"Loose Skin" -- a Tracy Anderson comment has me wondering....

[Vintage VFer]

Hey now, I see that "utterly ridiculous" in the thread tags. Wendy said not to make editorial comments in the tags. Somebody is a bad girl!

LOL!

[pumptmuscle]

Originally Posted by kietsufit

I google the subject from time to time and a few months back I read an article by a man that said there is no such thing...he claimed it was just fat under the skin causing it to sag and if you lost more weight the situation would be gone. He supported his idea by refering to anorexics and concentration camp victims and urging you to find pictures where any of them had sagging skin.

As I'd mentoned in a post last month, loose skin is an issue for me and there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that it is loose skin and not fat. I can feel my ribs and easily feel my hip bone just below my waist. I've done core work like crazy and it's still there. If you're talking about the area of the waist/midsection, as is the case with me, the tell-tale sign is when you bend forward at the waist. If you have a lot of "overhang" that's very loose and jiggly, it's skin. Another indication is when I do planks, which cause the entire midsection to become completely rigid. Everything's tight except the skin dangling from my waist (or sides if it's a side plank).

Since I've been researching this issue for a while, I've come acrosss a bunch of youtube videos where people had a lot of loose skin after extreme weight losses. Skin is elastic, like a balloon. If you blow one up part way then immediately release the air, it will only be a little thin and loose. If you blow it up fully, leave it that way for say a year or so, then deflate it, it'll look much different. Skin can only stretch so much, and be stretched for so long, before irreversibly losing it's elasticity.

The only way becoming bulky would cause loose skin was if that muscle ever was lost. On the flip side, if someone has a minor issue with loose skin but builds up their muscles, it'll make the skin tighter, depending on how much muscle is gained.

[pumptmuscle]

Originally Posted by Alta

Hey now, I see that "utterly ridiculous" in the thread tags. Wendy said not to make editorial comments in the tags. Somebody is a bad girl!

LOL!

Ummm, or possibly boy! (granted, it wasn't me but may have been one of the other 2 men here)

[Vintage VFer]

Originally Posted by pumptmuscle

Ummm, or possibly boy! (granted, it wasn't me but may have been one of the other 2 men here)

There are men on this board?

[ddj]

Originally Posted by ~^~RedFlame~^~

Trust me ladies, loose skin is about two things, FIRST and foremost, SUN EXPOSURE, and then secondly AGE.

Well, I was only 24 when my son was born and I have stretch marks. I worked out before, during and after the pregnancy and used Mother's Friend during the whole pregnancy, starting before I was really even showing. So I guess there's more than two reasons.

[bzar]

Originally Posted by alikruegs

But, at the same time, I also heard plenty of talk about post-pregnancy and post-fat-loss "loose skin," so I'm wondering if there is and why there might be a difference between ending up with "loose skin" after fat loss but not after muscle loss. Is this generally people's experience? Any ideas as to why that might be so?

i have loose skin after pregancy, and i am 6 years post partum.

about loose skin after muscle loss - major folly there. if i lose muscle, the fat just puffs it up!

some people here on VF, especially the small boned women, they're afraid of getting too skinny because the loose skin, especially on their face, makes them look emaciated.

my loose skin issues are entirely from pregnancy - the stomach. i've accepted it and moved on.

[Debbie S.]

As crazy as TA some of TA's comments are at times, there is a bit of truth to the loose skin issue, and genetics could play a role.

For me, my arms are cursed with the Portuguese genetics thanks to my wonderful mom. I have worked my triceps hard since I started lifting weights in the mid 70s to keep them from the loose skin syndrome. I have built quite a bit of muscle over the years of lifting heavy, something that I kind of regret now, but can't undo. When I stopped lifting weights during the 3 year period after I was recovering from my accidents and surgeries, my triceps looked horrible. I've worked hard to get them back to what they used to look like and I know that I will always have to work them hard.

My father who is now 74 years old has become really self conscious about his arms and it really saddens me. I'm not sure why, but he is experiencing quite a bit of muscle waste in his arms. I'm assuming it's due from him aging.

[acescholar]

I had three children, all of them stuck out like basketballs in my belly, and I do have a bit of loose and wavy skin from this, and -- sorry if it its TMI -- a stretched out belly button. I lost the baby weight right away, and even went back to a small waist and flat stomach -- but the skin itself didn't completely recover.

I think that loose skin happens as a result of stretching your skin beyond its normal (probably genetically influenced) elasticity, whatever that is. You can stretch it too far with muscle, baby, or fat.

I love Tracy A's PP ab workout, and I think my abs look even better -- but so far it hasn't "reattached the skin to the muscle." I'm still waiting for that "magical" moment!

[RedPanda]

Originally Posted by kietsufit

The subject of saggy skin intrigues me because I have lost a sig amount of weight and often times feel like my arms and legs could look better. That said, I google the subject from time to time and a few months back I read an article by a man that said there is no such thing...he claimed it was just fat under the skin causing it to sag and if you lost more weight the situation would be gone. He supported his idea by refering to anorexics and concentration camp victims and urging you to find pictures where any of them had sagging skin.

I'm not sure I agree but I will say that the areas that I feel are saggy are areas I can clearly pinch fat. Your skin is very thin - pinch the top of your hand. Now pinch your saggy area (if you have one) and it feels much thicker. Does this mean he is right? If so, I wonder how low I'd have to go? I'm 5'3.5" and about 123#. My final goal is 114#...I bet I still have the saggy bits when its all said and done! DARN!

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I'm just chiming in to say that the man you referred to is partially - but only partially - right. The "loose skin" that is left after massive weight loss is partly skin and partly "fat cells which have shed their contents", as my plastic surgeon described it. After I first lost weight I had a bit of loose skin in my armpits and underarms. It has now retracted due to time and building up my triceps. But the very soft flesh that remains is the dreaded empty fat cells and they won't go anywhere without surgery. You can gain fat cells through gaining fat, but you can never lose them; they will just sit on your body like little empty balloons weighting to be filled up - another reason why it is very easy to regain lost weight.

As for the remark about anorexics and concentration camp victims, I would think that the reason they don't have much loose skin is that they weren't fat in the first place. Instead of going from overweight/obese to normal/slim, they went from normal/slim to emaciated - big difference in the amount of weight lost.

[RedPanda]

Originally Posted by susan p

Given that Debbie also mentions not snapping back as well the third time, perhaps there is some sort of "third time's the charm" thing going on here with skin elasticity. Perhaps if you built mega-muscle once and let it atrophy, then twice, you would still snap back, but that THIRD time would be the killer!

That's true too. Whether through repeated weight gain and loss, or several pregnancies, weight cycling will affect your skin's elasticity.