Flabby Arms...

Here's a funny question...if you are post-op tell me how you deal with the loose skin.  Not so much the stomach ('cause I that's the hardest spot), but the arms...are there any tricks to work the arm areas to tighten the skin?

Surgery. You can do arm strengthening exercises to fill out your arms, but there is no way to tighten loose skin other than plastic surgery.

Hi RosieSmile

I am on OH becuase I am very concerned about loose skin post op.  I am in the process of wating for my surgery date (I am in southwestern ON) but the loose skin that I keep hearing about really has me freaked out to the point where I am questioning my surgery decision.  I plan on starting at Goodlife in November, working with a personal trainer as well.  I currently am walking on my treadmill about an hour/day for cardio.

I would greatly appreciate if you could expand upon & provide greater detail for what you have done to be so successful so that you have hardly any loose skin.

Thank you so much!

Put it this way - it doesn't matter HOW you lose weight - your skin issues (or lack thereof) will be the same.

So - unless you plan on staying overweight for the rest of your life (I hope not!) your skin will do what it does when you lose weight, regardless of method.

Save yourself the aggrevation of yo-yo dieting (which does more to damage your skin in the long run) and have the surgery.  Worry about the skin later.

For me - I started saving $50 a paycheque when I signed up for surgery.  I got some OHIP coverage, and had saved up enough to get the worst of the skin issues taken care of.  And I exercised and drank water and did all those things to minimize the effects.  And I learn to live with and love the rest of me.

Strength training asap.
I do pilates and resistance training with Goodlife classes.
I'm down 100lbs ;with very little loose skin.

I saw an interview with Starr Jones and she owes all of her tone (except stomach) to pilates.
No work on arms or legs. 

Yeah, right... you're going to believe someone who lied about having WLS in the first place about whether and to what extent she had plastic surgery?

Younger skin is more elastic and if not permanently damaged (ie - no stretch marks, minimal sun exposure, no smoking, etc) it may retract slightly. But you can't 'tighten' loose, damaged skin, all you can do is replace the fat that was under it with muscle instead so it looks better. If you're still smaller overall though, you're going to have some loose skin.

She declined to comment during the process and she explained why during the interview.
She admitted to other plastics; but that's not really the point of the post.
The point I am trying to make is that pilates helps as it lenghtens the muscles.

 

I'm not sure I understand how lengthening the muscles would help with stretched skin?  Sorry - just not understanding that.

I saw an unretouched photo of Star Jones when she had just reached her lowest weight - and the first thing I noticed was her hanging arm skin.  She had that "crepe paper" look that we know so well.

We have a guy in our group with no arm surgery and very little lose skin.  He is also young (20's).  He didn't have any stretch marks on his arms.  And he is quite muscular. He is the only person in our very large group that hasn't had any lose arm skin. 

I'd say - look and see if you have stretch marks.  If you do - there is probably no helping things really.  Think of it as those tights that you wore fat - or that sweater that you pulled ALL out of shape so that the knitting was kinda messed up.  Or that balloon that you inflated for a month and then let deflate.  It will NEVER look the same again when it has been damaged like that.

All I know is that fast weight loss is also muscle loss.
Working the muscle by elongating it, as well as contracting it (traditional weight training) builds muscles in 2 different ways.
This is during weight loss, not afterwards, with extra skin.

Your balloon analogy is a good one.

Sunnydaz...honestly it depends on your age, how much weight you have gained and lost over the years...I know for me except for surgery...nothing would do it!!  so I dress around the bat wings!!  and learn to live with them...Patti K.