I've noticed that as I'm losing weight, I'm feeling mooshier. Some places, under the fat, are much firmer but I wonder if it's the difference of my skin not keeping up with the fat loss. I measured myself and I'm definitely smaller in inches and in my clothes.
I feel that way for sure in a few spots on my body.
I always remember growing up my grandfather was really overweight, kind of looked like Santa Claus. I always remember how hard his stomach felt, which I didn't understand as a kid because he was clearly fat.
I'll take skinny and temporarily mooshie over large and firm any day.
I'm mooshie in the breast area and my stomach. It used to be REALLY mooshie in the stomach area when I first started my weight-loss exercise.
I believe it's the breakdown of fats. I read that hard fat is bad, mooshie fat is good. More than likely wherever it is mooshie is where you are breaking down the fat and losing inches.
If someone can back me up on this, it would end my curiosity that I've had for a long time.
I'm mooshie in the breast area and my stomach. It used to be REALLY mooshie in the stomach area when I first started my weight-loss exercise.
I believe it's the breakdown of fats. I read that hard fat is bad, mooshie fat is good. More than likely wherever it is mooshie is where you are breaking down the fat and losing inches.
If someone can back me up on this, it would end my curiosity that I've had for a long time.
That's interesting. I've also heard this, but never knew how legit it was.
My tummy is definitely mooshie, but I'm not sure if it's anymore mooshie now than it was before I started losing weight. I can feel my firm abs under the moosh. I hope that fat breaks down and gets out of there quick! Haha...
Read this article. I think it is really interesting, and true when I think about myself. I will be perfectly on plan for weeks and not lose much weight but feel smaller and squishier, then I will lose a few pounds and some of the squishiness goes away. This makes it a lot easier to stay tough and keep motivated during pleauteus.
Pam
It's from bodyrecomposition.com by Lyle McDonald.
Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat
A few weeks back I answered a question about Not Losing Fat at a 20% Deficit, What Should I Do? and among other things, one comment I made had to do with a water retention that often occurs during fat loss which can mask fat loss and make it appear as if the diet is not working. I also mentioned specifically that I had written (with a straight-face no less) about whooshes in The Stubborn Fat Solution, along with a related phenomenon which I call squishy fat.
In any case, to expand on that issue, I’m going to excerpt the chapter section from The Stubborn Fat Solution dealing with both phenomena. With that introduction, I give you (again, with a straight face)…
Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat
Before you freak out and think you’ve entered some weird Internet forum where people talk about stalls and whooshes, please bear with me; there’s actually some physiological rationale to what I’m going to discuss.
Many people have noted that fat loss is often discontinuous, that is it often happens in stops and starts. So you’ll be dieting and dieting and doing everything correctly with nothing to show for it. Then, boom, almost overnight, you drop 4 pounds and look leaner.
What’s going on? Back during my college days, one of my professors threw out the idea that after fat cells had been emptied of stored triglyceride, they would temporarily refill with water (glycerol attracts water, which might be part of the mechanism). So there would be no immediate change in size, body weight or appearance. Then, after some time frame, the water would get dropped, the fat cells would shrink. A weird way of looking at it might be that the fat loss suddenly becomes ‘apparent’. That is, the fat was emptied and burned off days or weeks ago but until the water is dropped, nothing appears to have happened.
For nearly 20 years I looked for research to support this, I was never sure if it was based on something from the 50’s or he just pulled it out of thin air as an explanation. Recently, one paper did suggest that visceral fat can fill up with water after massive weight loss but that’s about it.
Somewhat circumstantially, people using Bioimpedance body fat scales (which use hydration to estimate body fat levels) have noted that body fat appears to go up right before a big drop. This implicates water balance as the issue here.
As well, women, who have more problems with water retention, seem to have bigger issues with stalls and whooshes than men. Further, some individuals who have done dry carb-loads (high carbohydrate refeeds without drinking a lot of water) have seen them occur; presumably the body pulls water into the muscles and out of other tissues (fat cells). In lean individuals, appearance is often drastically improved with this approach, it doesn’t do much for those carrying a lot of fat.
I’d note that dry carb-loads suck because you’re so damn thirsty. Interestingly, even normal refeeds often work in this regards, perhaps the hormonal effect ‘tells’ the body to chill out and release some water. So not only do refeeds seem to improve stubborn fat mobilization the next day (as discussed above), they may help the body drop some water so that you can see what is happening.
Finally, many have reported whooshes following an evening which included alcohol. A mild diuretic, this would also tend to implicate water balance issues in the whoosh phenomenon.
I’d also note that this isn’t universal, lean dieters often see visual improvements on a day to day basis; a lot seems to depend on whether or not they tend to retain water in general. Folks who do have problems with water retention tend to have stalls and whooshes, those who don’t show nice consistent visual changes.
On a related topic, I wanted to discuss something else that often happens when people are getting very lean and dealing with stubborn body fat: the fat gets squishy, feeling almost like there are small marbles under the skin. Yes, very scientific, I know. That’s the best I can do.
As folks get very lean, down to the last pounds of fat, the skin and fat cells that are left will often change appearance and texture. It will look dimply (as the fat cells which are supporting the skin shrink and the skin isn’t supported) and feel squishy to the touch. This is bad in that it looks really weird, but it’s good because it means that the fat is going away. I have nothing truly profound to say about this topic, just realizes that it happens and usually indicates good things are happening.
Milehighmama - I definitely deal with water retention, and also DEFINITELY have dealt with stalling and whooshes. Never considered that they might be closely related!
The whole "firm fat is bad squishy fat is good" deal is that visceral fat (the fat in your organs and muscles) is firmer than subcutanious fat (the fat just below your skin). Visceral is the more dangerous type of fat, of course, neither one is good in excess.
As folks get very lean, down to the last pounds of fat, the skin and fat cells that are left will often change appearance and texture. It will look dimply (as the fat cells which are supporting the skin shrink and the skin isn’t supported) and feel squishy to the touch. This is bad in that it looks really weird, but it’s good because it means that the fat is going away. I have nothing truly profound to say about this topic, just realizes that it happens and usually indicates good things are happening.
Woo! It backs up what I said. It seems to make sense to me. When I was my heaviest, and didn't exercise or watch my food, my fat was all very firm. Now it is all mooshie'fied.
MileHighMama - That is an interesting article! I've had a nice drop the past 2 days...the couple of days prior to that I was feeling "bloated" and, as the OP describes, kind of mooshie! Now that I've seen the drop, I have lost that bloated feeling and my stomach is a bit less mooshie. The fat cells taking in water is an interesting possibility. I'm going to have to poke around my A&P books later on and reread the sections on fat cells.
The whole "firm fat is bad squishy fat is good" deal is that visceral fat (the fat in your organs and muscles) is firmer than subcutanious fat (the fat just below your skin). Visceral is the more dangerous type of fat, of course, neither one is good in excess.
You are correct! Yes, no fat is better but if I had to choose I'd go with the mooshie lol.
One time, after I had lost about 40lbs in 5 months, I really noticed I was "mooshy" .
My jackoff boyfriend at that time insisted that I needed to workout even MORE (was already working out daily) - as "flab" or "mooshy" or "loose skin" wasn't appealing.
Oh that brings back bad memories- glad that that relationship is OVER!
I digress. Sorry. I just remember being SO proud of myself for losing weight and him criticizing the "mooshy" and "loose skin" all the time.
I agree with this article. I also agree that there are sudden large losses that seem to occur overnight and are noticeable.
I could be REALLY working, not losing, not losing, then after 3 weeks - there is a whoosh and suddenly I am almost a size smaller.
This is also the reason why scales seem to hurt me more than help me. I suppose I am not one of those people that lose weight at a steady pace.
The whole "firm fat is bad squishy fat is good" deal is that visceral fat (the fat in your organs and muscles) is firmer than subcutanious fat (the fat just below your skin). Visceral is the more dangerous type of fat, of course, neither one is good in excess.
I'm not sure I really understand. People have may have firm or mushy fat on their arms or legs, and it's not visceral when it's firm.
Visceral fat is in the abdomin, and by firm I don't just mean you're skin is taut over it firm, I mean FIRM. It feels like it could be muscle it's so hard. I've never had fat like that anywhere but my belly.
This also could explain why people often keep losing for a few weeks even after they go off plan--water is draining from fat cells they already emptied. This phenomenon is part of the reason it's so hard to keep weight off--you can screw up pretty badly without seeing the effects, so it's easy to keep screwing up.
This also suggests that there isn't much point in putting a lot of weight on the impact of small variation in diet--if this is true, there's really no point in trying to notice that you switched from apples to oranges and lost a quarter of a pound more this week--it doesn't really mean anything.
Feeling Mooshie??
It seems to make sense to me. When I was my heaviest, and didn't exercise or watch my food, my fat was all very firm. Now it is all mooshie'fied.
