I still haven’t come across a woman with 10% body fat and loose skin. I think that it’s not really “loose” as much as it is flabby because of a lack of lean supporting tissue. Whether you were 200lbs or 400lbs, if you start out at 110 and balloon to 300, and then go on a program to come back down again, the only reason you won’t be as firm as you were in the first place would be because you now have a higher body fat percentage, and are less lean than you were before you gained the weight. Do you expect to be firm like you were before under those conditions? So there are options in these circumstances. You can get surgery, and that goes quite well for many people. Or, you could focus on gaining back balanced composition by replenishing LBM and then finishing off the rest of those excess fat stores.

Hypothetically speaking, in most cases, the worst that could happen is you have paper thin folds of skin, and because of the fact that you are so lean at that point, it is much easier to predict a satisfactory outcome for your operation. But again, I haven’t seen any truly balanced body compositions that also had “loose skin.” In my experience, it’s always been people who have 20lbs or more of fat left to lose. And if they lose that without gaining back any muscle mass first, they will look emaciated. So in my opinion, it would appear that the source of the problem has been discovered. Because I don’t think skin is as passive as some people give it credit for. I think it adapts to its environment, and check any gastric and or lapband clinic’s website, they always say that they don’t like doing skin removal surgery before two years has elapsed. The reason they say this is chiefly because they want you to give your skin time to get used to your body’s new form.

While it is often said(and quite insightfully I might add) that it’s a matter of speed, I think that’s one factor. It makes sense that maintaining your LBM and monitoring your losses each weigh-in to determine what exactly has been lost, along with toning, proper diet and hydration(as Bree points out) at a medically healthy speed, is a good way to approach it.

And while some doctors might say that it is primarily dependent on your size, there are others that do not concur. In fact, my doctor told me that I won’t have any issues with this, and that I need to keep walking to create tone, and follow a balanced diet with an aim for 1-2lbs a week. I used to worry about it a lot. It didn’t stop me from trying, but it really did, do you know what I mean? I wasn’t intentionally trying to stop myself from losing weight for fear of having this problem. But I was causing myself a lot of stress, and that in turn was seriously effecting my progress. At this point I don’t even worry about it. At some point I realized it was entirely too dramatic, and I simply chose not to let my valuable energy be expended that way. But I think it’s a fascinating subject, and I’m always willing to give my two cents.

I would agree that age is a factor, aswell as genetics. Tom Venuto wrote a great article about this, and you can find that here:

http://www.musclegainguide.com/articles-other-loose-skin-and-weight-loss.php