...but how can I tell the difference between extra skin and fat? Long story short, over the last year and a bit I've lost probably around 90 pounds, just through walking around and eating better and stuff I guess (I was pretty overweight before). I wouldn't have considered it but now that I think about it, part of what's left (particularly on my chest/stomach) just seems kinda loose or saggy, compared to say my thigh or something. Iunno how to describe it really. But yeah, thanks for any insight.
It is probably skin. Think of your skin kind of like a rubber band. It can stretch and go back so much, until it is stretched too much where it will not go back to how it was. That is what has happened. There is surgery to help, but it is a difficult surgery actually. If it is not bad and you could live with it, I say do so.
It's not a stupid question at all. The answer depends on how long you had the extra weight, your age and your skin type. Skin stretches as you grow. When you're young, the skin does have some ability to retract (shrink) but for most people, once the skin is stretched, it is a permanent change. What I tell guys who lose a lot of weight is think of it in terms of two phases. In the first phase, when you first lose the fat, you will end up with a lot of excess skin on your arms and chest and legs. In the second phase, you need to fill in that empty space with muscle. It's the muscle that will make you look better in clothes. Look through some of the men in the video below and you will probably be focused on their faces and arms because The Biggest Loser focuses not only on weight loss but also on fitness, so the contestants put on muscle while they lose fat. [YOUTUBE]C0_JgEarxW4[/YOUTUBE] Did you notice that most of the guys are shown shirtless in their before pictures but have shirts on in their after pictures? Most people don't realize this because they are more focused on how much healthier everyone looks after the weight loss. The same is true of real life- most people aren't going to notice the extra skin, they're going to focus on how good you look. There's a good interview below with one of the contestants about her issues with excess skin. One interesting thing that she says is that once she changed her body, once she lost the weight, she became more conscious of her body- she spent more time looking at her body and that's one of the reasons that the excess skin bothered her. [YOUTUBE]5j0LIRmgT_M[/YOUTUBE]
Fair enough. I recently turned 20 (and just realized I don't have that listed over there <<<). Skin type, I dunno, because I honestly didn't know there were "types", or I guess commonly known ones... I'm sure there's medical specifics and stuff. And I've probably been that weight starting say, Grade 9/10, and slowly growing since then until about a year and a bit ago. So that's what, something around 5 years? That's actually really true... I didn't even notice. I get what you mean though, I do keep getting compliments on how good I look (or in comparison at least), but I guess I always brushed it off to me dressing well enough to hide my "flaws", per se. When I'm clothed and all that, I'm pretty fine with myself; I can even appreciate that I look pretty good. I guess I'm thinking more for the future if (and when) I ever get comfortable enough to be not dressed in front of other people/another guy. Also, I'll defs look over those videos... when I get some time alone. Being back home makes me constantly be (at least mentally) looking over my shoulder to see who's around. Thanks though, both of you.
There's definitely different skin types. Even within one body, there's different types of skin. For example, the skin on your arm is different from the skin on your face. People who are prone to stretch marks or who have less elastic skin will have less retraction in their skin after weight loss. If you gained weight and you've had the weight for several years, there will be less retraction. Watch the videos when you get a chance - it will offer a lot of insight about body self-image after weight loss.
Well that is interesting. I've lost a lot of weight the past couple of years. I have a bunch of stretch marks on my abdomen from my overweight days. I carried the extra weight for nearly 10 years. I've been trying lose the last of my gut. There is a part of that I just can't get rid of it. Dosen't seem to be much fat there, so it could be extra skin. Sounds like something that might not go away. I might check with a dermatologist next year to investigate my options.
