Hallo!

I'm 22, 5'11 in height. 13 months ago, I weighed 154lbs. Then I got hurt and spent most of the next 12 months house bound. I also became depressed and was prescribed an anti depressant which causes weight gain. The depression made me eat more to comfort myself. The lack of any activity made me burn hardly any calories. To cut a long story short, I ballooned from 154lbs to 260lbs in just one year.

I was pretty much just eating junk food. I wasn't eating anything with Omega acids in, I doubt anything with Zinc in, and I probably didn't get many vitamins. Up until 232lbs I didn't get a mark on me. From 232lbs to 260lbs I developed many many stretch marks, most of them on my stomach and arms. My unnourished skin obviously couldn't stretch any more that fast.

I'm no longer house bound, and I'm trying to get my life back on track. I've ditched the anti depressants, stopped eating everything in sight, and eating normal regular healthy meals. I'm going to start weight lifting too. At my old weight, I was too skinny and had no muscles. With some weight lifting I'm guessing my goal weight would be more around 190lbs. That's still a good 70lbs to lose though.

I'm concerned that because of the stretch marks I'm going to end up with lots of loose skin. My question is do stretchmarks automatically mean loose skin when losing, or do they just mean that the skin was stretched too fast and doesn't affect the chances of loose skin? Obviously my weight gain was insanely fast and not a normal speed of gaining, and my nutrition was awful. I had nowhere near enough vitamins, omegas, zinc and other stuff the skin needs. If I lose slowly, eat right, and go the gym, do I stand a chance? Or am I pretty much screwed? Before all this I had pretty good skin :(

I think there's plenty of pregnant women who develop lots of stretch marks but end up with no excess skin, but I'm not sure if getting fat really fast is a different thing.

Anyone on this forum had many stretch marks, lost weight and their skin was okay? Thanks in advance for any information, good or bad. Sorry this post was long.

Good friday afternoon to you:

Re the skin problem. I do not sell or make a dime from the following info.

There is a company called Life Pluss that has a 2@day pill called Forever Young. I know a lady that took that and their Proanthanol, and her skin was super. She was 2x your age. It really is good stuff. The company will not give any info that would ever get them into a "they prescribed" situation. It is about $40.00 a month and works great with the proanthanol. Note that a month or two ago Jerry Brainsium reported that he taked a proanthanol.

Good luck guy.:gl:

If you gain muscle or fat quickly, you will or are more likely to get stretchmarks, but not necessarily excessive skin. I think those who don't do weight training but do other forms of exercise like CV, or even no exercise and just cut a lot of calories down so they're bodies are starving will run the risk of excessive skin. Normally its the really heavier range of people who have it but i have seen 300lbs+ppl who have managed to keep it a to a bare minimum.

I think those who don't do weight training but do other forms of exercise like CV, or even no exercise and just cut a lot of calories down so they're bodies are starving will run the risk of excessive skin.

I agree with this to a point. Doing pure cardio and cutting a lot of calories can starve your body, causing incredibly rapid weight loss; BUT - stretch marks and loose skin are commonly found on the abdomen, lovehandles and sides (the "spare tire" region), and it is very hard to gain an appreciable amount of muscle here. Or rather, an amount of muscle that will support the skin as much as all the old, packed-in fat did. So yeah, strength training is very important, but its affect on loose abdomen skin is dubious at best, strictly in my opinion. Losing weight quickly doesn't cause loose skin, per se, but because you lost is so quickly, the skin needs more time to adapt and shrink. If you lose your fat over a period of 2 years, your skin will be shrinking all the while. If you lose your fat over a period of 6 months, your skin will still need another 18 months to look the same way it would if you had lost it slower. During those 18 months, your skin will look loose, but given time, will return to normal so long as you're reasonably young, a non-smoker, and non-sunbather.

The best way to deal with loose skin and/or stretch marks is simply to get your body fat percentage as low as possible, but with good muscle tone underneath. When your skin adapts to a smaller size, those marks will become much narrower, closer together, and less conspicuous. If you want an example, take a rubber band, stretch it out, and draw a line on it while stretched. Then let the rubber band contract and look at the line you just drew - it's much smaller and less noticeable.

I've been kind of going through the same sort of hang-ups re: loose skin, and stretch marks, and as I've lost more fat, my skin looks much better, and the stretch marks have become much easier on the eyes. Give it time, and your best efforts, and I'm sure you'll be happy.

P.S.: Take a look at this guy's photos. He frequents these boards by the name of Mooshie. http://www.sickofbeingfat.net/profiles.aspx?mooshie. He had a significant amount of stretch marks to begin with, and his end result (achieved quickly in a year and a few months) is very acceptable. Keep in mind that his lean mass is definitely lacking, if he doesn't mind me saying so. Also keep in mind that everyone's genetics and environmental factors are different.

I view the skin as not fixed to any specific location. Increasing chest size muscles, arm, back, legs, etc for me IMO will put on healthy size and keep some of that skin stretched out.

IMHO, the original poster is young, tall and seems to have a good dieting and training in mind. So things are looking up.

From an ex obese kid (me) yeah, you are going to have loose skin. You unfortunately go too big too fast and the skin couldn't keep up. Don't worry about it now though, just keep your goal in sight and get the fat down to healthy levels. Confront one obsticle at a time. Don't ever stop working towards your goal. Fitness is a lifestyle choice.

Peace

I know many guys with stretchmarks...they weren't obese..just suddenly grew! They have stretch marks when they grew lats and pecs!! ...

and they don't have any loose skin...

Also..i lost 125 pounds in about 8 months and didn't end up with loose skin....

don't worry about the loose skin and stretch marks possibilities.....getting healthy and eating well and working out again should be your focus and I"m glad to see that it is...

Congrats on getting back on track! Good luck!:D

Mooshie has done a great job, and it is showing. I'm confident that with some more time he will work out some of that loose skin and fully achieve the goals he has.

As his pictures show, the stretch marks tend to fade as you lose weight. Make no mistake, they will never (barring some medical breakthrough) fully heal, but the key is to begin feeling comfortable in your own skin, and working on your self esteem. That was tough for me, as I was healthy and athletic until college like the original poster. I hated what I did to myself in college. Although I was grateful for the education, I was wallowing in depression and was totally insecure around women. Now, with more than a year of cardio, eating healthy and weight training under my belt, I feel more confident and happy than I have in many years. I have put on some muscle and lost a considerable amount of fat.