Excess skin?

I am 32 days pre-op and am becoming conerned over the possibility of excess skin. My mother had Gastric-Bypass surgery over 3 years ago, and incredibly lost over 100 pounds in less than a year. Unfortunately, she now has over 25 pounds of excess skin (according to her doctor). My mom honestly couldn't care less, and I admire that about her, however, I wish I was as strong as she is. My mother told me that it is inevitable and that I just need to accept the fact that I WILL have to deal with it. Is that accurate?

The major differences between her and me are that she was MO for over 30 years, and was 52 when she received the surgery. Did her age play a factor? How about the fact that she was so heavy for so many years? I am almost 32, and have "only" been MO for around 6-7 years. I have been heavy for a big chunk of my life however, just not MO. 

I feel embarassed that I am so concerned over the cosmetic aspects of the surgery, instead of only looking forward to feeling better and being healthier. I  AM more excited about the healthy changes that will occur post-op, however, I am still nervous about excess skin. Am I overly superficial, or is this a common concern? 

Any tips or tricks that might help to avoid too much loose skin? I imagine that staying well hydrated, and regular excercise will most likely help, but what else? Any help is greatly appreciated! 

Thank you in advance and good luck on your own WL journey!

I don't have loose skin.  I followed a regimen of skin care that included daily exfoliation all over my body, skin tightening creams, water aerobics, daily treadmill, and weight machines.  I built up a lot of muscle in my arms and legs.  I did the abdominal machines daily, but I did end up with a tummy tuck because there was a flap of skin there that I could not get rid of with exercise.

I also used special shampoos and conditioners.  My hair thinned out anyway.  Today nobody would ever guess that I was once heavy or that I once had weight loss surgery.  I was 59 having RNY and had been heavy for about ten years.  Loose skin is not inevitable, but there are no guarantees either way.  I also believe and this is just a personal belief that milk is good for our skin.  So I made sure I always had at least three glasses of fat free milk a day in my protein shakes and homemade protein ice cream.

Milk was an old Weigh****chers trick to keep from having "turkey neck".  They also recommended lots of white bread back then, which of course I did not eat.

I believe in the things that I did.  I saw it as having no guarantee of success, but doing whatever I could to get maximum benefit from the surgery.

My guess is over 80% of us here have enough loose skin to warrant plastic surgery. Genetics is the biggest determinant. There is not much you can do to prevent it. Mentally I could not handle the skin and had to have it removed. Many people learn to live with it. 

Genetics and how abused your skin are play a role. I have lost 100 pounds. My face is fine, no huge wrinkles. The worst of mine was/is lower tummy, upper arms and thighs. I had to had surgery for the lower tummy and I am trying to work on the rest with exercise. My Dr. said the skin on my lower tummy was so damaged and stretched that there was no option but removal. My advice would be to stay as hydrated as possible and moisturize your skin. Your age will be to your advantage to a certain degree. Don't let this discourage you from reaching your goal, it is a small price to pay.

Like all posted,  How long obese, how much obese, genetics and age.  I lost the same large amount 4 times, at   29 & 60lbs  popped back, 39 & 60 lbs popped back,  49 & 80 lbs so so and at 56 & 100 lbs NOPE, NOT gonna happen.  Bat wings, thighs around my knees, saggy tummy and a turkey wattle.

You should do a bit better than your mother just based on your age at surgery alone. The other factors for loose skin post op are how many times you gained and lost and stretched out your skin, how many years it was stretched, how fast you will lose the weight (learn to love plateaus - your skin is getting a chance to shrink back) and of course genetics. Drink lots of water post op - hydrated skin shrinks back better than dried out skin. I was 44 when I had my surgery and my surgeon said I'd need plastics post op just because of my age. I never did. I have a bit but a lot of exercise- toned muscles under the skin keep the overlying skin taught and it looks better and lots of water helped me. I was also very athletic pre op so had good muscle tone underneath to help me out. You may not need anything done after - and there's nothing wrong with wanting to look good as long as you're going to feel so much healthier. You won't know till you hit goal if you're going to have a lot of excess skin. Once we lose the weight it takes many more months for the skin to shrink back. Most plastic surgeons say a full 2 yrs post op to see what the skin is going to look like. good luck to you. You will feel so much better, take good care of your skin and follow your surgeons directions and you'll do really well.

Jen 11 + yrs post op RNY

Thank you all for the informative responses!

I am already working out a daily plan  that I will start immediately to help with the excess skin. 

1. Constant hydration, 
2. moisturizing with tightening creams 3 times a day,
3. daily strength training and cardio,
4. NO smoking or alcohol (obviously),
5. regular vitamins and supplements,
6. and self-tanners to help minimize the appearance of loose skin.  

Thanks again guys.  

I am glad I found this site.  

 30 DAYS & COUNTING! Woohoo! 

The general rule of thumb is 1 pound of loose skin per 10 pounds lost. Some people do better than this and some do worse but that will get you in the ballpark. (I suspect your mom hasn't really got 25 pounds of excess skin if she only lost 100 pounds -- did a plastic surgeon tell her that or a PCP?)

Yes, age, genetics, how long you've been obese, how much you've yo-yoed and how nice you treat your skin all play a part in whether you are on the low end or high end.

How fast you lose doesn't though. If you lose fast, you may lose faster than your skin can keep up. That means at some point in the process you'll be absolutely convinced you must get PS. But after you are done losing, your skin will keep shrinking and will eventually catch up. That's why a lot of people wait. And find that after their skin finishes retracting and their fat stops redistributing and they have a bit of bounce-back, that they don't look too bad after all and end up not getting PS.

That's what happened to me, anyway.

Interesting rule of thumb. By that calculation I should have had 20 pounds of excess skin (200 pounds lost), but mine only weighed 5 pounds.

Do you mean the amount a PS removed? (Since that's the only way I can think of that it could be weighed??)

Because that's not all you have. I have loose skin on my hands and under my calves and all sorts of places that PS isn't going to get rid of. I figure, if I have PS, it will only get rid of about half of it because I'm not going to get anything done to my boobs and because of the places it will never go away from.

But it is just a rule of thumb. Everyone's different.

It also is going to depend on how you carry your excess weight. If you carry it around your middle mostly, get a LBL and a breast lift and then a neck or face lift, you can probably get rid of just about everything compared to someone who carries it all over.