This is the question that I thought up last night while feeling on my squishy upper arms...

So as you lose weight, is it my imagination or does fat become squishier?

Not that fat is very hard to begin with, but I've noticed that beneath my layers of fat, I have some hard muscles but I've also noticed that my fat seems to be softer and squishier than before I was losing weight. Is it just me or ? Maybe I'm just annoyed at the fact that my upper arms seem to want to hold onto their fat.

That's a very interesting question. I think you're right -- it's not as tightly packed. Your skin may be shrinking but not enough to compensate for the loss of volume. It's like letting some of the air out of a balloon.

I noticed the squishy fat phenomenon as I lost weight too -- at first, the fat was pretty solid and then it would get really loose and jiggly (and gross) but then it would disappear. The reason for this -- at least what I was told -- is that before you lose weight, the fat is marbled IN your muscles as well as surrouding them (and this is very unhealthy, I've been told). That's why it's so solid and attached -- the fat in the muscle anchors all the surrounding fat to the muscle. The first fat you lose is from inside the muscle, so the muscle and fat are no longer attached and the fat gets all wobbly and jiggly without the muscle anchor. After you lose the intramuscular fat, you finally you lose the fat that was surrounding the muscle (and you can see your lovely muscles ). I don't know if this is true, but it made sense to me.

That's one of the (many) reasons why weight lifting is so great for fat loss and appearance -- working and building the muscles helps to get rid of that intramuscular fat.

Wow, squishy fat -- really sounds like something to look forward to!! Just joking, it put such a picture in my mind of me the same size I am now but squishy fat all over - I just had to laugh.

I want the lovely muscles!!!

Thanks Meg, that makes me feel a lot better about the squishy fat.

Yeah, I think it's a GOOD thing to have.

Well, that would explain my arms. I definately have more definition in my arms as well as my legs, but the fat still hanging there is now more "fluid". Oh this is all getting to be too much.

Though I did think you didn't "lose" fat, fat cells contracted. As in the opposite of toning or bulking up the muscles.

You're right, of course -- the fat cells never go away, darn it (unless you have lipo). They empty out their contents (triglycerides) and contract. So when we talk about losing fat, it's shorthand for losing the fat in the fat cells. But I'm not sure how that's the opposite of 'toning or bulking up the muscles'? I'm guessing you mean that when we weight train, we're actually building muscle by adding new muscle cells?

Yep, it's all kind of but trust me, squishy, jiggly fat WILL go away (or shrink or whatever) and that's what we care about!

Reminds me of the TV show I skipped past on liposuction. That will make you put down the jelly donut if nothing else will.

My theory is that it just goes away and finds someone else to stick to. So don't stand too close to anyone with squishy fat!

Meg's intramuscular fat explanation is what I've been taught, also. Other aspects of this are 1) the older you are, the more of your fat tends to be intramuscular and visceral and 2) recent studies have shown that it's the intramuscular and visceral (surrounding organs) fat which leads to type II diabetes. So to increase your chances of staying healthy, you need to LOSE the fat, rather than have it lipo'ed off. Lipo only deals with subcutaneous fat. A recent study showed that women who stored fat on their ab area who had it lipo'ed off, were just as likely as the no lipo group to develop type II diabetes, whereas the group who lost weight (as fat), were statistically less likely to develop diabetes.

What was the question?

Mel

Hey Guys,
I also learned about the whole 'intramuscular fat' thing. I leanred about it several years ago when my best friend was complaining that she was getting too big from lifting. The trainer argued that she still had a very high fat percentage and that was the cause of the bigness (is that a word??) anyway she said "it can't be fat...it's hard..." and he then explained the whole intramuscular fat thing etc....
She experienced this because she was gaining fat at the same time she was working out. she was getting bigger do to fat gain but she blamed the wieghts since she felt 'hard'..
K that's all I got
XOXO
L2L

OMG, Nelie... I'm so glad you brought this up, because I've noticed the same thing, particularly on my arms (my most hated of all body parts)! So, I've gotten to the point where I love to show off my biceps, but if someone reaches to feel my tris, I pull away so they can't feel the squish-tastic fat there. So many people don't realize that you can have fat OVER a muscle, and I can't be bothered to explain, "No, it's just the fat hanging around OVER the muscle! It's there, I promise!!!!"

(On the other hand, I noticed last night that if I lie down and let the fat sorta slide to the other side, I can feel that my tris are getting nicely developed! )

Back to lurkdom I go.