Problem Areas?
 

I feel most comfortable posting this thread here.

What are your problem areas body-wise? Or, if you're in tip top shape, what were they and how did you fix them/learn to live with them?

I'm OK with most of me except my dangly arm wobble (not noticeable most of the time) and my stomach. As I do more strength training (nothing serious, just rolling around on the floor doing pushups and bird dogs and planks) I have seen improvement in just a couple weeks' time, but I think it will be a lifelong battle with my stomach. I don't know if it's all pure fat or if some is loose skin, but I have never been obese and I lost weight quite slowly so it's not as if it's some huge shock to my body. I am not comfortable running or jumping unless there is some kind of waist band "holding back" the fat, which jiggles and bounces just like it did when I was 30 pounds heavier.

Hi Krampus :hug: sometimes we are our own worse critics, so hang in there... To everyone else you probably look gorgeous and peeps are probably quite envious... But... having said this my suggestion would be that if you have access to a gym, get serious with the weight training :strong: Lift heavier, lift more often ...... Guarantee you body will transform and change and you'll feel stronger and more positive about yourself...

Definitely my stomach and butt. No matter how much weight I lose, my butt and then finally my stomach are the last to go... and then still, they're not my favourite areas. I'm learning to sort of chalk it up to genetics (dad's side of the family), butI am going to adjust my goal to where I think I can healthily/reasonably knock at at least a bit more of the belly and butt fat.

Batwings - thats my trouble spot. As the weight has come off, the arms have gotten smaller but I know that cardio will not get rid of them - weight training will. So that's the plan of attack for the new year.

My stomach! Ugh I can't seem to get rid of the little fat roll there! It isn't obvious when I stand but if I sit in tighter clothing it is there mocking me! And even though it is very flat I still feel self conscious in a bikini especially when I sit.

ughhh my butt! no matter how many squats, lunges, etc i do..its still there! and a little dimply..sigh

The good news is, my horrible flabby belly jiggle is DEFINITELY BETTER with the loss of the last 5 pounds and continued weight training (including serious ab work using an inclined crunch board, Swiss ball with weights on my chest, and hanging crunches (knees to chest)). I've gotten it to the point where, if I stand up straight, my belly is flat. I'm coming to accept that, after 3 pregnancies and a lifetime of being overweight, I have enough stretched-out abdominal skin that it will always hang unattactively when I bend over.

Other problem areas for me have been: upper arm jiggle (gone now), saddlebags on the sides of my thighs (finally starting to disappear but definitely still present), and a droopy lower butt (better but far from gone).

Here's the thing: 10 pounds ago, I looked absolutely terrible naked, even though I was technically normal weight. All of my problem spots only seemed to START getting better when I got to within 10-12 pounds of goal weight. And everything seems to shrink first but stay flabby, then only tighten up some number of weeks/months after the fat loss happens. And I too have lost weight (all too) slowly and never been obese. So I think there's definitely hope for your belly yet, and I don't mean by exercising in a girdle. :>)

I would have to say my "worst" is my stomach. I have been battling my stomach for as long as I can remember. More recently though I've notices that I'm getting that dreaded "muffin top" and my arms are getting pretty flabby. So I'm working on several areas.

Hips and thighs. I'm pear-shaped, and I'll always have bigger hips and thighs.

Oddly enough, I love my stomach. Then again, it's the smallest area on me, so I lucked out there. My problem areas are my arms and my thighs. My body looks great and deceptively 20 pounds lighter in clothes, but naked? It's pretty obvious that's where all my weight is hidden. My thighs still sort of jiggle and my arms are so flabby. Granted, lifting weights will make those areas look better, but I will never be a petite-limbed girl, and I hate it.

Everything from hips to knees is the last place to show all my fitness efforts. Fortunately, when I'm at my most comfortable weight, even the cellulite tends to diminish, but I have a wide-hipped bone structure that obviously I can't do anything about. Even when I was really, really skinny, I had wide hips. Beyond some sort of bizarre bone-shaving surgery, that's never going to change, so I'm trying to learn to love it. ;)

Which puts this in mind: we focus so much on our problem areas. Someone mentioned actually liking their stomach. Well, I actually like my upper body quite a lot (and I don't mean just the chest region, I also mean arms and pecs and biceps and shoulders and even upper abdominals). We're so focused on trying to reach our goals that we forget to notice the things that are actually beautiful even as they are. :) I encourage everybody to remember to notice the GOOD things, too!

Hmm. I seem to be alone in my hatred of back fat :)

My issues are my back fat, my muffin top, and my arms. I have a belly, but since its covered in stretch marks from having babies I don't seem to mind it as much.

I do like the idea of focusing on our positive features though. Good idea :)

No, you're not alone... I detest my back fat :tantrum: I know right away when I've gained weight, it appears in my back :(

Stomach here. Always a problem area for me. But I love my back and arms and they are the easiest and quickest to tone, especially with lifting. For anyone with the bat wings you hate, do push ups and lift. You will be amazed how quick those areas get back into shape.

hi krampus :)

6 months ago I would have said my legs and batwings. but they have really improved a TON.

for almost 2 years I have been working out 3xweek with a bootcamp style trainer. basically I feel like I had to build up more muscle than a not formerly obese girl. Combined with the last 6 mo of final fat loss, the muscle started realllllly showing thru and even seems to make the areas of loose skin look better due to muscle.

the other thing that helped a TON with my legs was lymph system work, specifically the dry body brushing. it decreased the water logged look on my calves. they are still super gigantic but they just look strong to me now.

my only real remaining problem area is my a$$ :) it actually looked better with a tad more fat, but im working to add muscle there and even in the last 2 months Ive seen an improvement.

many people losing weight short themselves on the needed aspects to develop muscle...so my best advice is to workout smartly to build muscle (I barely do cardio even) and to eat the right/enough foods to build muscle.

thighs and butt :( *sigh*

At my highest I was mortified by my rear end. That's where all the fat landed when it had nowhere else to go. :rolleyes: It was enormous...it's own shelf.

Now it's my belly. I'm quite happy with it clothed, but unclothed it's not so pretty. ;) And now that I'm getting divorced...*sigh*. It would be nice to have my old flat belly back. In inches I am only 29 inches around at the naval which I'm quite happy with! But it folds over. :(

I hate my arms. They are huge and puffy and while they are strong, I dunno, years of childhood competitive swimming plus weight lifting has left them gigantic. I get so jealous of girls who have skinny stick arms, even if they can't lift a bag of groceries. :(

My legs. I see everything else shrinking but my legs are still so big. My thighs are currently 26-27". I'm about 40 lbs from my goal but I'd like to know for those of you who have lost a lot do you think mine will shrink to a smaller size as I near my goal? I'm so scared that I'll be 120 lbs but have my current legs.

A lot of leg appearance will be affected by what kind of exercise you're doing. I have to do a lot of cardio or else my legs don't show much improvement, even if I suddenly look like I have little twig arms and a tiny upper body. If you instead do a lot of weight training, you have to watch it a little. Keep to lower-body work like pilates and yoga, and stick with weight training mainly in the upper body to give yourself a nice hourglass, balanced look. If all you want is a long and lean "dancer's body" all over, cardio and toning that only involves bodyweight rather than freeweights (i.e. pilates and maybe Callanetics) are your best bets.

Thank you Kat999! I haven't incorporated any weights into my workouts yet. I briefly did yoga for a couple of months and did some upper body weights but decided that I wanted to be in the 130 range before I really started toning so that I wouldn't get bigger on top of fat. I only do cardio for an hour every single day. I walk between 3-4 miles and do intervals of very steep stairs (40 flights total) and I skip a stair each time to make it feel more like a lunge. The fat seems to hang more loosely than it did when I was much heavier. It's weird to see what size my leg would be without the fat since it literally hangs off. I've just started incorporating some running into my walks.

Is it possible that they won't go down even if I lose 40-45 more lbs. (currently 162)? Before I gained all the weight I was extremely active. I worked out almost twice a day for about 4 hours. I also was a pitcher so I that was another workout each day as well. My legs weren't tiny back then but they were pretty much all muscle but they weren't even close to what I am now. I think I was around 140-145. So I know they were smaller at one time, but does that mean they have a chance of going back to that 9 years later?

Thanks again! This is my first time ever dieting and no one I know has ever lost a large amount of weight except my boyfriend who started this with me and he's lost 42lbs and is at his goal of 150.

I guess I'm just scared of what's to come.

It sounds like you're doing all the right stuff. I know you want to shred down before you tone up, but sometimes if all cardio is burning you out, yoga really isn't going to tone you so much that you're building muscle on top of fat. In fact, you may see some reduction in inches as you lose fat (even if the scale doesn't budge).

Depending on your age and environmental factors, it may take a while for your skin to realize it's not wrapping itself around a larger person, and its elasticity may be a little sluggish. That's certainly normal, but it also is proof that one shouldn't strive for weight loss to go so fast that you've got extreme amounts of that loose skin. Observe what happens to gastric bypass patients, or women who give birth to a LOT of babies all at once: usually they have to get loose skin surgically removed, and I'm sure you don't want that! (Although your current weight is not so high that that would even be an issue.) Still, slow and steady will see your skin react a little better.

Kat999 - again thank you for responding it makes me feel so much better to hear that from a stranger than those who see me everyday and just want to support no matter what.

I don't have any issues with loose skin on my legs -yet. The only loose skin so far is on my breasts and I'm ok with knowing I'll have some and will work hard to shrink it naturally as much as I can but if it stays it stays it's so much better than being overweight.

I'm not looking to lose faster because it's not realistic to lose more than the 2 lbs. a week which I'm currently doing. Also my starting weight was 242 and now I'm 162. My legs have shrunk a ton, like 10" per leg, I'm just wondering if they will continue.

I love my workouts/cardio and luckily haven't felt burned out, but I do feel my body wanting to go harder so I add stuff to make it more challenging.

My bf calls these last 40ish pounds the big pounds meaning that since I'm closer to weight I'll actually see the difference. Have you noticed that with the 17 lbs. you've lost? Also may I ask how long it's taken you?

My stomach. I had 2 9 pounder c-section babies, so the loose skin is bad. My stomach looks pretty flat, in clothes, and good naked (except for a little flap of skin), but if I'm doing yoga, in loose shirts, I hate looking down and seeing my loose skin hanging there :( Fortunately, if I wear tight work out clothes, it holds it in so I don't feel self conscious at the gym.

My bat wings are my next problem spot, but they're getting better with every push up and heavy weight work out I do! I love strength training, it has made losing weight so much easier and my body is nicely reshaping itself, so there is hope!