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!
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.
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
Quote:
I've lost a ton of weight and now I have loose skin. How do I get rid of it?
Unfortunately, many people who have issues with loose skin really don't have extra loose skin ... they have more fat to lose. There is a real easy way to determine this. Skin is, by itself, only a fraction of an inch thick (ever heard the expression, can't pinch an inch?) so when you pick up this "loose skin" it should be thin and you can pinch it to the size of a thick piece of paper.
If you can grab anything more than a fraction of an inch, then what you have is not loose skin. You have loose skin with fat underneath it (subcutaneous fat). You still have fat to lose. As you burn that fat, the skin will begin to shrink to your body. Skin is elastic and is fully replaced over time. The keys are to follow proper nutrition (you need healthy fats and certain vitamins for the skin to replenish itself) and skin care (the right skin care products actually improve the elasticity of the skin and help it to heal faster).
I know plenty who have that issue ... the last bit of fat to go is where we least want it to be. Unfortunately, it's common for people to overshoot their target weight and believe they are there but stuck with loose skin, when in fact they simply have another 10 - 20 or even 30 pounds to lose in order to take care of the issue.
So what do you do? You continue to lose fat. That is the only way to get rid of it. Balance your resistance training, cardio, and nutrition, and burn the fat.
To put this in reference, here is Pam Brown who lost I believe well over 100 pounds:
Now, these things vary with age and as you get older, elasticity reduces in the skin. However, 99% of my clients who think they have loose skin really just need to lose more fat.
Jeremy Likness insists that if you have loose skin it means you still need to lose more weight.
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.
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
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.
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.
Extra skin, folds, rolls, et cetera
