Has anyone experienced this?

You've successfully dropped 5 or 10lbs, have reduced your water weight considerably by properly hydrating, and are eager to drop the last 10-15lbs you have left to go...

...but all of sudden you feel as though you have more fat on you than before. You're clothes ares till looser, belts fit better, muscle tone is improving...but belly, muffin-tops etc feel extra flabby. Is this because the skin is becoming looser? Is the difference in BF% enough to change where the folds and rolls are?

I'm sure it's all in my head, but am just curious if this has happened to others.

Its not only in your head.

My gut sometimes becomes all soft and squishi as I lose weight.
As I understand it, its about water contents in fat cells increasing as
they empty of fat. Keep up doing whatever you've been doing so far
and it will sort itself out.

I very much doubt you'll suffer from loose skin after only 5-10lbs of weight loss...

Shahar.

Some of it must be mental. When you're bigger you fill your clothes out. When you drop some weight you don't really fill the clothes but OTOH you aren't really lean either.

So you end up thinking you're flabbier when you really aren't.

Are you lifting weights?

Symbo61, this is the exact situation I'm going through now. I've lost 10 pounds but doesn't LOOK like it. It feels like it though.
Gotta stay encouraged though. And like DLuc insinuated, add weights if you haven't done so. That's what I will be adding to my routine and I hope the results are more apparent then.
Good luck to you.

Are you lifting weights?

Yeah. I lift 4 times a week, plus 5 days a week cardio and 1 day ice hockey. Add in biking around town daily as well.

To be honest, I think it's mostly in our heads. I've recently lost a fair amount of weight (12 pounds since the start of the month, 19 overall) and I still look the same in my own mind. Though, everyone around me is saying I look good and asking me for advice on how they can lose weight.

Stick with it, you'll eventually see the results you want. Or, you won't but everyone else will :D

As a general rule as you lose fat you will often become "more jiggly," particularly in terms of abdominal fat.

For one, large deposits of fat don't act like a lava lamp. They are a connected, large mass and will tend form one giant floppy mass, but the larger it gets the more force is required to move it.

Combine that with the fact that as you've exercised, you most likely tightened up your abs and therefore pulled your gut back in, as well as ended up with loosened skin, and you can easily see how despite being less fatty you can easily look and feel "more jiggly and flabby."

Has anyone experienced this?

Yup. :nod:

In addition to what others have said, you're probably experiencing the sensation of losing the intra-abdominal fat that lies underneath the abdominal sheathe instead of on top of it. As that goes away your midsection becomes less distended and the fat that's next to the skin shifts around more.

I'm sure it's all in my head, but am just curious if this has happened to others.

Nope, not all in your head. Just another sign of progress. :tu:

yep I got it to, defiantly not in your head. I'm convinced that if we keep losing fat we can push through that though.

Happened to me also.. I'm finally starting to "tighten up" and it seems like the past few weeks have been the best results I've ever seen. It will go away, just keep doing what your doing. Your on the right track.

Happened to me also.. I'm finally starting to "tighten up" and it seems like the past few weeks have been the best results I've ever seen. It will go away, just keep doing what your doing. Your on the right track.

Me too. the first 10 was depressing looking at the gut and flab. Next 5 lbs is where I am now and it's easier to see I'm on right path. (Started at 240)