I'm wondering if I should adjust my calorie intake to only allow the loss of about 1 pound a week, or lower, to avoid loose skin when I'm finished.

My stats are 6ft 305lbs and I plan to lose about 100 pounds. I've heard that losing too much weight quickly will cause excess skin. Personally it seems to me that once you've stretched it out it's unlikely to bounce back if you lose it all tomorrow or over 5 years. Something like a balloon.

Anybody got any ideas?

can't offer any advice but i sure would like to hear an answer on this question as I am trying to go from 255-180 and I am very worried about loose skin.

best of luck with your journey,
Emilio

It probably wouldn't hurt to cut it down to 1/week. I'm went from 220 to 195 real quick and noticed some loose skin. Now I'm back up to 200 and want to go down to 165-170.

The problem for me is my motivation. I'm worried that if I'm only losing 1 pound per week that the results wont be enough to motivate me to keep going.

Guys, You're still pretty young, and you don't have nearly what I had to lose. But you have valid concerns nonetheless. I have lost 175 lbs over three years and believe me when you are 51 years old your skin loses it's elasticity. Lose it now, man! I have some skin if you need it! Ab exercises help a lot, situps, crunches etc... All of them work to a degree. But when you let yourself get as old as I did and not do anything about it there is a price to pay and loose skin is it. Work hard on your abs, drink plenty of water, eat clean, get plenty of sleep, exercise like there's no tomorrow! Some people I know have had plastic surgery but it is expensive. Real expensive!Good Luck with your reclamation project! :gl:

I went from 234 - 172 in about 5 months and i didnt have any problems with loose skin...

Drinking lots of water helps, and I've also heard that mixing it with lemon is even better to help tightening your skin.

Good luck with your weightloss program, and dont let anything stop you... Better healthy with loose skin, than overweight.

hey Junier,

Your transformation is similar to what I want (start and end weights aren't too far off).. do you have any before/after/during pics? I'd love to see them as I am sure it'd be great motivation. Also thanks for the info!

cya
Emilio

I lost almost 2.5-lbs. per week during my initial transformation. I had stretch marks, but no loose skin. I would never advise fat loss above 1.5-lbs per week to avoid loose skin or stretch marks.

-R

First pics are from January 9th.

The last pic is from about a month and a half ago... I look a bit leaner now... Still have about 15 lbs of fat to go I would say.

I cheated the whole summer, so thats why I didnt get to my target bf %. I didnt gain any weight while cheating though, which is good.

I'm back on track now.

wow looking good man... kinda creepy how much you looked like I do now. Definate motivation though. Did you do any weight training during your cutting phase?

thanks again!
Emilio

ps - what is your ethnicity?

wow looking good man... kinda creepy how much you looked like I do now. Definate motivation though. Did you do any weight training during your cutting phase?

thanks again!
Emilio

ps - what is your ethnicity?I weight trained all through my cutting phase and still do now...

I'm cuban.

Better healthy with loose skin, than overweight.

Yeah. I think that it will take the same amount of time for your skin to shrink either way. So your choice is between being fat longer just to keep your skin filled out as it shrinks or losing the weight first.

I have lost my weight fairly fast, and I'm happy about it. I've been able to start a running program that I never would have been able to manage this soon otherwise. I think that one of the biggest reasons that slow losers have better success is that they maintain their new diet habits longer. A steady 3-month loss may be a crash diet, but a 6-month loss has a good chance of being a lifestyle change. My guess is that it has more to do with the amount of time you maintain your change than the rapidity of the weight loss.

I think you would be better sticking to 2lbs loss a week the skin is pretty elastic if it takes a little longer surely you would have rather lost the weight and had a little loose skin for a while and you could always jump in a large washing machine at high temperature to shrink it a bit.

3lbs+ per week is crazy

The only way you could really lose 3lbs + per week is if you fasted half the week, which you shouldn't do anyway.

I think how much stretched skin you'll have is determined to how big you were when you started. 350lb lady that loses 200 of it will see loose skin no matter how long it takes her to lose it.

Don't freak out if you drop 10lbs in a week. I assure you that you'd have to kill yourself to lose 10lbs of fat in a week. It's going to be water weight for a bit. Once that starts slowing down, you'll see minor weight loss. Provided that you've kept up with the diet, this should be fat.

Eventually you'll get to the point where you realize for yourself that the scale isn't accurate at all for the measurements you want. The mirror is infinitely more accurate than the scale :)

That's pretty much it, yup. Listen to the man.

"I lost 2,2 kg (~5lbs) every week during 6 months eating 900-1000 kcals a day and NOT working out*. Should that be water weight, I would have died of dehydration"
A lot of that would have been muscle along with the fat you lost,but the body will adjust for a low calorie intake it's just not that good for the body.

A lot of that would have been muscle along with the fat you lost,
I know.
but the body will adjust for a low calorie intake it's just not that good for the body.
I know.

For the bazillionth time: [B] A fat loss phase is meant to end when you look good without a shirt on, well that day will never arrive if you lose weight too fast, no matter how many lbs of fat you lose or how many lbs of muscle you get.

:d_frown: This man is right. Listen to him. I wish I could go back in time and do so.

Loose skin does bounce back based on age and how much muscle u pack on... ill just leave it at this... i lost 120 lbs over 9 months and have some loose skin but meh im only 16

Ok, I don't know everything, but on this I think I am pretty much at least a scholar. I went from 230 to 140 in two years. I still have loose skin. However, I gained my weight in a very short period of time due to a nonfunctioning gall bladder. I went from 150 to 230 in a matter of less than a year. After having Gall bladder removed I lost 34 pounds within about three months. (And my doctor said my gall bladder had nothing to do with my weight gain, what a crock). Anyway, I think it depends on how fast you gained it, not how fast you lose it. And IMO, when you lose that much weight period, there is bound to be skin. Especially if you have stretch marks from where that skin stretched. That is where my skin is the lossest. Most people can't tell when I stand up, but when I lean forward, my skin goes with me. Sorry, probably isn't what you wanted to hear.

Loose skin does bounce back based on age and how much muscle u pack on... ill just leave it at this... i lost 120 lbs over 9 months and have some loose skin but meh im only 16
Yeah, but it hasn't been long since you lost it. Add some muscle and it will get better, at least.

Duh

I went from 234 - 172 in about 5 months and i didnt have any problems with loose skin...

Drinking lots of water helps, and I've also heard that mixing it with lemon is even better to help tightening your skin.

Good luck with your weightloss program, and dont let anything stop you... Better healthy with loose skin, than overweight.


Actually drinking hot water with a wedge of un-waxed lemon helps with digestion and the burning process and helps the weight loss and better if you drink it 1st thing in the morning. I learned this from a detox book I picked up. I am in the habit of drinking that glass of hot water in the morning and see to help. I don’t know if it helps with the skin to tighten up.