Don't tell anyone... - ThinnerTimes

Squishy · 12-07-2007, 06:26 PM

Here is my deep, dark, secret problem/question....

Gulp..... This is hard to talk about even in this safe place... OK, here goes....

As I have lost weight, I have encountered the sagging skin in my abdominal area like everyone else. (I can deal with that.) What I can't deal with very well is that I have the same sagging skin on my chest. I realize that, eventually, I "could" have surgery to remove this, but that would be a long time from now, and costly. It is extremely embarrassing.

My question is... can I fill in that loose skin with chest muscle? Will that work, or will it just make it look worse? (Well... I can't imagine it would look worse.) I'm afraid I would have to add a LOT of muscle to take up the slack, though. How long could I maintain that? Would I have to live in the gym?

OK... that is my secret worry. Let's just keep this between us, (the 4028 members of Thinner Times forum), OK?

-Mike-

shereeks · 12-08-2007, 12:53 PM

Hey I'm with you all the way there Squishy. But look on the bright side - at least you haven't got a couple of tennis balls in socks hanging off your chest!

I have no idea idea if you can fill it up with muscle - hopefully the 'muscle man' will help you out with that one (you know who you are!)

porshh951 · 12-09-2007, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

Here is my deep, dark, secret problem/question....

Gulp..... This is hard to talk about even in this safe place... OK, here goes....

As I have lost weight, I have encountered the sagging skin in my abdominal area like everyone else. (I can deal with that.) What I can't deal with very well is that I have the same sagging skin on my chest. I realize that, eventually, I "could" have surgery to remove this, but that would be a long time from now, and costly. It is extremely embarrassing.

My question is... can I fill in that loose skin with chest muscle? Will that work, or will it just make it look worse? (Well... I can't imagine it would look worse.) I'm afraid I would have to add a LOT of muscle to take up the slack, though. How long could I maintain that? Would I have to live in the gym?

OK... that is my secret worry. Let's just keep this between us, (the 4028 members of Thinner Times forum), OK?

-Mike-

Hey buddy sorry I didn't catch this sooner. I have a ongoing thread for muscle development in the exercise section. Pics and giving a basic outline of where I was to where I am now. I'll be updating that thread with more and more info as I see fit. Hopefully it will eventually become a muscle mega thread for all men(even women) wanting some ideas of muscle retention as well as gain.

Your post strikes a real chord with me. I hear you on the sagging chest. I myself am having that problem. I could have had a full body lift but, due to my plastic surgeon begging me saying "you don't need it you don't need it" I swear I still struggle with that everday I see my pecks. What I can say as of this very moment(literally so ironic I catch this thread) is that my pecks are starting to fill back up. Im starting to get the beginings of a crease inbetween my pecks and they are pushing out more now than there were even a few weeks ago.

So that sould be very encouraging to you. Sure for us real big guys our bodies will prolly never fully recover but, given enough time and enough weight training you CAN indeed shape your body after a tremendous weight loss.

You will need a few things in order to do this properly.
1. Good bloodflow(bloodflow is essential for peaking and tearing"
2. A solid ratio of protein grams to actual body weight(ideally 2 to 1)
3. Proper rest cycles on your muscles to give them a chance to repair and reform.

I can't say enough how strongly your thread strikes a chord with me. Body building is becoming a passion of mine ever since I got out from plastic surgery and decided I wanted to really do something about my physical form. YOU CAN DO IT! Don't let anyone tell you squishy you can't due to age/being too fat/ect.

If there is anything i've learned throughout my entire training process(running/cardio/now body building) is that with enough heart anything is possible. So smile myfriend.

Smile big

You will be able to reshape your body alot better than you may think. What you might struggle with is the very thing I struggle with on a daily basis.

1. Change/gains regardless of how fast don't seem to come fast enough.
2. Self image. People tell me I look like a monster now compared to how I used to look but, I still look in the mirror and see all the things I still need improvement on.

The best piece of advise I can give is. No matter how you look/what you see when you look in the mirror. Remember beauty is only skin deep and the people around you will love you no matter if you have sagging pecks/legs/skin/whatever. Your a special person and you have ALOT to offer people.
link to thread I mentioned earlier.
For all the men out there asking about muscle gain post GBS*pics of me at 200lbs*

Squishy · 12-09-2007, 08:32 AM

Thanks John!
This is going to be an interesting/challenging process. As of now, I do not enjoy lifting, but may learn to like it as I do it more. For me, exercise has to be fun, (that's why the aerobics has been good for me), so I need to find a way to make lifting fun. If I have to force myself to go, I know I won't stick with it. Maybe I need to find a lifting buddy.

It is encouraging to know that I could take up a lot of the slack skin. I will check out the exercises that you suggest in the other thread and see what I can get started on. (I should have asked for pecs for Christmas.)

Alright.... Pecs are officially on the agenda!

-Mike-

fisher1000 · 12-09-2007, 08:57 AM

John, can you explain a little more about the ratio of protein grams? I'm getting like 60-80g a day, but I've also started resistance training. How much does a person need when exercising?

-Mike

porshh951 · 12-10-2007, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fisher1000

John, can you explain a little more about the ratio of protein grams? I'm getting like 60-80g a day, but I've also started resistance training. How much does a person need when exercising?

-Mike

Yeah you are doing light resistance though correct? I wouldn't recomend anything but, that for you at this stage. Your main focus needs to be fat loss and calorie loss.

Exercising and what the body needs gets very specific. It all depends on your muscle mass index, BMR, average BPM, what you burn at a given heart rate ect.

60-80grams of protein a day while you are doing weightloss is more than enough. Do some light resistance training for now but, focus on cardio. Its all about calories in versus calories out. Once you have cut down most of the fat/ if not all the fat from your body then you can start building it back properly.

From there it gets tricky. When you are thin and have no reserves of fat left the only nutrition/energy your body can get is what you give it(eating). So you must take in the adequate calories/protein ect. If you are trying to gain mass you need alot of both.

A decent rule of the is the 2/1. That means I weigh 200lbs I should try and take in 400grams of protein a day in my diet while building. Thats enough for my muscles to grow properly. Its 2grams of protein for every 1lb of body weight.

Hope that helps some...

fisher1000 · 12-10-2007, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porshh951

A decent rule of the is the 2/1. That means I weigh 200lbs I should try and take in 400grams of protein a day in my diet while building. Thats enough for my muscles to grow properly. Its 2grams of protein for every 1lb of body weight.

Hope that helps some...

Holy crap! That much protein? I can barely get in what I'm supposed to...I can't imagine 5 protein shakes a day plus eating...the one I drink now gags me but I suck it up and do it anyway.

Yes, I'm doing light resistance, for at least a couple more weeks...then I can move out onto the "Big Boy" machines. Since I haven't done any exercise in years, they put me on what I call the "Baby" machines. Initially, I was embarrassed, but they sufficiently kicked my butt enough to respect them a little more. I'm also on the treadmill and the elliptical machine. The Elliptical hates me, but I'm up to ten minutes on that mother (from a beginning of barely a minute!) before I want to jump off and lay down on the floor of the gym and cry tears of happiness because it's over for the day!

Sorry for the hijack Squishy Mike but this is really interesting to me...

Thanks, John...

-Mike

porshh951 · 12-10-2007, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fisher1000

Holy crap! That much protein? I can barely get in what I'm supposed to...I can't imagine 5 protein shakes a day plus eating...the one I drink now gags me but I suck it up and do it anyway.

Yes, I'm doing light resistance, for at least a couple more weeks...then I can move out onto the "Big Boy" machines. Since I haven't done any exercise in years, they put me on what I call the "Baby" machines. Initially, I was embarrassed, but they sufficiently kicked my butt enough to respect them a little more. I'm also on the treadmill and the elliptical machine. The Elliptical hates me, but I'm up to ten minutes on that mother (from a beginning of barely a minute!) before I want to jump off and lay down on the floor of the gym and cry tears of happiness because it's over for the day!

Sorry for the hijack Squishy Mike but this is really interesting to me...

Thanks, John...

-Mike

Yeah I know some of the figures can be quite shocking but, everything in refference. You don't need to start really building until you are close to goal weight or at it.

If you recall all my training was cardio and light resistance until I reached 193lbs. Remember all my 20mile threads? Heavy cardio at 300lbs WILL build muscle anyhow. I can prove it with my data analysis sheets. My LBM stayed the same with a near 40lb weight loss inbetween 275 and 235lbs. That means in all that weight I lost it was almost all water weight/fat weight. NO muscle whatsoever.

Seriously if you have an hour to hour and a half to train. Spend it on the treadmil NOT the bench press. You will see more results and feel better. It takes quite alot of work to build even 5lbs of muscle mass.

To give you a idea of what kind of eating muscles do. For every 1lb of muscle mass on your body you burn a extra 50cals a day at a resting heart rate. So to do any kind of real difference in your calories in to calories out numbers you'd have to gain atleast 10lbs of raw muscle to effect 500 cals a day.

You know what it takes to gain 10lbs of raw muscle? ALOT. I've gone from 192-201 and trust me its a bitch.

THATS why I tell people spend time on the treamill and concentrate on fat loss not muscle gain. You will see much much greater gains that way. Its a hellva lot easier to burn a extra 500cals doing cardio than it is to gain the extra 10lbs of raw muscle needed to burn it for you.

I hope this makes sense and im making myself clear. Everyone should be concentrating on intense cardio and high heart rate exercises NOT gaining mass/muscle. Once you cut your body down to a low fat range THEN and only then can your body properly take what it needs from eating right/training right and turn it into muscle mass on your frame.

This is the ONLY way to train. Ask any serious body builder/trainer. They will same the same. You must first cut your body down before you can build it back right.

Groovey kinda Love · 12-10-2007, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porshh951

Yeah I know some of the figures can be quite shocking but, everything in refference. You don't need to start really building until you are close to goal weight or at it.

If you recall all my training was cardio and light resistance until I reached 193lbs. Remember all my 20mile threads? Heavy cardio at 300lbs WILL build muscle anyhow. I can prove it with my data analysis sheets. My LBM stayed the same with a near 40lb weight loss inbetween 275 and 235lbs. That means in all that weight I lost it was almost all water weight/fat weight. NO muscle whatsoever.

Seriously if you have an hour to hour and a half to train. Spend it on the treadmil NOT the bench press. You will see more results and feel better. It takes quite alot of work to build even 5lbs of muscle mass.

To give you a idea of what kind of eating muscles do. For every 1lb of muscle mass on your body you burn a extra 50cals a day at a resting heart rate. So to do any kind of real difference in your calories in to calories out numbers you'd have to gain atleast 10lbs of raw muscle to effect 500 cals a day.

You know what it takes to gain 10lbs of raw muscle? ALOT. I've gone from 192-201 and trust me its a bitch.

THATS why I tell people spend time on the treamill and concentrate on fat loss not muscle gain. You will see much much greater gains that way. Its a hellva lot easier to burn a extra 500cals doing cardio than it is to gain the extra 10lbs of raw muscle needed to burn it for you.

I hope this makes sense and im making myself clear. Everyone should be concentrating on intense cardio and high heart rate exercises NOT gaining mass/muscle. Once you cut your body down to a low fat range THEN and only then can your body properly take what it needs from eating right/training right and turn it into muscle mass on your frame.

This is the ONLY way to train. Ask any serious body builder/trainer. They will same the same. You must first cut your body down before you can build it back right.

Hey my friend.... all seriousness (<-- is that even a word) anyway, have you thought about being a trainner? You obviously know your stuff, and You know where people like us have been and where we are going! Most trainners out there don't have the compassion needed to fill the job cause they have never walked that mile in our shoes, well anyway I was just curious... you are looking great my friend.... hugs susie

porshh951 · 12-10-2007, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Groovey kinda Love

Hey my friend.... all seriousness (<-- is that even a word) anyway, have you thought about being a trainner? You obviously know your stuff, and You know where people like us have been and where we are going! Most trainners out there don't have the compassion needed to fill the job cause they have never walked that mile in our shoes, well anyway I was just curious... you are looking great my friend.... hugs susie

Thats the absolute biggest complement I could ever hope to receive from anyone. I agree alot of trainers out there don't actually know what its like to weigh 400lbs and therefore could learn a thing or two by living it first hand. It would broaden their programs some and benefit their clients more.

However I haven't given a real serious thought about becoming one myself. I get asked that some and also about the book thing. I guess one can say "never say never" but, no I don't see myself ever taking that on as a profession seriously.