Extra skin, folds, rolls, et cetera
 

I knew a girl in high school who lost some weight but she still had this saggy belly, and it wasnt cute. Im 5'6" 215lbs, just joined weight watchers, and i want to lose atleast 50 lbs but i want to avoid this sagging belly, will doing crunches every day help? What types of workouts should i do, keeping in mind i have no gym membership, All i really own is an old stationary bike and some free weights. Help!

xoxo
nadine

Crunches are great for strengthening ab muscles but - by themselves- won't get rid of any fat that's on top of the muscles. Cardio + weightlifting will help you lose fat and build tight, toned muscles. You can do both with your bike and free weights. :)

Unfortunately, there aren't any exercises that will prevent sagging or excess skin, though building muscle certainly can 'fill up' excess skin to some extent. Check out our Weight Loss And Skin FAQs for more about the impact of weight loss on our skin.

Congratulations on joining WW and welcome to 3FC!

Thanks for the reply! The link was very helpful! I guess all i can do is cross my fingers and hope i was blessed with elastic skin when i lose the weight : )

Jeremy Likness insists that if you have loose skin it means you still need to lose more weight

Regarding the free weights ... I'm sure you'll enjoy this site
www.stumptuous.com

And the old bike is waaaay better than sitting in a chair to watch TV :)

Ultraclyde - Jeremy Likness doesn't know what he's talking about. The lower my weight and body fat % got, the worse my skin problems became - and this is true for most people who have experienced a large weight loss. When I was down to 12.5% fat - which is low for a woman - my excess skin was hanging off me in handfuls. At that point, I certainly didn't have 10, 20, or 30 pounds left to lose, as he suggests, unless I cut off an arm or leg. :rolleyes:

It's unfortunate that he picked Pam Brown as an example of someone who lost a lot of weight without skin problems. She was all over the Internet a few years ago, trying to promote herself as a weight loss guru, but has since gained back the vast majority of her lost weight (and is very quiet now). There were suspicions about her claims of losing weight without skin problems three or four years ago, though of course she was fairly young and may have been genetically lucky. It's a moot point now since she's heavy again.

There's sure a lot of garbage out on the Internet about weight loss and excess skin and one has to be cautious sorting through what's real and what's nonsense put up by people with no personal experience, usually trying to sell something. Rather than citing articles from people who never have experienced massive weight loss themselves, we have members here at 3FC who have lost the weight, kept it off, and had first-hand experiences with excess skin. That's why we put together the Weight Loss And Skin FAQs and encourage all our big losers to post about their personal experiences. :)

I've personally never had any problems with loose skin, so when I saw Jeremy's FAQ it sounded like a good explanation to me. But if you were really at 12.5% then it definitely doesn't work for everyone.

Just curious, how was the 12.5% measured? I get drastically different numbers between Body Fat scales in Athlete & Non-Athlete modes, and Hydrostatic Weighing. For instance, on the same day, I got

Tanita Scale, non-athlete mode: 11.0%
Tanita Scale, athlete mode: 3.1%
Hydrostatic: 13.6%

I have never tried calipers.

When I was at 14% I had folds of skin that I rolled up into my jeans. That's pretty low body fat for a woman in her late 40's (at the time). And not a real attractive look (the extra skin). I had maintained at that weight for three years, ate clean, lifted heavy. Time was not going to change anything. Losing any more weight would just give me more loose skin hanging off my face.

My body fat percentage was measured with a 9 point caliper pinch by an extremely experienced trainer who trains figure and bodybuilding competitors and competes himself. I'm also a trainer and do my own measurements. We used the Jackson-Pollock algorithm.

The hydrostatic weighing is much more accurate than your Tanita. Calipers are usually within 2-3% of the accuracy of hydrostatic. The home version of the Tanita scales are all over the place. At 3%, you should see every muscle striation, all veins in your arms, legs, chest, armpits, groin, and across your back. At 13%, you should see some of your larger veins, including the bicep vein, and muscle definition, but not striation. Male pro level bodybuilders are usually at betwee 3-5% on stage. They generally only stay at that body fat level for a day or two.


Mel

My 12.5% was measured with nine-site calipers by the head of personal trainers at my gym. I had my BF checked that way every four weeks while I was losing weight.

Just like Mel said, my experiences with Tanita scales and the Omron hand-held have been all over the place. I would love to do the hydrostatic weighing some day.