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Anonymous
Sup /fit/,

I'm curious about something. In highschool, I used to be a fat kid (started when I was ~8), weighing in at 200lbs. By the time I hit college, I was ~145lbs, but I still had a gut. got into weightlifting, gained ~20lbs of muscle while retaining (what I believe) the same amount of body fat, stopped lifting about a year ago and my weight's dropped down to ~150lbs, still with a gut. I'm worried that the gut is extra skin from my past obesity and even if I did shittons of cardio and got my body fat percentage down, it still won't go away. Do you know much about this issue /fit/?

TL;DR - I used to be a fat kid. Not fat anymore, but still have a gut. Will it ever go away?
>> Anonymous
cardio: run, bycicle, etc
>> Anonymous
>>306954
Yes, I've gone to a gym before, I know. In case the TL;DR wasn't clear enough:

I have a gut. Will it go away even if I do cardio because I'm worried it might be excess skin from when I was fat for around 8 years of my life?
>> Anonymous
it takes time, same situation, I hit 190 in high school. No I weigh 151 but I have a flabby part in my waistline. I cut down 20 pounds in 3 months so Im not giving up, Im hitting 145 then I will see. Just keep doing it until new years. Hard cardio and run a lot.
>> Anonymous
>>306959
Since there is no such thing as spot reduction, stick to cardio, you will run out of fat anywhere, maybe your gut, and then you'll be happy.
>> Anonymous
At least being fat didn't give you big-ass hips (literally) like it did to me. There's no getting rid of that.
>> Anonymous
you shouldnt have too much excess skin unless you were OBESE AS FUCK

as long as you lost it at a slow and steady rate your skin should tighten and form to your body quite well

so yea eat clean and cardio/lift, just dont do stupid shit like starving yourself or stupid diets
>> Anonymous
>>306969
Yeah, not too worried about the fat, but I've heard horror stories of people who've lost all the fat with ONLY a huge chunk of stretched out skin remaining. Kinda... scary as fuck.
>> Anonymous
>>306980

That's nature's way of punishing you for being stupid enough to get fat to begin with.

Also, do you have stretchmarks? If so, then you have excess skin that is stuck there until you get it surgically removed (dangerous and expensive). Stretchmarks are "emergency skin". It doesn't go away.

Enjoy your fucked up stomach, loser.
>> Anonymous
>>306980
If you ever get flabby skin anywhere on your body, but i mean, REALY grotesque flabby skin, you will need to get surgery, BUT I DONT THINK IT IS YOUR CASE, even when you haven't provided a photo of your "horrible" gut.
>> Anonymous
provide photo or this is all BS.

Loose skin gut is EXTREMELY flabby and soft. Like it hangs off of your body.

Regular fat feels completely different, I doubt you have loose skin. You just have poor diet.
>> Anonymous
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>>306976
Thank you, anon. You've answered my question well. I know it's not much, but here's a gift for you that I got over at /jp/.
>> Anonymous
I think there was a post on here earlier that discussed some of the same issues. The poster gave an explanation as to why "loose skin" may actually be skin + fat, and that it will tighten up with additional fat loss. Either way, I think the only solution is lift+cardio. Good luck anon.
>> Anonymous
>>306987
I don't know about OP, but I got fat from anti-depressants my mom made me take in elementary school. Obviously that was kind of pointless.
>> Anonymous
>>306987
>>306988
>>306992

I don't own a camera, nor a way to get the pictures off of my phone's shitty camera, so I can't quite provide pictures. I have some stretch marks [spoiler]BAWWWW ;_;[/spoiler] but they're not too noticable. And yeah, my gut isn't extremely loose and flabby, so I guess I'm okay.

>>307004
I used to be severely underweight as a child, so my parents tried many things to get me to like eating more to get to a healthy weight. They succeeded in getting me to liking fast food. McDonalds, especially. Better chubby than looking like a starving Nigerian child, I guess.
>> Anonymous
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>>307001

Er, yeah, I think I was that poster.

OP, the short version of what I said is this:

Skin is extremely thin. Like thin as a sheet of paper for all seven layers. If you had JUST extra skin, it would be hanging all over from any area you lost weight. Obviously, you lost like 40-50 pounds and everything got smaller, right? It got smaller, so you know your skin is adapting to it. Fat does not burn evenly, so you might lose *some* of the fat in your stomach, while other fat cells remain in an uneven ratio...this makes it so your skin can not adapt until the rest of that fat is burned, but in the meantime it will give the illusion of "loose" consistency.

Do me a favor. Pinch the skin on your eyelids. That's how thin the actual organ of the skin is when fat is taken out of the equation, also keep in mind when "pinching" skin like this, you're doubling it up so that's actually 14 layers and not 7. The skin's thickness is the same on every part of your body except the feet, where it is naturally thicker for obvious reasons.

Attached is a pic of a guy I know from a fitness board. This was what he had after losing like 200 pounds.
>> Anonymous
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>>307019

This is the same guy two months later after continuing his cardio and diet. Notice how much it shaped up, but it's still not finished...
>> Anonymous
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>>307022

This is yet the same guy once he achieved what he considered his ideal body composition. His "loose skin" is completely gone and all he did was keep exercising and dieting.

Surgery is for people with no dedication and a lot of extra money.
>> Anonymous
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fat
>> Anonymous
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lose skin skinnyfat
>> Anonymous
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>>307023
Well shit, that's amazing. Picture #1 scared me, hit f5, picture #2 wasn't so bad, hit f5, and I was relieved upon seeing picture #3. It's great to know that it is possible to get rid of unsightly... extras with time and dedication.
>> Anonymous
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dont have another shirtless pic but the guy says his lose skin went away in time
>> Anonymous
>>307031

Keep up your routine. Give it another year and see where you stand.

Also, given that you were really fat looking at 200, I'm guessing you're not that tall. You might want to try getting down to 135 or so and see what happens. I don't think your skin is loose so much as there's just additional fat in there.

Granted, if we assume it's totally hopeless and there's no way to get rid of it with exercise, at least you know surgery is always an option. Provided you get a good job it won't be that big of a deal to cover it and insurance might help pay for all or some of it if you're able to convince them it causes rashes or something.
>> Anonymous
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>>307044
Ah yes, sorry, I forgot to include my height in the OP post. I was ~5'4" when I was a fat kid in high school. I'm now 5'7". 200 is still a beastly weight for me now.

I'll keep up my routine, eat well, etc. Hopefully, I'll get a camera soon so I can take before and after pictures. I really appreciate all the help you've given me!