Loose/extra skin?

1kimbo
on 2/13/14 2:49 am
VSG on 02/25/14

Is this a certainty of the process?  What can you do to help/deal w/it?

goleftoklahoma
on 2/13/14 2:53 am
VSG on 01/24/14

You may want to search the previous forums for the key words loose or extra skin.  It has been covered a whole lot.  Best of luck!

        
Tracy D.
on 2/13/14 3:01 am - Papillion, NE
VSG on 05/24/13

Oh, alright - I'll jump in and start the ball rolling.  First of all, you can do a search on here for this topic and will get a jillion hits and will see that there is a recurring theme.  I can distill it all down into one simple sentence: 

"The amount of loose skin you will end up with depends on many factors:  age, skin elasticity, the amount you have to lose and how long you've been morbidly obese."  

Now, what can you do to deal with it?  Accept that it's going to happen, first of all.  Understand that as you gained fat your body actually grew additional skin to cover it all.  Fat cells shrink but your excess skin does NOT evaporate.   What you can do to help is to exercise and build the muscle underneath, exfoliate and moisture to make the skin you are left with look as good as possible.  Use of body compression garments helps too.  

What I've seen is that a lot of younger people get some amazing bounce-back with their skin while us older folks aren't usually as lucky.  And if you have more than 100 lbs. to lose it really doesn't matter what your age is, you'll have some excess.  My doctor says to wait at least a year after hitting goal to see what the optimum amount of bounce-back will be and then assess for plastics at that point.  

 Tracy  5'3"     HW: 235  SW: 218  CW: 132    M1: -22  M2: -13  M3: -12  M4: -9  M5: -8   M6: -10   M7: -4

 Goal reached in 7 months and 1 week

 Lower Body Lift w/Dr. Barnthouse 7-8-15

   

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

Gwen M.
on 2/13/14 3:12 am
VSG on 03/13/14

I'm sure you'll get lots of good answers - one thing that recently amazed me was a video someone posted here of herself.  She had intended to get plastic surgery after a year of maintenance, but wasn't able to for some reason.  After an additional amount of time (maybe 6-12 months?) a LOT of her skin had tightened up.  I thought that was totally awesome and I'll be keeping it in mind when I think I want to rush into plastic surgery when I hit maintenance!

VSG with Dr. Salameh - 3/13/2014
Diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder and started Vyvanse - 7/22/2016
Reconstructive Surgeries with Dr. Michaels - 6/5/2017 (LBL & brachioplasty), 8/14/2017 (UBL & mastopexy), 11/6/2017 (medial leg lift)

Age 42 Height 5'4" HW 319 (1/3/2014) SW 293 (3/13/2014) CW 149 (7/16/2017)
Next Goal 145 - normal BMI | Total Weight Lost 170

TrendWeight | Food Blog (sort of functional) | Journal (down for maintenance)

GingerJen
on 2/13/14 3:50 am
VSG on 03/07/14

I think we have to be kind to our bodies. This whole process is about starting to treat them well. I have decided I won't have high expectations for my skin. I have put it through the ringer with lots of loss and regain and also pregnancies. I won't expect a miracle and won't be mad at my body for not bring perfect after all the abuse I've done to it. 

37 y/o female 5'8" HW 355 consult 329 SW (3/7/2014)301 CW 168 goal 170

M1- 26 M2- 14 M3- 15 M4 -13 M5 -16 M6-12 M7-2 M8-5 M9-6 M10-8 M11-1 M12-5  M13-10 Goal reached 4/5/15 total lost 187 lbs total; 133 in the 13 months since surgery

civilmomma
on 2/13/14 3:57 am
VSG on 03/07/14

For me, I expect to have reasonable bounce back on my arms and legs b/c they don't have many stretchies - but my belly has lots of stretchies from obesity and pregnancy.  I fully expect my belly skin to look horrible and be a droopy saggy mess.  I will invest in spanx to cope with it initially and will look into plastics a few years from now.  I also expect my breasts to be saggy and sad - but a good bra will help a lot there too.

I may try some "stretch mark" or scar creams on really damamged areas, but in general, if you are hydrated and are taking your vitamins and getting exercise - you will help your skin do what it needs to do to be healthy - but you may still have lots of loose skin in the end anyways.

 

 

     ticker5'-8",HW 347,SW329,M1-25 M2-17 M3-11 M4-13 M5-14 pregnant-->

 

michael "I didn't do
it!" w

on 2/13/14 4:13 am - Festus, MO
VSG on 12/18/13

I know this is a serious question, and I don't want to step on the awesome answers here.  However.. :)

I'm quite proudly one of the few people that are entirely unafraid of "It rubs the lotion into it's skin" threats- I have plenty to go around!

Seriously, there's only so much we'll bounce back.  At that point surgery is the option.  Between here and there, we all need to find acceptance with ourselves.  We also have to realize we had weight loss surgery and not "I wanna look like George Clooney" surgery.  I say that with humor and not to insult at all- it's a realization that I've struggled with. For now, I'm struggling on losing and finding pants that fit for more than a week at a time.  Once I have more excess skin than excess fat, I plan to look at it more seriously. 

You're already going down the right path.  Keep going, and don't let anyone give you a new bogeyman.  

HW: 495  Consult: 390  SW: 361 CW: 289

April is Autism Awareness Month!

Scribbler
on 2/13/14 6:35 am

All that is very true, and I'm not at all afraid of a little loose skin. What I'm scared of, is having so much loose skin (especially belly overhang) that I can't wear normal clothing or go swimming, or that my mobility is impaired in some way (like I couldn't run). If I don't have those problems, then I probably won't worry about plastics.

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