Should I stop losing weight and build muscle for a while?

B

biggestloser105

New member
I am becoming really concerned about loose skin. I am looking at my thighs and my stomach, and I don't like what I'm seeing. There is a lot of fat there, but it's also kind of loose. If I extend my leg and shake it, the inner thigh shakes a lot. :(

For those who lost weight and went through this stage, did this turn into loose skin or tighten up? I am thinking of just not loosing anything for a month and doing heavier muscle building exercises to give the skin something to hold to.
 
Muscle mass is only going to do so much for that loose skin. Basicly, it is like a shirt that gets all stretched out. If you are fairly young, your skin can recover. It might be that the only way to lose the skin is plastic surgery.

But most of all..give it time. It's not going to snap back into place overnight. Exercise but don't do it with the goal of fixing your skin, do it for the health. :)
 
hate to tell you this, but as of someone who lost 125lbs at 21 years old, even at my age my skin in some areas formed back in time 6-10 months.

In others like areas I was specifically really big like my stomach it would not.... and everyone knows abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym lol.....

in specific areas you can try to bulk up and get bigger but at the same time your body is going to layer some what of fat in different areas.

Or you can just try to stop losing weight so rapidly!
 
biggestloser105 said:
I am becoming really concerned about loose skin. I am looking at my thighs and my stomach, and I don't like what I'm seeing. There is a lot of fat there, but it's also kind of loose. If I extend my leg and shake it, the inner thigh shakes a lot. :(

For those who lost weight and went through this stage, did this turn into loose skin or tighten up? I am thinking of just not loosing anything for a month and doing heavier muscle building exercises to give the skin something to hold to.
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Hi BL, I don't know the exact science of this and I suspect it has a lot to do with genetics, highest weight, speed of weight loss, frequency of gain/loss, age and body composition.

But, about 12 years ago, I lost weight rapidly and I had looser skin and weird shattered effect stretch marks on my thighs. It all went away over time.

And now as I have built more muscle I do find that the my skin is a little softer but there are phases - build muscle, drop fat, skin is softer and then it seems to firm up (not perfectly but okay).

But even if the skin is not perfect you can always dress for it. And having a tan does make skin look smoother and firmer. I am well past the age where a mini skirt is acceptable but this year I was able to wear knee length skirts without tights and it looked fine with a tan!
 
burneeed said:
hate to tell you this, but as of someone who lost 125lbs at 21 years old, even at my age my skin in some areas formed back in time 6-10 months.

In others like areas I was specifically really big like my stomach it would not.... and everyone knows abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym lol.....

in specific areas you can try to bulk up and get bigger but at the same time your body is going to layer some what of fat in different areas.

Or you can just try to stop losing weight so rapidly!
Click to expand...

How quickly did you lose the weight? I on average have been losing 10 lbs per month (but it slowed down a lot in the past month, mostly as a result of medication that made me extremely hungry... I only lost 4 pounds).
 
ah I cant really remember but, 125 lbs in 10 months, thats a pretty easy average to figure out. lol, but at first It was a good 20-30lbs in the first month and it went down from there.
 
I think the best way to go about it is to swim - all around excercise.

This way you won't have to worry about your thighs, or your calves looking odd :p
 
I wish I could swim, but my skin is too sensitive to the disinfectant used in the pool :(

So far I walk (about 6km/hour speed), do yoga, and do resistance exercises for every muscle group (mostly using my own body weight, and some 5-10lb free weights).

I don't have access to a gym where I would be able to do more effective resistance training, and because of some health issues I am unable to do very intense exercise to begin with.

I'm also female so my ability to build muscle is not great to begin with.

I don't know, all this scares me. When I reach my goal I'll have lost 95lbs, which on a 5'5" female frame is a lot, and more than enough to give loose skin. :(
 
miggy2010 said:
When you gain weight, you gain muscle mass and when you lose weight, you lose fat. Unfortunately, you cannot gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. It's not that simple right? I recommend to cut down to your desired body fat and then start gaining some muscle mass.
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What about alternating weight loss and muscle building. Like one week do resistance training and eat more, and the next cut calories but keep resistance to retain muscle?
 
You can actually do 'every other day' if you're inclined. I do this to a degree, although in a lot of ways it's because I can only stand eating so few calories for a limited amount of time, and I'm just taking advantage of my higher calorie days to build muscles ;)

The idea is that on days you do strength training you eat over maintenance and get plenty of protein (Especially in the first four hours after training). Any day you're not doing strength training, eat fewer calories. You should build muscle on the higher calorie days and burn fat on the lower.

The caveat is that if you did a cut & bulk cycle (i.e. were at a deficit for 6 months and then surplus with muscle building for 3 months) you might lose more fat and build more muscle in the same amount of time.

On the other hand, if you either want more muscle now or you're like me and want to have a few higher calorie days a week any way, this kind of thing works. It will also slow your overall weight loss - although since pound for pound muscle has a lower volume than fat I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have on skin. I'd say if nothing else, be sure to moisturize trouble spots. I still have some jiggly flabby areas, but no hanging skin flaps, if that makes sense. Unless you actually see something like that I wouldn't get too worried about it.
 
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