This has puzzled me since I first noticed it as a teen. I have significant stretchmarking on my lower back and hips. On my back, they are broad, horizontal stripes. On my hips, they’re both horizontal and angled, but taper much more sharply.
I’m a modest 5’10" and 134lbs, and I’ve never been overweight. If anything, I’ve been significantly underweight for most of my life. So what would cause these curious marks?
Stretch marks can also apear due to growth spurts in puberty. In effect this means that you grow faster than your skin can keep up to.
Stretch marks aren’t only caused from being over weight, they’re also caused when your body grows faster than your skin does. I’ve got a couple on my chest near my armpits on each side that I got when I was a teen, before I had any real mass on my chest. I knew a gal that was about 5’6" and 105# that had stretch marks on her (non existent) love handles, simply because her frame grew faster than her skin could accommodate.
As an anecdote, I have some faint stretch marks on my butt and thighs from puberty. I’ve always been skinny (all right, scrawny), but when I was 15 or so I went from 5’3" to 5’10" in what felt like a matter of weeks, and my skin couldn’t keep up. That’s my theory, at least… my other theory at the time was that constantly sitting (in school, at the computer, on the couch… I was a pretty lazy teenager) was pushing my skin in weird directions, but now I think it was just the growth spurt.
Hmmm, growth spurt sounds plausible. Thanks guys. I think I went through a significant growth spurt around puberty, come to think of it.
Seems like what he’s saying is that the stretch marks are produced hormonally to make your skin more elastic.