At a healthy weight, but unhappy with my body. Should I continue losing weight?

Hey CC members. I have a dilemma and want some advice! I am a 19 year old male with a medium body frame. I currently weigh 151 pounds, after having lost a little more than 130 pounds. My BMI is 23.0, which is a healthy BMI according to my stats. However, I look in the mirror and am very unhappy with what I see. I have a lot of extra skin and an undesirable amount of body fat. The thing is that I'm not sure if the flabby stomach, chest and butt is mostly fat with a little loose skin or mostly loose skin and a little fat. I grab it and it feels like fat, but I'm just not sure. If it is fat, I don't understand why I am at such a low weight and still have so much of it left on my body. How much fat could I have left to lose? I'm already at a pretty low weight! I look bony in some areas and flabby in others... I guess you could call me skinny fat? Sigh. I'm pretty sure that I lost a lot of muscle during weight loss mode because I ate too little and lost all of my weight very quickly, but I have been eating a healthy amount of calories since reaching my goal and steadily lifting weights to replace the lost muscle. Perhaps I can't do anything about my body except continuing to lift weights and possibly get surgery for the extra skin? Due to my muffin top, rolls and man-boobs, a couple of months ago I decided to stop maintaining and start running a slight deficit to encourage fat loss. I went from 155, my original goal weight, to 151 over the course of 2 months. Should I continue running this deficit while lifting weights to change my body composition/appearance or accept the fact that my body is going to look weird no matter what since I lost so much weight? Would it make sense to slim down to the 140's in order to lose the extra fat I still have? I don't want to look bony, gaunt or weird... just toned, fit and have a hard body with minimal loose skin. Thanks in advance for your opinions. Be honest, I can handle it!

I am in a similar boat... I think I am just going to keep up gaining muscle in the gym, and lowering my body fat till things smooth out and the muffin top/stomach fat goes away.

I'd say your best bet is to do a ton of toning and moisturize. You're really young and your skin still has a lot of elasticity. It will most likely shrink to form to your body soon. Use cocoa butter to help it along, though. Every time you hop out of the shower, just slather it on.

I haven't read any responses, just the original post, so sorry if this is the same response as everyone else :P

After losing 130lbs, the loose skin is fairly common (I have lost 30lbs in the past 2.5 months and have loose skin already, which is driving me crazy)

Your best bet would be to work out in the gym and do toning. Maybe, don't quote me on this, but there is some kind of excersize or cream that is best for targeting loose skin.

Good luck! (And let me know what works!)

Risza: Thanks for your input. Hopefully we'll be able to achieve the body we want because we worked very hard to get to this point and deserve to finally be happy with our bodies.

Lovie: I've heard about using cocoa butter and moisturizers for skin issues. Have you personally tried this? Or perhaps a friend did? I hope it's been proven to work, because I'm definitely considering it. I regret not doing it sooner, it's been about 4 or 5 months since I reached my goal weight. Oh well, better late than never.

After 130 pounds, it's probably loose skin.  I'm about 45 pounds from my highest weight, and I have pretty noticible loose skin (to me - I doubt others notice it).  I'd keep eating at maintenance & keep lifting weights.  As you put on muscle, you'll gradually lose fat, and as time goes by, your skin will gradually tighten up (esp as you're 19).

If you lose more weight, you'll probably end up sort of gaunt with more loose skin. Better to keep eating, keep exercising, and move on with your life. And congrats on reaching a healthy weight!

Hey man, read your post, noticed you want to be at 155 any coincidence thats a boxing or MMA weight class limit?  

While your 19 so over time your skin will start to tighten up slowly what you can do now is take advantage of the face you wanna put on 4 lbs, make sure you take in lotsa proteins after your work outs to help rebuild your muscles, there is a book called The Metabolic Diet that is all about a high protein/fat diet to get your body in shape while keeping and adding muscle I can send it over to you if you want to have a read since i have it in Ebook format, might be something your interested in. Also try staying low sodium too and see if that decreases any bloating that might cause you to still look flabby in areas since water weight is a bitch that loves to hang around! Shoot me an email at kprpromos@gmail.com if you want me to send ya the ebook!

Screw BMI - find out your % body fat - and work with that by building more muscle... you can also work muscles in what you see as problem areas.

You can probably still lose more weight but you need need to be doing good weight training, but I would not lose more weight without building muscle.

If you havent talked to a personal training, it's a good idea to get one - even just one session - to discuss/learn weight training all around, and then continue on your own, revisiting the trainer as needed.

Also, talk with your doctor about the skin now, see what they recommend and suggest. I would try and get a general time limit they think skin will return to looking more normal, and after that time, discuss again other options.

Also, you are only 19 and your body could change a bit more also on its own.

Big congrats on your weight loss! You did so much for your future by losing that weight. you can enjoy your life more complete now than you would have with that much extra weight. Great job!

Unfortunately, I am familiar with this dilemma.  I am convinced there's fat under that loose skin, but cardio alone is not enough.  I have been working hard on lifting weights and from experience I can say that definitely helps decrease the loose look.  Use the weight machines at the gym and/or free weights and make sure that you are challenging yourself.  In other words, after a period of time, you should be increasing your weights or reps.  It may be worthwhile to pay for a couple of sessions with a trainer to get you on the right track - give you an idea where to start and how to know when to do more.  Ask around for recommendations.  You might want to take a look at a book called Body for Life - it has some interesting information about increasing strength and building muscle. 

You are young and your skin should have a lot of elasticity.  Keep doing the cardio, add three days a week of weight training - don't get hung up on the numbers on the scale or the BMI - they are tools that help you assess your journey.  Don't overdose on the cocoa butter - the smell is a little strong. 

You don't mention how tall you are, which would be helpful information in assessing your question.

Best of luck.

Thank you all for your opinions and suggestions. I've decided that I will continue my small deficit per week... maybe 1/2 a pound or a 1/3 of a pound. I will also continue to lift weights twice a week. We'll see what happens... hopefully that will promote fat loss/muscle gain. I'm also going to start using cocoa butter and moisturize my skin. If I can afford a skin surgery one day, I will go ahead and do it to make myself happy... but will try these things in the mean time. By the way, my height is 5'8. Forgot to mention that in the original post! At the end of the day, I'd much rather be in this situation than when I was nearly 300 pounds. Guess I should be proud of myself and my body for getting me this far...

I forgot to tell you, Congratulations on getting where you are, you have done a wonderful job and the tenacity and hard work you displayed in getting to this point are going to pay off for you in other aspects of your life as well.  You are an inspiration to all of us.  Thanks for sharing your information.  Best of luck and let us all know how you are doing.

Dee

You may be unhappy, but I'm sure you look WAY better than you did.  You've accomplished a lot.

Also- you are only 19, you will tighten up.

I don't have a lot of knowledge on weight lifting, but I'm pretty sure that if you want to gain serious muscle, you have to lift more than twice a week.  My personal suggestion would be for you to keep up what you're doing until you get to your new goal weight, and if it doesn't look like it's getting better by then, you should start eating a slight excess and get some serious weight lifting advice from someone who knows a lot about it.  Then you can bulk your muscle up & the mass will take care of at least some of the loose skin issue.