I've been losing weight for almost 6 months now, 46 pounds to date, and I"m not in any particular hurry to get the weight off, so lately I have been noticing some loose skin in the chest area (it's not terrible but it's more wrinkly there than anywhere else) and know there's a good possiblility my chest might shrink more the smaller I get, and I still have 21 pounds left to lose.
Sooooooooo.......... this is my question...
Would trying to maintain for a while reduce my possibilities of loose skin? I want to lose this 21 pounds by next August, which still gives me like 11 months, and if I lost just a pound a week it would only take 5 months. I'm thinking maybe when I hit 160 (and have about 15 pounds left to lose) I might want to try maintaining? For me this has from the beginning been a lifestyle change and I still average like 1800 calories a day and would rather have my weight loss be gradual, because really, what's a year and a half out of the rest of my life anyway? So if taking a break from weight loss for a few months and maintaining and then going back to weight loss would possibly help reduce theoretical loose skin in my chest, I'd be willing to try it.
If so, how many months would you ladies recommend maintaining to help this? (that's why I put this in the maintenance forum!) I figure there could be no real cons to it.. by giving my body a break for a while I'd be making the weight loss even more gradual and help me to keep it off better, AND I'd be getting some real valuable practice at maintenance as well.
Sorry for the silly question.. I'd just honestly prefer to have my weight loss take half a year longer and NOT have loose skin in my boobs than have it take half a year less and HAVE loose skin in my boobs, you know?
I'm kind of bouncing between maintaining for a few months and then going back to losing 1.5 pounds a week... or not maintaining and losing .5 pounds a week (so a very slow loss). I'm not sure which one would be more helpful for avoiding loose skin though.
I`ve been noticing this on myself, too, and have started to use a cream for "after pregnancy and weight loss" (Palmer).
I however feel that I should be alright as weight loss is slowing down anyway. Too slow for my liking but then I remind myself that fast weight loss results in saggy skin, and I can accept it.
I`m also thinking of taking up weight training, but haven`t started yet. I don`t really enjoy weights. :-(
I have some loose skin around the boobs too. I need a bigger cup size now than when I was this weight before (34D vs. 34B) and I think some of that has to do with extra skin. I didn't think I'd gotten fat enough to have the extra skin problem, but apparently that wasn't the case.
The answer to your question is no. Actually the more you delay your weight loss, the higher risk you are for loose skin. There are multiple factors for loose skin but how fast you lose your weight isn't a determining factor.
Here is my addendum to that though. Your skin kind of 'catches up' to you. So if you lose your weight faster, it will appear as if you have more loose skin than if you lost weight slower because if you lose weight slower, your body has more time to catch up to your weight loss in terms of elasticity.
For example, if you lost 50 lbs in 5 months would make you appear you have more lose skin than if you lost 50 lbs in 12 months. At month 12 though, the amount of loose skin you would have in either case should be the same. I noticed this in my weight loss where I lost weight, had a bunch of loose skin and then it got better. I would lose more and same thing would happen.
Nelie is right - your skin will catch up. And the factors that affect how much lose skin you have aren't related to how fast you lose it.
My skin is still shrinking, even more than a year after reaching goal AND being an OLD chickie
I've totally noticed this too more than a year after reaching my goal (and being 42). Where I thought I had tons of excess skin, I don't have much anymore. I attribute it to gradual skin elasticity and firming up through tons of exercise including cardio and weight training. Personally I wouldn't suggest maintaining for you yet. It is too easy to slack off and see the weight start to creep back on. Probably no harm in slowing down your weight loss but I wouldn't stop it altogether. No scientific evidence, just my personal opinion. Good luck!
Okay, thanks everyone! I'll try losing slowly, maybe .5 to 1 pounds a week, and see how that goes. I'm starting to get to the point where my body is happy where it's at anyway, so struggling for faster weight loss might be just a huge struggle after this point. I appreciate the advice!
Maintaining a partial loss to avoid loose skin?
