Weight loss, now loose skin - now what?
This part sucks...
While I'm really happy about my progress and muscle gain, one of the repercussions of being fat then losing weight is excess skin. I believe this should clear up over the course of a year or two, but do you all recommend anything to combat this and get it to tighten up faster? Maybe some lotions or something. It really makes me self conscious asf.
I've heard cold plunges work and there's a new laser therapy of some variety. Surgery is an option, too, but I personally want to wait at least another year before even considering that - to see how well this starts to resolve on its own. I think I still have improvements to make on my SubQ fat though.
The body scanner at the gym says I collectively have lost 40" by some metric that they're using. The volume of my body is changing for the better, that's for sure.
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How much cardio are you doing? How bad is the loose skin?
Maybe post some before after pics, don't be embarrassed but it can really help us guide you in the right direction.
sent you a pm. very important!
I'll post some pics - but I don't have many before. At one point I did 300lbs at a couple inches shy of 6ft - at more than 35% bf. That might've been 18 months ago or so.
It's not too bad when I'm standing up, but if I plank, or have a similar position, some of my stomach hangs down as well as my chest. I can also grab a handful or two and pull the skin on my belly out an inch or two, same with my chest. It's like the skin needs a lift. But a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll get something posted.
Cardio is 3x a week for ~45min, another 3x week for 15 min (this last 3x days are my heavy lifting days).
I suppose that I still do have some fat (last measurement put me at 24%) but I feel it looks a lot worse because the skin makes it very jiggly. And honestly, it just might be time. Women get pregnant and have kids, skin stretches, then returns after the kid - albeit maybe a year or two later, so maybe I just need to be patient too, and keep up the consistency.
To reduce the excess skin, I'd reduce the cardio and increase the anaerobic activity but with high intensity. For your cardio, I'd move to HIIT for shorter periods to keep the cardio health up but you want to really focus on turning your body in to a machine. Sprints, high volume training which is light weight but extremely high reps (50-100) and quick pace until burning out, no need to work individual muscle groups, you can do your entire body and you don't need a crazy amount of sets either, the idea is to burn every group to failure. This isn't the best methods for building mass but it'll rip weight off you and tighten up the skin, give you more functional strength which is great to have when you start building back up again (if you decide to). Most guys here wouldn't be able to do this so don't feel bad if you try it and realize your body decides to shut off at 20 reps even with low weight, we condition our bodies to explode with short bursts of strength and that memory tells your body to give up early. Focusing on endurance will help your body develop leaner and stronger and give you more energy in every day life. Just FYI, your body will never hurt so much as it will the first few weeks of this. Good luck if you try it, I'll probably do the same again shortly.
It's amazing how much stuff I forget sometimes. Thank you for the recommendation! I remember I used to focus on the high rep stuff a few years ago, but this time around I've forgotten to incorporate it. I think I'll try this for a few weeks and see the results.
Collagen supplements (type 1 & 3) are good, especially if you’re using HGH, as HGH aids in collagen & elastin production, which is what keeps skin tight and elastic. The peptides PAL-GHK & PAL-Cu help stimulate collagen and elastin production. Hyaluronic acid taken orally can be very helpful, particularly when taken with collagen. Lastly, red light therapy has been shown to stimulate dermal mitochondria which leads to a tightening of loose skin.
Thank you for the info. Idk about HGH yet. Maybe I can get a box for a little run. Currently take collagen protein, so that's great. I'll definitely look into the peptides and supplements you mentioned.