Thread: Newbie Question

Prevent Loose Skin After Weight Loss

• Exercise regularly to tighten and tone problem areas
• Follow a healthy diet plan
• Do resistance training 3 times a week to build new muscle for the skin to adhere to
• Count calories
• Don’t follow an extremely restrictive diet
• Drink a lot of water
• Lose weight slowly
• Talk to your doctor about healthy weight loss options

Ways to Tighten Loose Skin After Extreme Weight Loss

• Continue to exercise regularly
• Concentrate on strength training exercises
• Eat lean poultry and other proteins with each meal
• Try over-the-counter creams to tighten the loose skin
• Consider surgical options to remove hanging skin
• Change your BMI to tighten loose skin

Regarding loose skin after large weight losses, here's what I can tell you:
1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Just look at what women go through during pregnancy. Skin has the ability to expand and contract back to normal to a remarkable degree.
2. Elasticity of skin tends to decrease with age. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.
3. How much your skin will return to its former tautness therefore, depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal
4. How long someone carries extra weight has a lot to do with how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.
5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent.
6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to "snap back."
7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re certain it's fat you’re losing).
8. There are exceptions to all of the above; i.e, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.
9. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. None work – at least not in a noticeable, measurable way – and especially if you have a LOT of loose skin. Don't waste your money.
10. If you’re considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice, because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery may be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.
11. Give your skin time. Your skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.
12. Know your body fat percentage before even THINKING about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best option for those with large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't bitch about loose skin, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”
Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so) Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat, and women low teens).
Except in extreme cases, you are very unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up and literally start to “cling” to your abdominal muscles once your body fat goes from “average” to "excellent." Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.
So... the key to getting tighter skin is to lose more body fat, up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the “good” to “great” category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of loose skin remaining.
However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.

^that stuff is from sites i found, not my knowledge.

Originally Posted by rizon

Hello, I've been training off an on for a few years. I have a quick question. I lost over 100 lbs a while ago, and I have a lot of redundant skin over my midsection. I was told I would need surgery to get it removed, however I was also told building muscle would help to get it down. So would a hypertrophy program be the best for my needs instead of a strength program? I'm not TOO concerned with getting big like bodybuilders (although I would like the big arms and six pack, who wouldn't?).
Also, I recently purchased the Men's Health Power Training book (I know it's "Men's Health", but it was written by Robert Dos Remedios), and I think I want to try either the Hypertrophy Push/Pull or the Strength Push/Pull. It looks like this ...

Explosive (4x5)
Hip/Knee Dominant (4x6)
Horizontial Push/Pull (4x6)
Vertical Push/Pull (4x6)
Rotational (4x10)
Bridging 30-45 seconds

The reps changing depending on strength or hypertrophy goals and also change as the weeks go on. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

That's actually pretty good for a mainstream men's fitness publication. They usually just rehash the same old crap.

You should include a quad-dominant lift, as well. I assume "explosive" would be full body power lifts like power cleans? Also, I'm not sure about the rotational. What would you do for that? I think the bridges are a good idea.

Diet will be key to getting your physique on track, though. You should post your macros and stats into the diet and nutrition section, and go from there.

Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it. For the question about rotational exercises, it would be exercises like Corkscrew and Cable Wood Chop. Also, would it be better to do a hypertrophy program like the one I posted, or one more geared toward strength like a 5x5?

I wouldn't mess with 5x5 yet.

Ever heard of Starting Strength? Starting Strength Wiki

It's very similar and I think it would work well for you.

Loose skin problem? Solve it the easy way and go under the Knife


GICH

Originally Posted by Third-Eye-Brown

Loose skin problem? Solve it the easy way and go under the Knife


GICH

In the case of cosmetics and not health necessity, I think surgery is for fucking cowards who can't cope with what they need to do.

I was obese as a child, and I overcame that in my teens. I paid the consequences for my weaknesses, as should all others. It's a character-building feat, and if the person can get through it then they deserve a lot of respect.

Surgery is the easy way out.

Originally Posted by rizon

Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it. For the question about rotational exercises, it would be exercises like Corkscrew and Cable Wood Chop. Also, would it be better to do a hypertrophy program like the one I posted, or one more geared toward strength like a 5x5?

Personal preference, but I like to mix up intensities for balance. Theoretically, you can develop strength and/or muscle mass with any and all rep ranges. Diet will be the biggest factor in your success.

Honestly, I think the rotational work is a waste of time, especially if you already have the planks in there. If you're squatting and deadlifting your torso muscles are stabilizing to prevent lateral movement, anyway, so those lifts will produce a similar effect.

Surgery!!!!!!!!!!