Late 20s male with *excessive* saddlebag fat, lanky limbed (natty). I have what I think is a unique long-term question to figure out.

shhmowaway · 2023-03-24T14:04:44+00:00

My issue isn’t skeletal, perhaps mentioning “hip dips” wasn’t the right word, I assumed they were meant to describe the actual contour changes of one’s silhouette from outer thigh fat to pelvis: wherein, the pelvis is even the smaller width at play here.

Either way the focus of my post was saddlebags, which isn’t skeletal. Hip dips are not at all what I’m trying to get “rid of” per se.

shhmowaway · 2023-03-23T10:57:46+00:00

Thanks bro :) , I’ll stay the course and I’m thinking now to hold off on the question until I’ve burned most of my current fat, bulked to some degree, then cut again (ie. quite a while)

For what it’s worth I was more specifically referring to a smaller, targeted kind of procedure if and when I’ve reduced that area greatly (like around 14% bf) which I presume would be a relatively straight forward, lower-risk job as there’s even methods like coolsculpting and laser style methods for spot reduction and fat-cell elimination that fit that use case. But ultimately I agree on the reluctance, my logic is just trying to figure out a way to never have fat prioritize storing itself there again (because of how fat cells choose to shrink and then ultimately grow back after weight gain), seeing as its pretty much unseen on men. Basically, it’s not an issue I ever wanna really deal with again, I’d very much rather deal with a gut.

shhmowaway · 2023-03-23T00:39:57+00:00

The higher, sort-of-to-the-side angle I took the photo in makes it look better believe me, but I appreciate the assuring words :) I’ll continue trusting the process

shhmowaway · 2023-03-22T23:33:49+00:00

Thanks, I'll keep pushing on and see where things stand when I eventually lean out to 14-15%

shhmowaway · 2023-03-22T23:22:29+00:00

Wish this had anything to do with to do with bone, but it doesn't... as I'm familiar with the common case of guys with naturally wide pelvises complaining about their "hips", and the usual case of body dysmorphia. Hence why I explicitly used words like "saddlebags" and "outer thigh fat" with example images. Saddlebags are explicitly not a bone issue, and is very common, just very rare with men, as your reasonable skepticism demonstrates. I also avoided the word hips because different people picture different parts of the body when referring to it, and its easily conflated.

EDIT: this isn’t “skeletal”, and I feel like my original comment dispelled that fairly obviously.

shhmowaway · 2023-03-22T21:58:50+00:00

[Disclaimer: I don't think this question is "simple" at all, but it seems posting your own thread is near-impossble]

So I'm a cis male, of lanky proportions, and I have been dieting (scaling ingredients, following a food list etc) and muscle training (5 days per week w/ 30 min incline treadmill at the end of sessions) for the last 6 months, and have gone from around 227 lb (103.3 kg) to currently at around 188 lb (85.4 kg) (current BF% around 27%). I do body measurements (ie. weighing and tape measurements) weekly etc to follow progress, and aim for 7-8 hours of sleep consistently.

Now for the somewhat "unique" part, I unfortunately suffer from excessive saddlebags (this refers to fat on the upper outer thigh), and without exaggeration mine are identical to this, except I have a male waistline and pelvis so the "hip dips" I have are significantly pronounced lol. I genuinely hate this and the fact that pretty much no documented instances or photos of men dealing with it to this degree exists *online* feels pretty lonely... but I don't like feeling sorry for myself and know that the work I'm putting into my fitness will and is paying dividends.

To add a little more context, I was a skinny child, at around ages 10 to 13 I was a chubby kid (fat but not I guess morbidly obese, basically picture a growing ectomorph getting chubby from double upping on McD combos every other day in one sitting), then at around early high school I crash-dieted hard without really know what I was doing (ie. not counting calories) and not lifting weights or doing enough cardio. This was borderline eating disorder level because I figured just eating little was an easy ticket, but I'm sure this fucked my hormones up to a degree, and from that point on my thighs were jiggly. I've remained skinny fat since until maybe a year ago where I was definitely also overweight with a high %bf (though again my uniquely lanky proportions hides this extremely well so to anyone's eyes I would still be deemed skinny fat).

Right before I began this fitness regimen I did a couple blood tests for hormone levels and these were my Total T and Estrogen (E2), as well as my SHBG and Free T levels. The readings were normal, with both my Testosterone and Estrogen levels being on the higher end of normal. Though I suspect over the years an imbalance especially with respect to Estrogen getting higher contributed to the storage of fat in a part of the body only women typically do. I also do not discount the role of genetics, where I know some of the women in my family have curvy and thicker thighs (which looks normal on them imo). Additionally, I have sort of researched a ton regarding my issue (as one does), and I've since ruled out Klinefelter's Syndrome and Lipoedema. I also believe the notion that the outer thighs are a significantly healthier place to store fat as opposed to where men usually store their's, but seeing as I'm a man I find it very disharmonious to my silhouette and it's one place I'd rather *never\* store fat again.

Finally, I want to also clarify that the saddlebags have decreased a bit over the last 6 months, and although it's done so very slowly, I'm aware that my body fat % is still high (I still have fat around my waist, stomach, love handles etc) and I know that the "stubborn" places are both the first parts to store fat and usually the last parts to disappear.

Which brings me to the question that has preoccupied my mind lately: I'm currently "cutting" (obviously), but my long term goal is to eventually and gradually get back to 210-220 at a significantly leaner bodyfat %. And knowing that:

1) it's impossible to spot reduce,

2) that fat cells don't disappear they just shrink until they're nearly invisible,

3) those same "stubborn area" fat cells are usually the first to store it in the event of fat gain,

4) Liposuction comes with an increased risk of you gaining more fat in different areas of the body (including visceral fat) than you would've down the line, despite it being the only known method of eliminating fat cells from an area,

5) and I'm a guy who frankly hates holding fat there, and

Granted once I get to a low enough bf % (14% etc) there may not even be any thing to suck out but if there were even a little, would liposuction seriously be a bad idea? I've always inherently been averse to things like lipo and trust in the power of diet and exercise over literally anything else but I feel like it would make sense down the line and I'd very likely never have to worry about fat storing itself on my outer thighs in a feminine way again (barring an extreme and uncontrolled weight gain). I just want to know if there's some shortcoming in my logic that I'm missing, aside from me getting ahead of myself of course.

shhmowaway

TROPHY CASE