TMI What do you look like naked?
No, it is not an issue for everyone, but there is nothing you can do to avoid it. Exercise does NOT affect your skin (the best it can do is build up the muscle a bit underneath it), and the special "forming" body lotions do nothing more than a basic moisturizing lotion. Either the skin will retract or will not, depending on the extent of the stretching, how long it was stretched, our age, and your genetics. Generally, people who had more or lose, of course, have more trouble with excess skin. Some of it is also "in the eye of the beholder". What one person sees as a hideous amount of extra skin may not particularly bother someone else.
I lost 190 pounds after being SMO for a number of years and being MO for a number of years before that, and I had LOTS of excess skin. Even the skin on the back of my calves is somewhat loose.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
That really depends on lots of things, how big you start out, how old you are, genetics..... Skin with stretch marks won't bounce back in, it may not hang but it won't bounce in like unmarked skin
Band placed April '08 four years of hell-Band removed may '12~Non VSG July 26 '12. All went to hell~RNY on the 19th october '12~Leak & infection 26th october '12 ~infection 24th November '12, 2 weeks hospital~infection 25th dec '12 4 days ~30/5/13 hernia repair 4 days~hw120/sw/115/gw/58kg
As Lora says, there is really nothing you can do, you'll just have to wait and watch. I consider myself rather frightening without clothing, but then I am 63 and have been heavy most of my life. In reality though I know I do not look any worse than some of the other women I see at the Y who are my age or a bit older who have lost weight over the years. I'd rather have excess skin than to have continued carrying all of my excess weight around and being less healthy.
Lizzie S in OR
Excess skin is a factor of:
- How overweight you are
- How long you've been that overweight
- Where you carry your weight
- Your current age
- Your general skin health
- A good dose of genetics
I have very nicely toned arms now - and a good half of my upper arm is dangly fat and skin - it will never exercise away, I have brachioplasty in my future.
I have 10-15 lb of excess belly and abdominal skin/tissue that will go away probably via a 360 - the fat is mostly gone, but I was 160lb more than this for more than a decade - it takes a toll.
I will have new boobs some day, because what I have are empty tube socks worthy o**** year old - and flappy side boobs. My husband and I were laying in bed last night and I looked down at my chest and said "Ya know, this is what I would look like after a double mastectomy" - because every bit of boob I have was fallen off to the side - and all you could see was rib cage.
It sucks, but it's life. Even if I could never afford the surgery (which blessedly I can), I'd rather have the flapping than the fat.
I think I look okay naked. The only plastics I plan on are getting the girls put back. I still have FF breasts.
I look fine in a bathing suit. More importantly, I FEEL great. So that trumps sagginess any day for me.
I fight badgers with spoons.
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I personally look like a sack of bones. My skin hangs all over my body and I know this is prolly TMI but as I washed my booty last night it felt like a sack of pudding, lmao. So, I feel better and I DO look better but plastics are in my future for certain. Hopefully you will be different. I am 51 and I was MO since my teen years, I'm sure that has a lot to do with it (age, length of MO...etc).
