Surpluss skin in my abs...

[hoopsmx]

I'm sure this has been posted before but here I go none the less:

In the last 5 months I've gone from 23% bf to 13% bf and from a 38 waist to a 32. As a consequence there is a big amount of "extra" skin around my belly?

Is there anything, other that surgery, that can help me get rid of it?

Thanks

 

[poysyn]

Skin is extremely elastic. Most of the time the skin (if it has not already) will contract back to normal. Although this is not the case with all, my suggestion to you is to keep shedding bodyfat. If the skin does not go away, there are some ointments that some recommend or surgery is an option..but I would try to find alternative methods other than surgery.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

I'd research lotions, ect as stated before surgury... Depending on your age, how long your skin was streched out "at that point," ect... will determine the likelyhood of it tightening up.

 

[alex2678]

Not sure if this can be universally applied to everyone, but when I went from a high of around 44% bodyfat as a kid down to 13% I did notice somewhat of a "stretched" effect in my skin tissue. When I got down to 7.5% a few years later it was almost nonexistant. My suggestion to you would be to keep trying to add lean body mass with heavy weight training and throw in some cutting cycles along the way to get your bodyfat down in the single digits. Oh and my bodyfat is currently back in the 12% range and there is no stretching at all anymore.

Keep your Vitamin C intake high to support collegen production and you might want to add some Vit E, Cocoa butter and Lanolin (for penetration into the skin) cream to the areas that give you the most problems.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

^^^ excellent post.

"You must spread some Karma around before giving it to alex2678 again."

 

[poysyn]

^^^ excellent post.

"You must spread some Karma around before giving it to alex2678 again."

Ditto.

 

[FFQuads]

I would think that if you lost all that weight in that short of a time your body is in shock. Some people say that it can take years to loose that skin but it will go away. I have seen people loose weight and get that skin off in about 1 year. Remember this.....If you get some good muscle mass on, it to will pull skin and help this problem. Good job on the weight lose. That is crazy fast!!

 

[36drew]

This is good news for me, because i've recently come down from about 18% to about 8% and have some loose skin around my abs and under my chin. I am hoping it tightens up a bit if I stay lean for the next year.

 

[Sassy69]

Not sure if this can be universally applied to everyone, but when I went from a high of around 44% bodyfat as a kid down to 13% I did notice somewhat of a "stretched" effect in my skin tissue. When I got down to 7.5% a few years later it was almost nonexistant. My suggestion to you would be to keep trying to add lean body mass with heavy weight training and throw in some cutting cycles along the way to get your bodyfat down in the single digits. Oh and my bodyfat is currently back in the 12% range and there is no stretching at all anymore.

Keep your Vitamin C intake high to support collegen production and you might want to add some Vit E, Cocoa butter and Lanolin (for penetration into the skin) cream to the areas that give you the most problems.

Solid & right on point. Last yr for competition I basically went thru 2 phases of fat loss - the first was 3 months going from 24% to 15% (with 2 lb actual weight loss) and then a 2 month drop from 15% to 7% and 25 lbs. I fought the loose skin thing the whole way as I carried a lot of my bodyfat in my waist. Because I was trying to hit a competitoin date I was doing everythign from herbal body wraps to sleeping in YES wrapped in saran wrap. But given time the skin's elasticity will let it catch up to the fat loss - you have to figure you lost a significant volume of stuff that the skin was holding so it needs some time to tighten up. But also keep going on the diet. Skin is among other things, partially water and partially small pockets of fat so if you just keep hitting it, that portion will drop while the skin's elasticity picks up the rest. And then once you get there, stay there! The big weight swings I do between competitoin & the stresses of working in tech during the internet boom & bust make me go thru this every time I compete and it doesn't get easier as you get older.