Dietician appointment

I had my first of three visits with the Dietician. She was very pleasant and seemed to be familiar with the DS. The appointment lasted an hour and a half and she went over everything about the surgery with info from the surgeon. She set some goals and said I don't have to lose any weight, but I absolutely positively cannot gain during these three months.

One thing she stressed was start now doing aerobic exercise and strength training to help pull the skin in during weight loss. When I balked a little about this she brought up The Biggest Loser. Those contestants eat around 1200 calories per day and exercise about 8 hours a day and they do not have the saggy skin to the extent you would expect to see with someone who loses the amount they lose so rapidly. She claimed anything you begin now and do throughout the weight loss period will help to pull the skin in.

What do you experts say? Will working out 30 min - an hour everyday help your skin??

No help for the skin but simply walking to get in better shape is good. If you're a lightweight with around 100 pounds or so to lose she did you a favor telling you not to lose much of anything in the 3 months on the pre-op diet. There might be some kind of "patient was compliant" on some form they have to submit to insurance or something. 

Post-op, continue to walk and once you're closer to goal start more exercise with weights. It will bring some muscle back which might help fill out the skin a little but it won't make your skin more resilient.

--gina

Thanks! I have 150 pounds to lose. There were a couple other comments that had already been dispelled on here, but I was lead astray with The Biggest Loser analogy.

WHY do people say this?  There is nothing in skin that can be improved with exercise.  NOTHING!  This bit of ridiculous is repeated over and over.  You can develop the muscles under the skin and that does help you look better.  Exercise is necessary but it has nothing to do with skin.  Yours will shrink as much as your age, genetics, etc will allow and after that it's done unless you can get plastics.

Do you think stretch marks are an indication of the skin's ability to adjust to a shrinking body. I've lost and gained 100 lbs, 80 lbs and smaller amount during the past 45 years. I have a couple of stretch marks and that's about it. Curious notion but I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens after surgery.

Exercise for the good things it does for your body, but don't expect any skin miracles.