin is an excuse and a myth.

The reason this happens is because people take an uneducated approach to weight loss. They diet. That's it. They diet and let their muscle waste away. You have flab because you still have a very high percentage of body fat.

Have you any idea how THIN skin is? If what you said were true, loose skin would be hanging off of every part of your body like bedsheets. The truth is that you have fat packed between what you think is "loose skin" and you've yet to shed it. Skin is alive. It is adaptable. It has amazing elasticity.

You guys are using logic like this:

"If you buy size 34 jeans and wear them long enough, they might stretch out to a size 36. The only way to bring them back to a size 34 is to get the waist taken in by a tailor."

The real logic behind skin elasticity is that it's more like a rubber band and not some static type of fabric. Grab the skin on the back of your hand and stretch it out. Let it go. How long did it take to snap back down? Less than a quarter of a second for anyone young. That's how much elasticity your skin has. It does not get "loose", you're just still fat and have no muscle.
>> Anonymous
>>305430

Oh, yeah. Another example I'd like to make:

If you've ever had an anatomy class, you might have learned that fat does NOT burn completely evenly off of your body. This is also a reason why people perceive "loose skin". It works like this:
__________________
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Those are fat cells under the skin on your stomach, for example, and the line is the skin above. When fat burns from your body, it happens when the mitochondria in your cells needs emergency energy, so it asks for fat from the fat cells. It does not ask for fat to come in order of the cells, it does not care. Thus, fat often burns off like this:

____ __ __ __
( ) ( ) \ /( )\ /( )\ /( )

And, thusly, the skin tries to adapt inwards, but adjacent fat cells that have not been depleted yet still hold the skin up in other areas. This explains "saggy" or "dimply" looking skin.
>> Anonymous
>>305430

We know. However, if you stretch a rubber band out for years on end, it will not retain it's elasticity. Think of your 8 year old pair of underwear. You need a belt to keep the fuckers on.

Skin is the same way. It can regain some elasticity, but being stretched out for long increases its size so much that it can't go all the way back.

You are entirely correct that the majority of the problem is bad dieting procedure, though.
>> Anonymous
>>305430
OP here.

To be honest, that's kind of the answer I was hoping for, because it means there's something I can do without surgery. I'll continue with a healthy diet (not a starvation diet) and visiting the gym that my university enrollment grants me free access to.
>> Anonymous
>>305283
They see me trollin'
>> Anonymous
>>305468

Exactly, don't cave into any theories yet, since you aren't even at your desired weight as you said before. The real problem is body composition right now. Skin can lose elasticity, yes, but not from being stretched out too much by fat. You get stretchmarks from this in a lot of cases, but the skin is perfectly able to return to normal after proper weight loss has been achieved.

Think of it like this:

You have a trashbag full of rocks. It's filled to the top and is all filled out. You're holding it by the neck. You remove half of the rocks, then pick it up again by the neck. It's obviously going to look and feel looser since half the rocks are still inside it. It can't bunch up properly because of the remaining rocks. Remove the remaining rocks and the problem is solved.

>>305477

They see me havin' a gross misunderstanding of the human body...
>> Anonymous
>>305494
>They see me havin' a gross misunderstanding of the human body...

Hi, you must be new here, welcome to /fit/
>> Anonymous
it will go because you are still young. i lost 120 over a year and it took about two years for similar to go. absolutely imperative that you incorporate as much weight training into your life as possible.

tl;dr. don't worry about it, it will go, keep lifting
>> Anonymous
unfortunately skin doesn't tighten up if you've lost a lot of weight the excess skin will stay, although i would go see a doctor then a cosmetic surgeon

Goodluck bro
>> Anonymous
I think you should lose more weight. I also got a bit of loose skin when I went from 280lbs to 220lbs but I continued losing weight and worked more toning and weight training into my routine, and as well as losing a further 22lbs, i don't have such loose skin any more.

I think really when people say loose skin, it's just looser than it was when it was filled with fat. It's not JUST skin, it probably still retains a certain amount of subcutaneous fat which is why the body isn't breaking it down and tightening it up. For your body, that loose 'skin' is still a valuable fat reserve, it just looks flabby because you've used a lot of it.

Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone who weighed like 90lbs with loose skin? I say carry on with your exercise and your body will burn up the excess tissue eventually.
>> Anonymous
>>306653
This man is right.