Loose Skin and Uneven Abs

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
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So this year I’ve changed my body from a fat slob to looking pretty good nekkid. To do this I lost 70lbs between February and October. My waist size has continued to shrink since October although my weight has stayed within a couple lbs since then(less fat more muscle). Of course this is all well and good but my real goal was a 6pack. I’m starting to wonder if this is impossible.

I have loose skin thats starting to gather around my midsection as I continue to get leaner. I first noticed it a few weeks ago when the skin around the top of my belly button started to get a little folded over. It’s pretty obvious when im bent over and looks pretty horrible. There is some fat around my lower abs still but most of it is really thin and feels like the skin on my elbows.

Another thing I’ve noticed now that I can pretty clearly see my abs(although the pics dont show it well) is that the right side of my abs are significantly higher than the left side. I got into a bike accident in Japan several years back and took a handlebar to the stomach on that side. I was pretty torn up for a couple weeks and did have a hard time walking/stretching on that side but I never noticed because I never saw my abs until now. Am I stuck with mutant abs forever now?

Pics are:at rest, flexed, and bent over with lines showing mutant abs.

What can I do? Supps? Creams? anything?

Thanks in advance and I apologize for making you look at how nasty my stomach is.

PeterD

2

I think your BF% isn’t low enough. You might need to go on a maintenance plan and put on some more muscle, then diet down some more. I would say keep dieting down but you can only cut cals so much. How many cals are you consuming on your current diet? How much weight are you losing a week? How old are you? If you’re under 30 you should have no problem with skin plasticity.

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i know my brother lost over 100 pounds and packed on alot of muscle… but did so in a 2 year period. i believe you need to allow time for your sking to tighten and maintain weight for awhile as opposed to dropping constantly. anyways, ill see what kind of pills my brother was taken to keep his sking tight. that might help. ill get back to you

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im in the sameplace as you…lost 120 pounds in 14 months and have suprisingly little loose skin…but its still there.

i find myself wondering several things:

  1. will i ever truly be able to see my bottom abs due to the loose skin.
  2. im at 9% bodyfat now, i feel like if i loose more fat ill just be emptying the already fairly empty skin area, and that the loose skin will hang even more.

what ive done after alot of reading and questions:

  1. gone up from 500 cal deficit to matainance
  2. slowly gotten back to a sustainable, normal, eating pattern( i.e let myself treat a little bit)
  3. workout and PWO nutrit to gain muscle
  4. there is no pill or cream to ‘cure’ you. but i used a stretch mark oil, and ignoring all the gimmicks, i think just keeping the skin moist helps.

my strategy is basically to now allow my body at least 6 months without stressing it with further fat loss, ill treat myself a little and enjoy life. ill ‘bulk’ a little to try and ‘fill in’ the skin around my waist.
if i add a little fat back on thats fine…the important thing is to realise that im young but it will take time for the skin to re size.

id advise you to ignore your ab area and concentrate on maitaining and maybe growing a little bit.

if you are like me you have to be constantly improving your appearance after being a fat pie, so sitting doing nothing while your skin repairs will be painful…thats why im trying to fill the skin with muscle…it may not practically work, but i feel like i mighthelp address the situation in some way!

the end

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The shape of your “abs” is determined by genetics. Many bodybuilders have “uneven abs”.

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As it has been said by another poster, I’d focus on the whole picture and not concentrate on details and specific areas too much. Everybody has some minor “flaws”, be it loose skin, stretch marks, lack of symmetry in one area or the other, etc. After gaining an appreciable amount of mass and, if necessary, shedding excess bodyfat, things like this often sort themselves out to a large degree.

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[quote]markdp wrote:
I think your BF% isn’t low enough. You might need to go on a maintenance plan and put on some more muscle, then diet down some more. I would say keep dieting down but you can only cut cals so much. How many cals are you consuming on your current diet? How much weight are you losing a week? How old are you? If you’re under 30 you should have no problem with skin plasticity.
[/quote]

I probably should have taken a pic in the morning since my abs seem to ‘fill in’ during the day with all the water I drink. So is it possible that I have a thin layer of fat around my abs that is causing the skin to feel loose and slide over the muscle?

I have actually been ~180lbs for the last few months however my BF% has continued to drop as I’ve added muscle although the scale doesn’t move so I don’t have a weekly weight loss number. My right two avatar pics are both at 180lbs and 2 months apart. Definite difference but same scale weight.

I am consuming ~2200-2700cal/day depending on what I eat and if it’s a lifting day or not(I track it in PeterD’s Training thread).

I’m 28 so that’s good news about the skin.

[quote]chads wrote:
anyways, ill see what kind of pills my brother was taken to keep his sking tight. that might help. ill get back to you[/quote]

Please do. I’m happy to do some research on it and see if it’s will work for me also.

[quote]chutec wrote:
im in the sameplace as you…lost 120 pounds in 14 months and have suprisingly little loose skin…but its still there.

i find myself wondering several things:

  1. will i ever truly be able to see my bottom abs due to the loose skin.
  2. im at 9% bodyfat now, i feel like if i loose more fat ill just be emptying the already fairly empty skin area, and that the loose skin will hang even more.

what ive done after alot of reading and questions:

  1. gone up from 500 cal deficit to matainance
  2. slowly gotten back to a sustainable, normal, eating pattern( i.e let myself treat a little bit)
  3. workout and PWO nutrit to gain muscle
  4. there is no pill or cream to ‘cure’ you. but i used a stretch mark oil, and ignoring all the gimmicks, i think just keeping the skin moist helps.

my strategy is basically to now allow my body at least 6 months without stressing it with further fat loss, ill treat myself a little and enjoy life. ill ‘bulk’ a little to try and ‘fill in’ the skin around my waist.
if i add a little fat back on thats fine…the important thing is to realise that im young but it will take time for the skin to re size.

id advise you to ignore your ab area and concentrate on maitaining and maybe growing a little bit.

if you are like me you have to be constantly improving your appearance after being a fat pie, so sitting doing nothing while your skin repairs will be painful…thats why im trying to fill the skin with muscle…it may not practically work, but i feel like i mighthelp address the situation in some way!

the end[/quote]

I’ve also been wondering about 1&2 like you have been. It appears that there might be hope without surgery at least.

  1. I haven’t quite figured out my maintenance calories yet but I’ve added about 600cal to my base diet over the last few months so I think I’m pretty close.
  2. I’m actually in a pretty normal eating pattern although I’ve cheated a lot less recently which almost makes it easier at least for me.
    3.Luckily I’ve had this dialed in for awhile and I believe that it’s been the key to the differences in my physique the last few months.
  3. I started doing this also the other day and figure that it can’t hurt.

Yeah I seem to always be focused on what I can do to continue improving myself after being so fat and slovenly for so many years it’s no longer acceptable. I guess I’ll just have to stick it out and not let it get to me and see how long it takes for things to tighten up.

[quote]michael2507 wrote:
The shape of your “abs” is determined by genetics. Many bodybuilders have “uneven abs”. [/quote]

Well that’s good to know. I was a little worried there. I had never seen a pic of a set of abs that weren’t perfectly straight before. Thought I might have torn something up and was going to look funny!