Should I keep losing?

[MrTcon]

Hello everyone I am a new user on here. I started my weight loss journey last August at 320# ,38% body fat. In 9 months I have lost 85# and I'm feeling way better. I started by fixing my diet making sure it was perfect and used a barbell with max 100# weight. About three weeks ago I got gym membership and progress is coming even faster. But the thing that's bugging me is the loose skin. I weighed myself monday I'm at 235# and did body fat caliper I am currently 17% body fat, 195# lbm . My question is should I keep losing? Last two weeks I've been building muscle mass to fill in the loose skin. Is that a bad idea? I wanted to just throw muscle on and hope my skin would adapt to sculpting it out later on.

[BoringWesley]

Congrats on the weight loss, it's a great accomplishment. As for the loose skin, without seeing any pictures of your body i'm presuming it's around your stomach, triceps, legs, and glute area? Adding Muscle mass will definitely help, but your body just needs time to adapt to the drastic change you've gone through. Remember your skin is a living organ that was forced to stretch to cover all that fat that was once there. Once it realizes it's not coming back it will adapt to it's new (takes up to two years).

[bklein28]

Great job so far on the weight loss!! 195lbs of LBM is a lot. Unless you've been lifting consistently for a while you're likely less than that. Body calipers, bioelectric devices, etc... can be wildly inaccurate. The best method is the dunk tank but having that done can cost a lot of money, not recommended. If you post a few pics someone can give you a better idea on where you stand. The real answer is are you happy with what you look like in the mirror. If so, bulk to add muscle. If not, keep losing.

[MrTcon]

Thank you guys for the input. Yes it is all the areas you mentioned. I'm just trying to learn to be patient with this. I'm kinda happy were I am at. I have a little stomach now but I'm so done with the 1500cals a day . I didnt want to fail so I thought I'd change it up by bulking but going from that low calories to 3,000 is a challenge in itself.

[juggernaut74ia]

Not to rain on your parade - but I want to echo some of the above and dispel some of your notions.

Don't put too much stock into the BF% - 195lbs of lean mass is not at all likely.
Secondly - muscle mass (of any significance) takes a lot longer than two weeks to add, so don't make assessments in such short time windows.

Pics would be helpful, but based on what you've posted, I'd advise to continue cutting, but definitely keep lifting.

[MrTcon]

I've been lifting whole 9 months but not as intense as I am now. I started 3 sets 15, 10 , 5 on rows, curls, and squats at home but could only go as high as 100 pounds. No parade raining here, anything to help me. I'm enjoying bulking over weight loss, lol. I am adding two new photos to my account. These are the last pictures I have taken.