What do stretch marks actually mean?

[Quitstretchin']

Re: What do stretch marks actually mean?

I would be very confident that when I say this, I would have more stretch marks than 99.999% of you guys on the board.

I don't know Dave.....I might have you beat! The vast majority of my stretchmarks came after a humongous 50 lb weight gain in about 2 months from Prednisone steroid medication. They are under my arms which connect to my side and back rolls, travel completely down both of my sides and then connect with the ones on my waist and hips which travel down the front of each thigh and then wrap around to my inner thighs. The ones on my hip have tree like branches which wrap around to my lower back (no low cut, backless dresses for me ever again!!). The ones under my arm not only go south, they travel north and out onto my arms...front and back!!

Funny thing though....I used to moan and moan about the "few" stretch marks I had before these new ones...I actually could count the ones I had before...they were that few....They were on my hips, waist and lower stomach (nothing a bikini bottom couldnt cover). Now that I have these new migrating monsters, I'd give anything to have the ones I had before!!! I wouldn't have said that just 6 months ago!!

[Adena]

Re: What do stretch marks actually mean?

I must have the most elastic skin in the world because even after gaining 48 pounds with a pregnancy, I have NO STRETCH MARKS. Not to mention gaining 40 pounds when I hit 40 ... still no stretch marks. If I showed you my abs, you wouldn't believe it.


Betty

Betty, good thing you're so cute, or we'd have to hate you for that.

Are you joining me at the ING marathon in Atlanta?? (Well, I'll be running the half, and you'd leave me in the dust for sure anyway.... but you know what I mean.)

[presidentholmes]

Re: What do stretch marks actually mean?

I'm not sure how to phrase this but I've seen a lotta bodies, men and women and from the fattest to the thinnest, people who have never carried any weight and every single one of em has stretch marks.

But so what?
They are perfectly natural and it's only the beauty myth that is perpetuated in the media that makes us paranoid about it.

So to the guy who won't take his shirt off on the beach, I hear ya, but we'll get over it. The bad body image that we have in our heads is probably a harder one to shift than the physical fat.

My current g/f and my ex both of course have imperfections but I think they're the most beautiful women on the planet. Maybe they think the same of me (that I'm a beautiful woman LOL ).

You're never as fat, ugly, stretch-marked, goofy lookin as you think you are.
In time, we'll learn that.

"You are beautiful, no matter what they say..."

Sing it Christina!

[Elsie150]

Re: What do stretch marks actually mean?

"I'm not sure how to phrase this but I've seen a lotta bodies, men and women and from the fattest to the thinnest,"

LOLOL...ain't even going there!

But as to the rest...Not only are you a cutie but you are very wise!

[Quitstretchin']

Re: What do stretch marks actually mean?

You're never as fat, ugly, stretch-marked, goofy lookin as you think you are.
In time, we'll learn that.

"You are beautiful, no matter what they say..."

Sing it Christina!

I second that!!! It took me a bit, but I sure learned this lesson on both extreme ends.......I used to think I was just so stylish, so cute, etc...back in the 80's...recently saw some old pictures though and that gave me a reality check big time (what was I thinking with those multicolored leg warmers)!!! I recall just a few years ago thinking...."boy am I fat, etc...". Now today...more wiser I suppose and looking through that same picture album, I now think...."Hey, I wasn't that fat or that silly looking, etc.... (you fill in the blank). I surely think that I would love to be the weight I used to complain about!!!!

So, to the future...let our stretchmark roadmaps lead the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!