105 lbs & still fat! I need help!

Hi everybody,

To give everyone some info before trying to help me, I'm a 21 year old female @ 5'1" and 105 lbs. I have been overweight my entire life up until 2 years ago when I decided to loose weight. Since then I've lost 115 lbs & my body fat is now 18%. But the problem is I still look pudgy, especially my thighs, & have loose skin and fat on my stomach. I am soooo sick & tired of dieting and going to the gym all the time, I feel I deserve to look good, but I look horrible due to all the sagginess. I keep trying to loose more & more weight so I'll finally look good, but I look the same. I'm getting really depressed. Does anyone have any advice about excercises to tighten skin and/or burn leftover subcutaneous fat?

18% body fat is pretty low for a female.  You must be doing something right! :)

And you don't need to lose any more weight.  105 at 5'1 is perfectly fine.

Now.  I myself was overweight my entire life.  When you are overweight for that long. it is nigh impossible for the skin to tighten up without surgery.  The belly, thighs, and hips in particular. 

I have found that heavy weight lifting has helped quite a bit, as it fills out the muscle beneath the skin.  Do you lift at all?

Original Post by sharpshootinstar:

I have found that heavy weight lifting has helped quite a bit, as it fills out the muscle beneath the skin.  Do you lift at all?

Congrats on your loss. That's quite an accomplishment!

and sharpshootinstar took the words right out of my mouth or keyboard or whatever

cut back on the cardio a little and pick up some weights! do strength training, pilates, ab exercises, whatever it takes to build some muscles.. and you'll feel trimmer in about a month or so. forget about the scale (you might gain weight but lose FAT) and just worry about getting thin and toned.. measure your inches lost! good luck :)

Original Post by ohohcherri:

cut back on the cardio a little and pick up some weights (YES)! do strength training (YES), pilates (NO, worthless for building muscle compared to weights unless you're too weak to lift things like your own purse or toy poodles), ab exercises(covered by proper weight training), whatever it takes to build some muscles.. and you'll feel trimmer in about a month or so. forget about the scale (you might gain weight but lose FAT) (totally agree) and just worry about getting thin and toned.. measure your inches lost! good luck :)

had to add my commentary.

I diagree with spirochete.

Pilates is an excellent way to tone muscle without adding bulk.  Anyone who's taken a pilates class knows how challenging it is.  You can lift weights, but that targets one muscle group at a time.  Pilates targets multiple muscle groups while constantly keeping your core flexed for the entire hour.  Sorry but it's much easier to lift a 15 lb dumbell than to do an advanced plank in pilates.

I've been doing pilates for awhile now and it's still hard and I am still sore when I'm done.  I would highly suggest this a coulpe times a week.

But whatever strength training you do whether it be weights or pilates, you will see a noticeable change.  Just figure out what's best for you and your body

Original Post by snowgurl0:

  You can lift weights, but that targets one muscle group at a time. 

 Not if you are doing the right exercises. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, pullups, and more... all those work several muscle groups at once, including your core.

I've personally seen results with pilates especially in my stomach and thigh area.

A lot of the DVDs I own incorporate hand weights into the mix, but I started off using absolutely nothing.

I know this is going to get shot down immediately, but I'm just putting it out there.

Original Post by snowgurl0:

You can lift weights, but that targets one muscle group at a time. 

 What one muscle group does an overhead snatch target? I was under the impression that it was all of them...

Original Post by snowgurl0:

I diagree with spirochete.

Pilates is an excellent way to tone muscle without adding bulk.  Anyone who's taken a pilates class knows how challenging it is.  You can lift weights, but that targets one muscle group at a time.  Pilates targets multiple muscle groups while constantly keeping your core flexed for the entire hour.  Sorry but it's much easier to lift a 15 lb dumbell than to do an advanced plank in pilates.

I've been doing pilates for awhile now and it's still hard and I am still sore when I'm done.  I would highly suggest this a coulpe times a week.

But whatever strength training you do whether it be weights or pilates, you will see a noticeable change.  Just figure out what's best for you and your body

 *SIGH*

Pilates is NOT a substitute for a proper weight routine. You are limited to your body weight which is fine if you can't handle your own body weight.  I don't have the studies, but melkor and/or floggingsully do. It's been proven so.

This "core" thing is way over used. I'm using my core as I'm sitting here beating down your core statement. You use your core to walk into a bar, sit on the barstool and pound beers all afternoon. You really use your core when you're doing things like deadlifts and squats.

and um 15lb dumbbells? I deadlift 180lbs and squat 135lbs. What am I gonna do with a 15lb dumbbell? Also, do you have ovaries and a vagina? YOU CAN'T ADD SUBSTANTIAL BULK. Not unless you try really really really hard and work on it for months and months. Even then, you are limited by your XX chromosomes.

I'm not saying pilates isn't worth doing, but it's not a substitute for doing weights. Period. End of story.

Original Post by spirochete:

 I deadlift 180lbs and squat 135lbs. What am I gonna do with a 15lb dumbbell?

 Cuban presses?

I have a vagina and ovaries....and I'm completely in awe of the fact you can deadlift 180lbs....I deadlift about 50 pounds at the most and my legs buckle from underneath me :(

spiro's point about lady parts was not that any female can lift as much as she can, but that even if you lift as much as she can, you still won't amass the bulk that so many women fear.  If you are deadlifting 50 pounds, and that's what you can do, great! If you are holding back because you are afraid that 60lb will give you bulk, not great!

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by spirochete:

 I deadlift 180lbs and squat 135lbs. What am I gonna do with a 15lb dumbbell?

 Cuban presses?

 Those things can rot in hell I hate them but yeah.

and as usual, amethystgirl is right. I just hate the notion that lifting heavy means he-woman. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a tiny little thing but that's mainly because I decided to gain a bunch of weight. My arms and legs are still thin because I conveniently carry all my fat right around my middle thanks genetics.

edit: haha I was expecting a lot more colorful answers to what I could do with that dumbbell by the way

oh no I'm definately not afraid to add more weight to my deadlifts, I've been lifting for awhile and I'm not "bulky" so i'm not scared that I will gain too much muscle and look manly because I know it's impossible unless I'm on some serious 'roids.

Deadlifts are just soooooo hard for me to do! But i always feel the burn and lift to failure so hopefully I'll be increasing my deadlift weight soon. Spiro is my inspiration :)

Original Post by spirochete:

 

edit: haha I was expecting a lot more colorful answers to what I could do with that dumbbell by the way

 Ew? Remind me never to borrow your dumbbells.

You know, as useless as Pilates is compared to - well, anything else, really - don't forget that it still beats the couch by a mile. And to someone who doesn't have any weight to lose, or very little, something that's at least vaguely more effective than nothing might be a good starting point.

 Won't do a thing for bone density, will be unhelpful for retaining muscle in a calorie deficit so for anyone with more than about 2lbs to lose it's not useful and it won't help much if at all with your proprioreception so it's not a long-term solution to anything, but for someone who's never followed a workout system before it can be a place to start.

 It's still rehab training for war wounded though, and it's my considered opinion that if you aren't in need of rehab, you shouldn't train as if you were or you soon will be.

The concept of pilates being highly effective because it "targets multiple muscle groups" while lifting weights "targets one muscle group at a time" is ABSURD. Sorry but these comments are not even remotely close to being based on anything factual but rather a pure lack of understanding towards weightlifting. I've yet to find an exercise which only utilizes one muscle group.

Bench press works chest AND triceps

Chinups work your back AND shoulders

Deadlifts work your back, shoulders, and legs

Need I continue? As long as you're not doing extremely small, precise exercises, there's no comparison between pilates and lifting in terms of what better works your body overall.

 To be fair, if what you've been exposed to as "weight training" is Nautilus machine training or similar it's easy to get the impression that all resistance training is based around single-joint exercises designed to isolate one muscle at a time.

 It's a straw man caricature of what resistance training is though, just like the position that "Pilates is only about the crap from Gaiam's DVDs" - there are situations where Pilates is the right choice for what you want to do. Not many, but they do exist.

Hey thanks guys for the great responses! I really appreciate all the help. There's a lot of good ideas in there for me to try. I'm going to try to eat more & do some more weight lifting. Maybe throw in some yoga & pilates for good measure.

So if I don't want to bulk up, just tone a little I want to do low weight, right? And regular old fashioned weight lifting is better than the weight machines at the gym? What are some specific excercises that will tone my thighs and make them look smaller?

So if I don't want to bulk up, just tone a little I want to do low weight, right?

Nope. If you don't want to bulk up, then you need to be a woman and not take steroids.  That's it. As females we won't get big unless we take drugs.