Fact or Myth: Loose Skin can be helped with exercise

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.

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.

I was 260 and lost 130.  I was 47 when I had the surgery and I'm 55 now.  I was obese for 30 years.  By some miracle my arms went back pretty much to normal.  My belief is much like many have said.  Your age, your weight, how long you were at that weight, and your genetics are all part of the equation.  Exercise will tighten the muscles and make the skin look a bit better.  The exercise is good for you anyway.  I do yoga and I was surprised that after a year or so it seems like some skin improved a bit. 

I think the most important thing is doing the best you can with what you eat, get some exercise and then dress to accentuate the positive.  Stressing over what you could have, would have, should have done will only add more stress to our body so all we can do is do the best we can and then be super grateful for escaping the prison of obesity.  Drinking more water does improve the general look of your skin and the exercise makes you more healthy so it's all good!  Hope that helps!

Myth.

But if you think it will work, then keep exercising. It certainly won't HURT.

I'd vote with the folks who say it is multifactorial (genetics, sex, age, how long at the weight, and how much overweight before the weight loss) probably play a huge role in how much skin will shrink. Skin absolutely can decrease in size as all of us know who have yo-yo dieted all of our lives and didn't have any loose skin when we were younger and did this. But as we get older... well it sags... just look at the upper arms of many 75 year old women who are skinny with their sagging skin. Guys are probably luckier in this respect over all. Smoking may also play a role as smokers definitely have worse skin health than nonsmokers (just compare the sagging skin and wrinkles on a 60 year old smoker and a 60 year old never smoker).

However, building up muscle mass to fill in the gaps probably does help to decrease the noticibility of the loose skin, but I doubt very much that it makes any difference in how much skin over all you have.

I consider myself very lucky, I've lost over 100 pounds in a very short time (since early March preop), and have no loose skin at all. I've never smoked, I'm genetically a young 49 yo, I've excercised all my life even when I was huge, and I've exercised regularly post op to include weights and aerobics.

My suspicion.... exercise will help decrease the dramatic effects of loose skin, but is not the panacea.

 My sister and I both had RNY 2 weeks apart and we were the same weight going in.  Both of us have been heavy all our lives.  
I started walking and working out almost right away after the surgery and she did not.  Almost 1 year later we are basically the same size having lost 230 lbs combined.
Our thighs and arms look pretty much the same except that when I flex my legs, you can see the underlying muscle and the loose skin doesn't look so severe.  Arms the same.
The only difference that it's noticeable is our bellies.  She has way more loose skin there than I do.  But I don't think it's because of exercise, just the way we were built.
I wish exercise could cure my loose skin issues, but I don't believe it will ever be 'normal'.  I am planning on weight training all winter long so that when I have plastics on my arms and stomach, there will be good muscle tone underneath.  
As for my legs?  Long shorts are a blessing, lol.

I've lost almost 120 pounds over the course of 3 years. I was 55 when I had WLS and have been working out faithfully doing Zumba ( and now teaching it!), Yoga and weight lifting 5 days a week for almost 3 1/2 years. I lost my weight slowly, drank my water and kept up on my vitamins.

I had hoped by keeping up this exercise regime, that I would not need to have plastic surgery to remove excess hanging skin. My skin was toned, but like an empty envelope around my stomach and arms. I had almost 11 pounds of excess tummy skin removed and about 1 1/2 pounds per arm removed. Both were done to remove skin that would not take up no matter what I did.

Diana

What kind of dog is that in your avatar?

#1 debate on this forum, really?

I guess I've been gone longer than I thought. I'd have to go with "Myth" on this one.  Skin does shrink back some, but its not because of exercise.  Lots of factors go into this equation:

Age
Elasticity
How long you were overweight for
How overweight were you

just to name a few. 

I'll read the rest of the posts with interest, I'm sure there are lots of theories and opinions.

Christian

The thing I dislike about this supposed debate is (1) I believe it is a myth that exercise can eliminate ... for example.... batwings. If it is a myth, then we, as formerly obese people, are now faced with yet another set of false assumptions that lead down the road of "You only have baggy skin because you're lazy, it's all YOUR fault'

As a person who was NEVER successful at dieting, who NEVER lost weight despite many efforts I was always ticked off by people who would shovel food in their mouths, remain slender, and act like it was MY food control that was to blame. Pissed me off that people could eat five times worse than me, and be skinny little you-know-whats, and get all judgemental about what I ate.

Now exercise freaks are going to say that my bat-wings are my own fault because I don't exercise much? Puhleeze!