Gonna lose weight, what do I do about excess skin?

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

I am about to embark on a fairly harsh exercise regime. Or very harsh for me, one that I predict will burn many calories very fast. And I am doing this because I am fairly overweight and don't want to be so anymore. That's fine, but my next concern then is sagging skin.

I am undoubtedly going to have some of my belly hanging out, I am pretty sure I just have to come to accept that. Nothing but surgery is gonna fix that. But what about my neck, my chest, my arms?

Is there anything I can do mitigate that the damage? I know drinking lots of water makes your skin elastic, but other than that, what can I do?

patroclus · Nov 7, 2020

the slower you lose weight, the less excess skin you'll have. building muscle can help limit the amount as well.

But if you plan to lose weight very quickly there is very little you can do to mitigate this. At least that I've heard of since starting to lose weight myself earlier this year.

NinjaGarden · Nov 7, 2020

Build muscle

xxracerxx · Nov 7, 2020

Curious what your harsh regime is going to be.

Superpupperbabysassy · Nov 7, 2020

I was always told that hydration works well with making the skin elastic. So drink lots of water

Sheepinator · Nov 7, 2020

Maybe it helps if you're younger, and lose it more slowly.

Anyway, get yourself on a calorie tracking site like this. It's free, you can do a Premium sub but it doesn't seem worth it. Every food is in the database, and if not you can add or edit the database yourself. Make sure to enter absolutely everything you consume though.

Calorie Tracker & BMR Calculator to Reach Your Goals | MyFitnessPal

Reach your health, fitness & weight goals with MyFitnessPal, the #1 nutrition tracking app. Macro & calorie calculator, food tracker, and fasting app in one. Download today!

www.myfitnesspal.com

Kuro · Nov 7, 2020

Talk to a dermatologist about certain lotions you can use that help. That + muscle + maybe a more healthy rate of weight loss will probably help a lot.

Boy · Nov 7, 2020

I"ll echo what others said. Try losing the weight slowly instead of rapidly to avoid too much sagging skin. Also build some muscle.

Feign · Nov 7, 2020

It depends on how much excess weight you have. If it's a significant amount, probably over 75-100 pounds, you'll likely need surgery, but losing it slowly does help reduce the appearance of stretching. Age is also a factor.

The younger you are the less of an issue it is, but it's not perfect. I say this as someone who had weight loss surgery at 24. It looked okay standing, but leaning over showed a lot of it still there. I've lost more during quarantine and it started showing up while standing up. At some point I'll want surgery, but you want to be consistent with your weight beforehand so it doesn't come back.

Exuro · Nov 7, 2020

Don't want to be that guy but sometimes there's not much you can do. I had a significant weight loss a few years back(70ish lbs) and I have awful skin elasticity, so I have a bit of 'mushroom' gut/lower torso as well as loose skin around my biceps and chest. Building mass will help with loose skin on your arms and chest, but honestly there isn't much to be done with your gut. If your skin is fairly elastic it might be 'fine' but it'll never be tight as if you didn't gain the weight in the first place.

Doctor_Thomas · Nov 7, 2020

xxracerxx said:
Curious what your harsh regime is going to be.

This.

Don't do anything stupid.

I've lost 1st in 3 weeks from walking, exercise and calorie watching.

Don't damage yourself!

sweetmini · Nov 7, 2020

Don't be afraid, and good luck.
You might need nothing if you have an elastic skin, you might need something if you don't, just take care of your health first.
Aesthetics can wait for after covid.

Wag · Nov 7, 2020

I'm 52, my weight has yo-yo'd over the years, so I have a lot of excess skin. Outside of surgery there's not much you can do.

Heliex · Nov 7, 2020

Ive steady lost weight since march, and am having no excess skin. That being said, im also not being extreme about it, I just count my calories and avoid sugars.

data west · Nov 7, 2020

Build muscle and keep yourself at a deficit. Don't try to cut as much weight as possible.

Generally, you don't want to drop more than 500 calories a day form your average TDEE

TDEE Calculator: Learn Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure

Use the TDEE calculator to learn your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, a measure of how many calories you burn per day. This calculator displays MUCH more!

tdeecalculator.net

The Waistcoat · Nov 7, 2020

Is there a reason you're going for a harsh fat loss regime? Is there a requirement that you must be a certain size on a certain date?

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

xxracerxx said:
Curious what your harsh regime is going to be.

A six day schedule between weightlifting and a 50 minute UFC class (I just had my first class, and I'd say a lot of it is cardio, but weight exercises are interspersed inbetween). I do one per day, so weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then break day.

For weightlifting, I work out 2 muscle groups per day. Then the UFC class is a constant switch up between punching and kicking exercises on a bag, core exercises and some kind of moving weight exercise (today was burpees with 25 lbs barbells). It honestly felt more like a full body endurance exercise.

I don't know what would be considered harsh in general, but it's been a lot for me and I only did one class with 3 days of weightlifting.

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

The Waistcoat said:
Is there a reason you're going for a harsh fat loss regime? Is there a requirement that you must be a certain size on a certain date?

Not particularly, but I feel shitty. I hate my body, I hate moving whenever I feel the fat around me, and I am trying to commit by giving myself few breaks between workouts (I've noticed that i have more of a tendency to quit if I give myself more rest days).

I want to make sure I stay with it and I guess i just want to get fitter as soon as I can.

wolfshirt · Nov 7, 2020

My advice is wait until you get there, then decide how to move forward.

Veelk said:
Not particularly, but I feel shitty. I hate my body, I hate moving whenever I feel the fat around me, and I am trying to commit by giving myself few breaks (I've noticed that i have more of a tendency to quit if I give myself more break days).

I want to make sure I stay with it and I guess i just want to get fitter as soon as I can.

Also, you have to forgive your past/fat self. The more you hate yourself the harder this will be, trust me, please.

This is simply an issue and you can solve it, my dude.

Deleted member 39374 · Nov 7, 2020

Lose it gradually so it forms over time and won't droop

Source: lost 34lbs this year, no droop, just a couple stretch marks

TaterTots · Nov 7, 2020

As others have said, lose weight slowly. Aim for 2 lbs. a week and build muscle. Being younger helps as well.

niaobx · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
A six day schedule between weightlifting and a 50 minute UFC class (I just had my first class, and I'd say a lot of it is cardio, but weight exercises are interspersed inbetween). I do one per day, so weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then break day.

For weightlifting, I work out 2 muscle groups per day. Then the UFC class is a constant switch up between punching and kicking exercises on a bag, core exercises and some kind of moving weight exercise (today was burpees with 25 lbs barbells). It honestly felt more like a full body endurance exercise.

I don't know what would be considered harsh in general, but it's been a lot for me and I only did one class with 3 days of weightlifting.

That is harsh. Are you not worried of burning out quickly, going in that hard at the beginning? Recovery is important too.

Lucreto · Nov 7, 2020

Just do it slowly, I went from 220lbs to 195lbs in a year with no diet and just increase on walking. Slowly build up and you won't get sagging skin.

Sheepinator · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
Not particularly, but I feel shitty. I hate my body, I hate moving whenever I feel the fat around me, and I am trying to commit by giving myself few breaks between workouts (I've noticed that i have more of a tendency to quit if I give myself more rest days).

I want to make sure I stay with it and I guess i just want to get fitter as soon as I can.

Kudos for making the changes. I would advise caution to make sure they are sustainable changes, otherwise you may get discouraged.

For me, I find it easier to eat better on days I work out, whereas on rest days it's easier to cheat. What you should be doing is having a good number of calories on your weights days, and have a reasonable deficit on the non-weights days.

Menthuss · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
A six day schedule between weightlifting and a 50 minute UFC class (I just had my first class, and I'd say a lot of it is cardio, but weight exercises are interspersed inbetween). I do one per day, so weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then break day.

For weightlifting, I work out 2 muscle groups per day. Then the UFC class is a constant switch up between punching and kicking exercises on a bag, core exercises and some kind of moving weight exercise (today was burpees with 25 lbs barbells). It honestly felt more like a full body endurance exercise.

Did you do any exercises before this? Going from nothing to a six-day workout schedule is a really bad idea.

Sheepinator said:
Kudos for making the changes. I would advise caution to make sure they are sustainable changes, otherwise you may get discouraged.

^This is really important. I've gone to many gyms in the past and ended up just stopping after a couple of months because I absolutely hate exercise and get demotivated.
What finally made it sustainable for me was downloading the Adidas training app and just performing the exercises at home. I won't ever be making huge gains but I'm managing to keep it up despite absolutely despising it.

xxracerxx · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
A six day schedule between weightlifting and a 50 minute UFC class (I just had my first class, and I'd say a lot of it is cardio, but weight exercises are interspersed inbetween). I do one per day, so weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then break day.

For weightlifting, I work out 2 muscle groups per day. Then the UFC class is a constant switch up between punching and kicking exercises on a bag, core exercises and some kind of moving weight exercise (today was burpees with 25 lbs barbells). It honestly felt more like a full body endurance exercise.

I don't know what would be considered harsh in general, but it's been a lot for me and I only did one class with 3 days of weightlifting.

Your UFC trainer will tell you that is too much. Have to take it slow and steady.

Fatmanp · Nov 7, 2020

How much are you looking to lose? I lose 15 stone and i just have to live with it. Its nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. The obvious thing to do is lose the weight then bulk up.

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

niaobx said:
That is harsh. Are you not worried of burning out quickly, going in that hard at the beginning? Recovery is important too.

As I said, I've been doing this for a while. There is a period in my life where I was fit so I know what it feels like, but at the time I was fit, I was doing 3 days straight of weightlifting and then 1 day rest before cycling again. I've tried giving myself a rest day between those 3 days, but all it did was make me less likely to go on schedule for the next day.

The good thing about the UFC gym classes is they let you go your own pace. So, like, today, basically did less than half the exercises there because I was just so tired out, but I was there, so maybe it sounds harsher than it is because I'm giving the impressing I am doing those exercises completely, when I have a long way to go before i have the endurance for that. For now, it feels more like I am doing just intense cardio between weightlifting sessions and that feels better to me.

Deleted member 41178 · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
A six day schedule between weightlifting and a 50 minute UFC class (I just had my first class, and I'd say a lot of it is cardio, but weight exercises are interspersed inbetween). I do one per day, so weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then weightlifting, then ufc, then break day.

For weightlifting, I work out 2 muscle groups per day. Then the UFC class is a constant switch up between punching and kicking exercises on a bag, core exercises and some kind of moving weight exercise (today was burpees with 25 lbs barbells). It honestly felt more like a full body endurance exercise.

I don't know what would be considered harsh in general, but it's been a lot for me and I only did one class with 3 days of weightlifting.

Do you mean MMA or are you actually enrolled in some kind of UFC program?

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

xxracerxx said:
Your UFC trainer will tell you that is too much. Have to take it slow and steady.

I literally did and he said it wasn't. But his priorities are skewed as he's trying to get me to sign for a membership (this was a free class).

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

RolandOfGilead said:
Do you mean MMA or are you actually enrolled in some kind of UFC program?

This is a UFC gym that is offering basic classes to it's members. I wouldn't really call it a program, just a basic exercise regime they coach you through.

niaobx · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
As I said, I've been doing this for a while. There is a period in my life where I was fit so I know what it feels like, but at the time I was fit, I was doing 3 days straight of weightlifting and then 1 day rest before cycling again. I've tried giving myself a rest day between those 3 days, but all it did was make me less likely to go on schedule for the next day.

The good thing about the UFC gym classes is they let you go your own pace. So, like, today, basically did less than half the exercises there because I was just so tired out, but I was there, so maybe it sounds harsher than it is because I'm giving the impressing I am doing those exercises completely, when I have a long way to go before i have the endurance for that. For now, it feels more like I am doing just intense cardio between weightlifting sessions and that feels better to me.

I see. Well, if you already know your limits that's good and kudos for your dedication.

Bardeh · Nov 7, 2020

Diet is the first thing you need to tackle. Of course exercise is important (although going from presumably very little to what you're describing sounds like a recipe for burnout or injury) but every sensible and long-lasting weight loss plan must start with your diet. There are a ton of apps out there for calorie counting - get one, look up your Base Metabolic Rate, and then simply eat 500-1000 calories less than that per day. Combine this with a gentle but slowly ramping exercise regime, and the weight will fall off you AND you'll almost immediately feel better within yourself.

I know you want the weight gone NOW but I honestly think you're setting yourself up for injury with the way you're approaching this.

New002 · Nov 7, 2020

I think these two reddit comment on the subject are helpful:

Loose skin mostly comes down to genetics. You might get it, or you might not. We tell people to stay hydrated, moisturize their skin, lose weight at a healthy rate, and lift weights. None of those are really proven, but it's certainly not going to hurt. The only way you'll know if you have loose skin is to lose weight and find out."

I have a plastic surgeon friend and here is his advice: Drink lots of water and be patient.

It's not exactly true that losing too quickly will cause loose skin. He explains it like this: Everyone has a set length of time that it will take for the skin to tighten up. This time depends on genetics, age, etc. and can vary quite a bit. But say your skin is "programmed" to be as tight as it will get after 2 years. If you lose the weight in 18 months, you might have some loose skin for 6 months until the 2 year mark. If you lose the weight in 6 months, you might have some loose skin for 18 months until the 2 year mark. So losing quickly may mean you'll have loose skin for a period of time, but it doesn't affect the long-term results.

He suggests maintaining your low weight for 2 years before deciding whether you have loose skin or not. He says most of the surgeries he does could be prevented if people were just willing to wait, but few are.

Hope that helps! Ultimately, all you can do is drink lots of water and be patient.

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

I have to mow the lawn now so I'll take a quick break from the thread, but will look over as soon as I get back

OhSatan · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
I work out 2 muscle groups per day.

Are you a 70s bodybuilder juiced with steroids?
I'm going to assume no so don't do that.

Do core full range weightlifting.

Mandos · Nov 7, 2020

patroclus said:
the slower you lose weight, the less excess skin you'll have. building muscle can help limit the amount as well.

But if you plan to lose weight very quickly there is very little you can do to mitigate this. At least that I've heard of since starting to lose weight myself earlier this year.

Next week I'll be down 50 lbs in 6 months and I don't have excess skin either! Been doing it the slow consistent way with keto

ItchyTasty · Nov 7, 2020

A word of caution on hard training routines from the get go is that they can be very hard to maintain and makes it easy to "give up". There's also a risk of injury if you don't give your body a chance to rest.

While it's easy to be impatient with progress I think the easiest way to start exercising is to start slow and steady but still making it a habit. Then increase the exercise as your body adapts.

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

New002 said:
I think these two reddit comment on the subject are helpful:

That's actually super encouraging to hear, especially from the plastic surgeon. I am hoping to avoid surgery if possible, so it gives me hope that my body can potentially unfuck itself at some point.

Bardeh said:
Diet is the first thing you need to tackle. Of course exercise is important (although going from presumably very little to what you're describing sounds like a recipe for burnout or injury) but every sensible and long-lasting weight loss plan must start with your diet. There are a ton of apps out there for calorie counting - get one, look up your Base Metabolic Rate, and then simply eat 500-1000 calories less than that per day. Combine this with a gentle but slowly ramping exercise regime, and the weight will fall off you AND you'll almost immediately feel better within yourself.

I know you want the weight gone NOW but I honestly think you're setting yourself up for injury with the way you're approaching this.

Diet is one thing I've never paid super attention to. When I was in college, I mostly ate what I wanted and worked off the calories. But I noticed that when I was exercising, I tended to want to eat healthy just on my own. The garbage fast food I ate before just wanted to make me throw up and any excess of sugar was just gross.

Right now, one good thing about where I'm at is that I'm gonna be losing weight no matter what I do as my metabolism speeds up.

Wereroku · Nov 7, 2020

Make sure you get a physical before you start since rapid weightloss can cause some major issues. Also the doctor might know some things that can help. However for drastic drops surgery is basically your only option for extra skin.

sweetmini · Nov 7, 2020

Mandos said:
Next week I'll be down 50 lbs in 6 months and I don't have excess skin either! Been doing it the slow consistent way with keto

If you weight everyday, do you see that kind of weight loss pattern in waves ? (these are KGs, but units don't matter)
mine come at pretty regular intervals since i started measuring daily.

Anyway, sorry op for the out of topic thing, since there is no weight loss thread that i know of ahaha

JDSN · Nov 7, 2020

As a physician I congratulate the spirit but some of these changes must be incremental rather than accelerated, there is a pandemic of stress fractures, tears and chondromalasia related to sedentary people suddenly running a 5k or learning to do a sprawl on mma.

Don't do this, seek a doctor.

Yazuka · Nov 7, 2020

Sorry OP, I hope it's okay to ask some questions of my own
Is there things you can do at home, like some kind of exercise you can do at home that works good?
And some good moves to help the skin to follow the loss better?
I really don't want to go out to the gyms now and we are having more corona cases by the day it seems. =/

Bardeh · Nov 7, 2020

Yazuka said:
Sorry OP, I hope it's okay to ask some questions of my own
Is there things you can do at home, like some kind of exercise you can do at home that works good?
And some good moves to help the skin to follow the loss better?
I really don't want to go out to the gyms now and we are having more corona cases by the day it seems. =/

Eat at a 500-1000 calorie deficit every day, go out and walk for an hour a day (or however much you feel like / have time for) and you'll lose up to a kilo a week.

(One week at 1000 calorie deficit per day = 7000 calorie deficit per week = around 1kg of fat used to make up that deficit)

It's basic physics, and when you boil it down like this, weight loss really is that simple. The hard part is sticking to the calorie counting, and getting used to the sensation of hunger and learning to live with it.

Yazuka · Nov 7, 2020

Bardeh said:
Eat at a 500-1000 calorie deficit every day, go out and walk for an hour a day (or however much you feel like / have time for) and you'll lose up to a kilo a week.

(One week at 1000 calorie deficit per day = 7000 calorie deficit per week = around 1kg of fat used to make up that deficit)

It's basic physics, and when you boil it down like this, weight loss really is that simple. The hard part is sticking to the calorie counting, and getting used to the sensation of hunger and learning to live with it.

Okay. Is there something you can recommend eating?
This is the hardest part for me, I've spoken with doctors to help lose weight, but they say just do this and do that.
I think a bit of a more visual help or rather be told to "eat this here". But thanks for the help. :)

Listai · Nov 7, 2020

Speaking from experience start worrying about that once you drop the weight.

big_z · Nov 7, 2020

How fast or slow you lose weight doesn't change how much excess skin you end up with. Skin is slow to retract so dropping weight fast might make it look more saggy short term but ultimately it's all genetics. Rule of thumb is to maintain your goal weight for a year or two and then you'll know how much excess skin you have.

Like wise stretch marks take a similar amount of time to fade.

Gorgamel · Nov 7, 2020

Veelk said:
I am about to embark on a fairly harsh exercise regime. Or very harsh for me, one that I predict will burn many calories very fast. And I am doing this because I am fairly overweight and don't want to be so anymore. That's fine, but my next concern then is sagging skin.

I am undoubtedly going to have some of my belly hanging out, I am pretty sure I just have to come to accept that. Nothing but surgery is gonna fix that. But what about my neck, my chest, my arms?

Is there anything I can do mitigate that the damage? I know drinking lots of water makes your skin elastic, but other than that, what can I do?

Care to give some numbers? How tall are you? How much do you weight? A good rule of thumb is to lose a maximum 1% of your weight per week.

I have been where you are. 4 years( at 41 years of age) ago I got tired of being obese all of my adult life and did a full lifestyle change. Good nutrition (no fad diet, just controlled my macros), lots and lots of exercise. At first it was weights 4 days a week and cycling 2 days a week. And just stayed consistent. Went from 300 pounds to 200 pounds in a year(I am 6'2"). And managed to keep the weight off.

Then I started focusing on gaining muscle mass and overall fitness. 4 years later, I weight 220lbs, with 16% BF, and I am in the best shape of my life. I am now cycling an average of over 200km per week, and lift weights 5 days a week.

Back to your original question, i have had zero problems with loose skin. Because it was a gradual( and sustainable) weight loss, and I added at least 20 pounds of muscle.

If you want more details on exactly what I did, I am glad to share my nutrition and workout routine.

The main thing is it has to come down to your will and determination. There will be bad days, and you will slip up, but you just have to keep going. Best thing I have ever done for myself. Changed my entire quality of life.

Veelk · Nov 7, 2020

Gorgamel said:
Care to give some numbers? How tall are you? How much do you weight?

30 (and 3/4) years of age. 5'10''. 231 lbs.

JDSN said:
As a physician I congratulate the spirit but some of these changes must be incremental rather than accelerated, there is a pandemic of stress fractures, tears and chondromalasia related to sedentary people suddenly running a 5k or learning to do a sprawl on mma.

Don't do this, seek a doctor.

If it helps, I really am starting small. The schedule itself is harsh, but the weights I'm lifting aren't huge, and the UFC class I am taking lets you go at your own pace, so if you want to take a water break or even sit out an exercise, they let you do that. If they actually forced me to do everything they instructed me to do, I'd have written it off without hesitating.

So, I'm not running a 5k from the word go, it's more that I am committing to do a 5k where I sometimes run, sometimes walk, sometimes sit down for a break, etc, but the 5k itself is done.

Yazuka said:
Sorry OP, I hope it's okay to ask some questions of my own
Is there things you can do at home, like some kind of exercise you can do at home that works good?
And some good moves to help the skin to follow the loss better?
I really don't want to go out to the gyms now and we are having more corona cases by the day it seems. =/

I feel bad about going to the gyms, but it's basically not an option for me. I don't mean physically. If you go online, you'll find plenty of home exercises that are super effective. But mentally, if I stayed at home, I'd lose motivation super fast. The gym just puts you in a different mind set because it's a place directly designed for the purpose of getting fitter, and having to actually physically go to a place like that to lose weight is hugely beneficial to keeping dedicated. I'm sure people who are already gym rats can do home exercise just fine, but people like you and me, it needs to be a different environment.

That said, it doesn't have to be a gym gym. If you happen to know a friend who has a home gym, if they let you use it, you can go there instead. And on that note, getting a friend to go to the gym with helps a lot too.

Bardeh · Nov 7, 2020

Yazuka said:
Okay. Is there something you can recommend eating?
This is the hardest part for me, I've spoken with doctors to help lose weight, but they say just do this and do that.
I think a bit of a more visual help or rather be told to "eat this here". But thanks for the help. :)

If your only goal is to lose weight, it literally doesn't matter. You could eat 1500 calories of ice cream per day, and you would lose the exact same amount of weight as if you ate 1500 calories of broccoli per day.

Of course, there are many more aspects to health than simply your body weight, and eating 1500 calories of ice cream per day would be terrible for you. The answer, as ever, is to eat a balanced, varied diet with plenty of vegetables.

You'll soon find, when you start counting calories, that junk food is extremely calorie dense. There are 275 calories in a 55g bag of doritos. You could eat over 800g of broccoli for the same amount of calories, and it's obvious which is more healthy and filling. When I began counting calories, I would fill my plate with stuff like that - stuff I could eat a lot of without eating into my calorie budget - and a good side effect of this is that those foods tend to be much better for you.

If you look up *calorie amount* meal plan, there's a ton of stuff out there:

1,500-Calorie Diet Plan for Weight Loss, Created by a Dietitian

This 1500-calorie meal plan will set you on the path to healthy weight loss—without feeling deprived. Dig in here for satisfying, healthy recipes.

www.eatingwell.com

2,000-Calorie Meal Plan to Lose Weight, Created by a Dietitian

This 2,000-calorie meal plan will help you feel energized and satisfied so you can lose a healthy 1 to 2 pounds per week. See what's on the menu.

www.eatingwell.com

Gonna lose weight, what do I do about excess skin?

User requested account closure

50¢ - "This guy are sick"