Pinch skin between your thumb and forefinger in your area of concern.Doing a pinch test is similar to the more medically-precise caliper test, but doesn’t require any tools. Without causing yourself too much pain, try to pinch your thumb and forefinger together and pull them (and the flesh between them) away from your body.
Try to pull the pinched skin at least 1 in (2.5 cm) outward.Loose skin is easy to pinch—you’ll feel like the tips of your thumb and forefinger are almost touching. It’s also easy to pull loose skin about 1 in (2.5 cm) or more away from your body. Body fat, however, is much harder to pinch together and pull away from the skin.
- If you’re pinching body fat on your stomach, for example, you won’t be able to pinch your thumb and finger almost all the way together—you’ll feel the layer of fat in between. If you try to pull the pinched flesh at least 1 in (2.5 cm) away from your body, your grip will most likely slip off.
Medical procedures for body fat and loose skin:There are surgical and non-surgical options for both conditions, so you should always start by consulting with your healthcare provider about what procedures, if any, make sense based on your specific situation. All these procedures usually produce positive results with minimal (but not zero) risk of significant side effects.
- Fat reduction treatments include:
- Lipolysis, non-surgical fat elimination using cold, injections, lasers, or ultrasound waves.
- Liposuction, surgical removal of fat tissue.
- Loose skin treatments are typically surgical in nature and fall into the “lift” and “tuck” category—such as abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), rhytidectomy (facelift), and mastopexy (breast lift).