What is extra skin and what is fat?

I'm at a bit of a loss. I'm trying to figure out just what I'm dealing with. I'm 11 pounds from a "normal" bmi. I have handfuls of belly, "boobs" that could still be called boobs, a roll between my chest and belly and of course I have love handles.

I know that as I lose more weight all of these areas will get smaller. A normal bmi for me is 128-159, hypothetically if I got down to that 128 (42 more pounds) would my loose skin be like the webbing in between my fingers or would there still be a thick layer of tissue?

I don't want to go crazy and get to 128, that isn't my goal at all. I'm just trying to understand what to expect. I know that plastic surgery is in my distant future to deal with the extra skin and I know that I won't end up with a career as a model so I'm not looking for a perfect beach body.

I would strongly suggest getting a DEXA scan done. These are not covered by insurance and can run $50 - $200. They are a full body composition scan. They will tell you how much lean mass vs fat mass you have, which is MUCH more valuable in setting a goal weight than BMI.

For instance, I am 5'8" and 150lbs. By BMI I am in the "normal" range as low as 122lbs. So, theoretically, I could lose another 28lbs and still be "normal". In actual fact, I would most likely be dead! As of my last DEXA scan, I only have 7.17lbs of fat on my body. That's when I knew i probably had lost a little too much weight (I was 147lbs at the time of the scan), and adjusted my "final goal weight" up to 152lbs.

And to address your specific question, to me, my extra skin around my abdomen still looks like fat. I know it can't possibly be fat, but it still looks like it. The excess skin around my arms and thighs looks a lot more like very thin skin tissue.

Thanks Jester! I'd forgotten about the dexa scan. Your example is exactly what I was looking for. I think that I will drop into the normal range and get one done.

It's actually an incredibly interesting test IMHO - gives you a ton of data. I actually wish I had a baseline from when I started the whole process, as there is real value in seeing progress over time. Couple of anecdotes for you:

I originally set my goal weight at 185 (largely because my surgeon said I would most likely get down to around 200lbs, and that didn't feel like enough weight loss for me). When I got to about that weight (182lbs) I had my first scan. I was a bit surprised to discover that my BF% was still 26.5%. Anything over 25% in a man is considered obese. I know knew I still had some work to do!

What was really cool is what I learned at my second scan (at 155lbs). I had lost a total of 27 pounds since my first scan. But I had really lost 39 pounds of fat!! I had gained 12 pounds of lean mass! Man, was that validating. I was pretty happy to lose 27 pounds, but even happier to learn I had dropped 39 pounds of fat, and gained 12 pounds of muscle. With this change in body composition my BF% was now incredibly low, and I realized I definitely didn't need to lose any more weight.

It has been an invaluable tool for me in helping me set and maintain a goal weight. I will go back in for another scan in the fall (6 months from my last one). I am curious at that point to see if my body composition is changing at all as I maintain my weight. I get a lot of comments about how I "look better" recently and how I have "filled in" some and "don't look so gaunt". So I wonder if those anecdotal observations will be back up with body composition data.

Great science you're doing there, Jester, on the "population" that matters most -- YOU!

I'm at a 23 BMI and I still have fat in my abdomen for sure, but I also don't think I plan to go terribly lower with my weight. Maybe another 10lbs which would put me at a 21 BMI. I do plan to have plastic surgery.

I have been having a hard time with this as well. I have the love handles and flappy arms going on. My legs and arms are more obvious that it is just skin but to me when I look down at my stomach to me it looks like fat rolls. It makes me still feel the same as I did at over 300 pounds when I would look down and see fat rolls. I have asked the NP at my surgeons office about it and she examined me and has told me that it is just the excess skin. That there is a thin layer of fat there under the skin that will only get so small. I am at a healthy body fat percentage and she doesn't want me losing any more weight at this time. I still want to lose at least another 10. I don't care to ever look like a model or anything but just don't want to still feel fat after all the hard work I have done. I really would love to get it removed but unless a miracle occurs financially it's not going to happen.

Exactly how I feel.

You put my thoughts into words, I feel the same as well.

I think pulling the skin off a raw chicken leg will give you a good idea of the thickness of skin. If you weight the chicken leg with and without the skin you might be surprised by how little the skin weighs.