Excess body fat still, or loose skin? How to determine which you have

I've lost alot of fat weight, over 6 stone in total, and still having slight problems with my bodys composition-  was just wondering how to be able to tell what problem your still left with, so you can combat that one as they have different ways to go about either.     

I'm 19,  6'1 in height and weigh 12 stone.      
But in some areas it still just looks like im fat, mainly stomach and chest, aswell as thighs.       when i lean forward so does my whole front, very confusing after i've lost so much weight :)

cheers for any advise,  if you have/had a similar situation at all ,

For starters, well done on losing all that weight!
6 stone is a lot to lose, im guessing you lost some muscle in the process if you lost that weight at a dramatic rate, so you could still be holding a little fat(as all of the 6 stone you lost wouldnt have just been fat) Wont be able to tell really unless your comfortable about posting a pic? or go to your GP and see what they have to say.

I agree with adam, it's hard to determine without a picture.
is the skin soft and wrinkled?? that's what loose skin looks and feels like.
Congrats on the weight loss.

Will actually do that, was going to anyways just wasted to ask a few basic questions firstly but- if you think its better to just go straight in with a picture to describe it better?  

And thanks, lost it at different rates over about a year and ended about six months ago.    But like mentioned still having few body problems, puzzling since the amount i lost and at a suposed average body weight for my height now :)

 thanks for the help,

Aleex.......as I've suggested many many times please get the average weight for your height thing out of your head

Sorry lost my MT password for a while.

Hi Kitty, ah no don't worry i do realise this, its just a average thing i go by i know its not the case when determining your body shape.  Just puzzles me still a little how i can weight 12 stone but have a completely different phisique to that of an average 12 stone person.  Not ignorant always listen to your advise :)

Be a better idea to stick the pics up here to better describe my problem, or just make a new post an stick em up freshly there with little writing?

It's probably loose skin. I, too, lost 6 stones of weight and have loose skin on several areas of my body; namely the abdomen, inner thighs, buttocks and lower back. It's quite unsightly and unfortunately nothing will get rid of it.

Like you, I was unsure as to whether this was fat or loose skin because there was quite a lot of it i.e. when I sit down or lean forward I get some rather prominent rolls of flesh appearing on my midsection.

However, I have seen various health professionals and have even had separate consultations with 2 different plastic surgeons who confirmed that my body fat levels are very low, and that all of the flesh is indeed loose skin.

The only way to get rid of it is by a full abdominoplasty, or an apenectomy (a smaller, less invasive version). After considering the options, I have opted out of the whole surgery route and and am just going to try and live with it. My particular complication is that I not only have loose skin on the lower abdomen, but the upper abdomen too (around the upper abs and rib cage area) and in order to cut that away, I'd need to have a large vertical inciscion from my belly button to my sternum - and having a scar like that would ultimately lead me back to not wanting to take my top off!

Posting pictures would be a great help because I have had this for around 2 years, and have done plenty of research so know what to look for. I might also be inclined to post pictures of myself if it could help to bring you some closure.

Very helpful thanks mate,  the areas you described are also were i'm having the issues.    Alot of the time its all fine,  its just more when i do lean forward/sit down, different body positions that its a problem and the looseness of my body composition is really noticiable..         

 Hopefully i caught it at a young enough age to have the best possible chances of fixing it up as good as possible,  i don't know what age you dealt with the weight loss at?    

Sure will be putting some pictures up within the next few days, if you could take a quick look would really appriciate it seeing as you mentioned you know more or less exactly what to be looking for in a loose skin problem vs body fat.     Thanks again for the insight, was very helpful.. feel bit less stupid when trying to describe the problem too :) 

cheers,

Put on some muscle mass to fill out the skin.

Putting musclemass on to fill the sape is easier siad than done.
I've been trying for the bast 5 months. it's helping a bit with my case, but there's only so much muscle you can put on on your abs.
It really depends where the loose skin is.

Yup, I'm in the exact same boat. Lost 6 stone (now weigh 12st, 5'9") and have skin (or fat?) on my lower back, abs and my chest. When I sit forward it looks like rolls of fat you'd see on an obese person.

It's been just over a year since I lost all the weight, during that time I've taken up weight training and have gained a lot of muscle, but the skin doesn't seem to tighten up at all. I'm only 21 years old too. Sometimes makes me think what was the point? lost all this weight and I'm still disappointed.

At 21 it may improve ALOT over time just practise a good skin routine, exfoliate and moisturise to keep your skin tip top. Then any improvement likely will be optimised.  At 21 your skin is still quite elastic.

Abs arn't the only muscle to fill out your lower torso skin, serratus' and obliques for example, alot of people reckon dead lifing increases your waist girth too. I'm not sure how true it is.

I wouldn't worry about it being worth it, at least if you want a long healthy life, surgery is also an option.

march109


At 21 it may improve ALOT over time just practise a good skin routine, exfoliate and moisturise to keep your skin tip top. Then any improvement likely will be optimised.  At 21 your skin is still quite elastic.

Abs arn't the only muscle to fill out your lower torso skin, serratus' and obliques for example, alot of people reckon dead lifing increases your waist girth too. I'm not sure how true it is.

I wouldn't worry about it being worth it, at least if you want a long healthy life, surgery is also an option.

Cheers for that. I'm still going to keep going regardless. I love weight training and I can't ever see myself giving it up - no matter how much disappointment I face.

Hopefully the skin will tighten up in the future.

well done to all you weight losers!!

Same with me Lupe, think whats the point of losing the weight.. im a smaller size but still have a dreadful phisique due to the looseness of my body composition/skin.. look just like a scaled down fat person now.

 Though when clothed/standing is much better, and obviously can notise the weight loss and complimented for it.. but trying to fix up whats under the cloths now :)

 'march109' could you maybe just go into a little more detail on what you said about the skincare side of it?    im clutching at anything to try and improve it, before i considered surgical ways.

cheers,