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| Author | Message |
 Warwick, RI Member Since: 08/09/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:11 am Last Edit: 9/3/10 10:12 am This seems to be the #1 debate on this forum. Can we tighten up our loose skin with exercise and eating the right foods? I have done a lot of research on this topic and asked my doctors too. My surgeon says there is no "cure" meaning there is no cream, lotion, pill, vitamin or anything of that nature that will help. However he does state that many of his patients were able to limit or prevent completely loose hanging skin because they exercised a great deal while doing the "right" exercises. I have read on this forum several situations where individuals were able to tighten up loose skin while saving for plastic surgery and in the end didn't need it. I have also read that a lot of people refer to their skin tightening efforts as a "lost cause". My Theory: I feel that if you are working out while losing the weight. I mean working out like 4 - 5 times a week, not just aerobics but weight lifting and toning exercises, including yoga or Pilate's you'll have a good chance of tightening your skin during this process. If however you wait to get to the gym and you're left with hanging drooping skin it'll be near impossible to suck it back up. I think the idea that people "get lucky" is not really true, you see if you lose all the weight and work out and tighten your skin as you go along then you may never have loose skin and those people are often referred to as "lucky". Then the "lost causes" are looked at as not having a chance. If you've lost let's say over 40% of your weight from your largest, i.e. you weighed 300lbs and you now weigh 180lbs and you do not have drooping or hanging skin PLEASE COMMENT HERE. If you've lost 40% of your weight and you went to the gym 4x or more per week doing anaerobic exercises and you HAVE loose or drooping skin PLEASE COMMENT HERE. I'm a scientist and I want to collect some real data to come to a real conclusion. All others please comment with your feelings, facts, experiences etc... thanks, Jesse Friedman Read about my experiences, weight loss and challenges since my Gastric Bypass at http://aftergastricbypass.net |
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 Member Since: 08/19/03 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:24 am I believe it's a myth. Damaged skin doesn't 'snap back' after being stretched. Age is a factor, too---as we age, our skin loses elasticity even without being stretched. Therefore, a 25-year-old is less likely to have enough loose skin to be a problem after losing, let's say, 100 pounds, even if she does NO exercise, than does a 50-year-old losing the same amount and exercizing like crazy. I personally feel rather lucky---I had WLS at 45, have lost 173 pounds, and have no more loose skin than most other 52-year old women who HAVEN'T had a major weight loss. And I've never really done ANY 'formal' exercise. |
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Warwick, RI Member Since: 08/09/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:30 am In all due respect and I hope we can keep this a logical factual debate. You commented here and on that other post stating "Sorry, dude, but it's a total myth that you can 'work to minimize lose (sic) skin" and yet you've never tried working out or doing the one thing that most people say works. I'm not promoting a ****o butter or special cream what I am saying is that in my experience and others that have spoken to, tried working out and performing anerobic exercises have seen skin tighten up. I'm not talking about 8" bat wings to super tight lean arms but I am saying that you can "tighten" your skin up to some degree. I think it's bogus to state that it's a total "myth" with out any founding factual basis. There are a great deal of people out there who are afraid to death to get this surgery because of loose skin and you're discourging them with no real basis. thanks, Jesse Friedman Read about my experiences, weight loss and challenges since my Gastric Bypass at http://aftergastricbypass.net |
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 Member Since: 03/08/07 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:26 am My husband lost 200 lbs. He has zero loose skin in some places - like his arms, face, neck, etc. His stomach and thighs were a wreck. He did not exercise hardly at all. He looks like he never lost weight - sans for he excess belly skin that was lopped off.  |
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Warwick, RI Member Since: 08/09/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:33 am Would love to know if your husband went to the gym if things would have been different. thanks, Jesse Friedman Read about my experiences, weight loss and challenges since my Gastric Bypass at http://aftergastricbypass.net |
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Member Since: 03/08/07 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:34 am No way. 370 lbs of man gut stretched out with fat will NEVER, EVER repair itself. It's NASTY. |
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Member Since: 03/08/07 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:38 am Wanna see? http://www.meltingmama.net/wls/2008/01/graphic-pannicu.html |
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 OH Member Since: 09/12/09 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:28 am Myth. Here's why. If we are a few pounds overweight, our skin will stretch. But it can only stretch so far. If we are 100 pounds overweight or more, we actually grow extra skin to cover our big bodies. Skin does not stretch that far. We grow more skin. Once you grow skin, you cannot ungrow it. How could exercising make skin ungrow? Not possible. Now, exercise will tone muscles. But skin is not a muscle. If the muscles under our skin are toned we will probably look less flabby. But that does not mean we have less skin. If we exercise and tone our muscles, that does not mean we managed to somehow ungrow skin. Kelly |
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Warwick, RI Member Since: 08/09/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:32 am Skin is an organ and our bodies create and eliminate organ cells all the time. Again I am not stating that you can have a stomach that touches your knees and bring that up but what I am saying is that with the right exercises and effort you should be able to tighten some skin. thanks, Jesse Friedman Read about my experiences, weight loss and challenges since my Gastric Bypass at http://aftergastricbypass.net |
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 Blakely, GA Member Since: 08/12/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:38 am I think what Kelly was saying is pretty accurate. Our bodies do create and eliminate organ cells all the time, but it has to have a reason to target a particular cell. Generally this is from burning the lipids in fat cells to release energy or from breaking muscle protein down to use elsewhere in the body. I cannot think of anything that would target skin cells. What kind of skin-tightening exercises did you have in mind?  |
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 Wallis & Futuna Duodenal Switch (09/23/10) Member Since: 04/08/10[Latest Posts] | Post Date: 10/7/10 10:42 am I'm getting the impression that you're just looking for validation of your own hypothesis. Very un-scientific of you. Why don't you let us know exactly what you'd like to hear that will make you happy and keep you validated, so we can all post it for you, eh? Less concerned about fitting into the world - your world, that is, 'cause it doesn't really matter any more. None of it really matters any more. Yes, I am alone, but then again I always was as far back as I can tell. I think maybe it's because you were never really real to begin with. I just made you up to hurt myself... and it worked. Yes, it did! - Only, NIN  |
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 Member Since: 01/30/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:34 am Myth. About 15 years ago I lost over 150lbs by eating very little & exercising like mad. I exercised 2 hours in the am and again at night. I have horrible skin issues. This time, at least I knew to expect it. Exercise is important but really won't help with your skin. High Weight 278; consult weight 234; Surgery Weight 219 Surgeon's Goal Weight 150 -10/27/10 Personal goal weight 140 - Achieved 12/11/10 December 2011 - Maintaining between 116-120lbs  |
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 Member Since: 12/01/09 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:34 am I think both. You can tone up some areas, men tend to better than women that I have seen but anyplace there are stretch marks your are out of luck. A pregnant women is the perfect example. The ones that exercise, eat right and use lots of creams to keep there skin elastic tend to fair better with there baby pouch. But, the old older you get and thelonger it is stretches out the less elastic it becomes.    |
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 Helena, MT Member Since: 11/07/07 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:52 am I think it's a myth for most people. Particularly very fair people like me - fishbelly white me. I have horrible skin issues. Even my forearms have too much skin. My belly, my thighs, my upper arms? Forget it. And i work out - a lot! Exercise will tighten the underlying muscles, but it is not going to affect the skin. Perhaps you are hoping it will be different for you. And maybe it will. Particularly if you have deeper skin tone, if you're young, if your weight was pretty evenly distributed. So test your own theory. Work out in whatever special way you think will work your skin over, and let us know. But don't be disappointed if it doesn't work. You've got lotsa feedback from people with lotsa experience.  Kathy!(Pre-op: 5'2", 292/277/148-Highest/at WLS/Current)  Let God's presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of us.  |
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Duodenal Switch (10/19/09) Member Since: 03/01/07[Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 10:56 am I often see people say, "I exercised, lifted weights, used xyz cream and it worked for me!". Well, here's where that logic breaks down: we have no way of knowing whether those people's skin would have bounced back anyway. I don't think there's any way to come to a scientific conclusion based on anectodal evidence. We'll never know what the exercisers results would have been had they neglected to exercise. Likewise with the non-exercisers. Now, I'm here to tell you - I have been exercising and doing weight lifting and yet my skin still looks like a cross between an elephant and a sharpei. I can see the muscles under my batwings and thighs, but nothing has helped the skin. |
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 Member Since: 07/09/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 11:02 am This thread is fascinating. I am wondering if the people who are saying that you grow more skin have a link they can share related to that? I couldn't find anything except with regards to pregnancy which says that pregnant women don't grow more skin, the skin they have just stretches and adapts. So now I'm really curious. Thanks! It's never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot  5'10" Pre-op 315 SW 307 CW 216 SGW 174 MGW 160 |
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 Campbellcroft, Canada Member Since: 01/06/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 11:07 am I was just reading up on this in Dr. Garth Davis' book (he's the younger doctor from Big Medicine). He said exercise is not going to "firm up" loose skin. It will, however, fill it in somewhat with muscle (as opposed to someone who does not exercise and has no muscle-tone). He also mentioned that the amount of loose skin you end up with (if you end up with any at all) depends on how much weight you have to lose, and most importantly...genetics. He mentioned an 18 year old patient who had terrible skin issues, despite being so young. I know people who've gone through pregnancies and had awful stretch marks. I've had two children and have very few stretch marks. So I think it depends on the person. But exercise can only help you look and feel better, and while it may not prevent sagging skin, it will help to make it look better. Don't know if that helps you any. But that is what the good doctor said about it. |
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 Member Since: 10/16/09 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 11:10 am well I met the guy that's currently on my hospital commercials (St Francis Bariatric Center Indianapolis) he has lost 250 lbs & bikes everywhere like 50 miles at a time & he does the P90X exercise program, he's 44 & I saw NO loose skin, he said there was some on his arms but if that's all I had I'd kill for it! However, I think it's genetics, exercise, skin tone, FLUID intake, how long you were overweight & pure luck! Mine is not as bad as others but I lotion up & that makes me feel like I'm at least working on it! |
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 Member Since: 07/30/04 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 11:44 am For your scientific mind lets explain it this way, if you blow up a balloon really full and leave it that way for some time and let the air back out it NEVER returns to its original size. Sure you can blow it up a little bit and let the air right back out and it snaps back, makes sense right, its not completely stretched out. My skin was covered in stretch marks, meaning, it was stretched passed the point of return, it was a ******g mess. I had plastic surgery and nope not a workout queen, unless you count walking which I assume you don't. I paid to have a perfectly flat stomach from a plastic surgeon, sure I could of sat and done a million situps and tightened up as much as I could of the underlying muscle, but it would do ABSOLUTELY nothing for the stretched out skin. The cure was cutting it off. Of course, naturally exercise is healthy and makes you want to take care of your body, so no one is ever gonna tell you not to try it or that it might not help the skin, that would be stupid, but the reality is it won't help stretch mark covered skin thats been that way for 20 years. Science proves this fact every time. If you show me someone who was MO with no stretch marks and only been that way a short time and their skin bounces back, I say hooray and congratulations and hell yeah they got lucky. In conclusion, believe exercise will help and when you look in the mirror it might, atleast the underlying muscles will look good when and if you need the skin removed and enjoy the journey because life is too short to worry about everything. |
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 Pensacola, FL Member Since: 03/18/10 [Latest Posts] | Post Date: 9/3/10 1:22 pm My doctor says that you may not be able to prevent loose skin all together but if you exercise, drink plenty of water, take your vitamins, and keep your skin moisturized that you will have a better chance of not have as much loose skin. By keeping your skin moist with lotion and drinking water it helps it bounce back more. Unfortunately I am pretty big and will definately have some loose skin but he said I wont have as much if I do these things. I think wether anyone wants to admit it or not it does work to a point but of course you cant expect it to take away all the loose skin. |
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