Did your face fill back out in maintenance?
lightenup2016
Posts: 1,055 Member
I’ve only lost 13 lbs so far, but I’m already seeing more lines in my face, and I look older and tired. I’ve read that some people who have seen the same thing, see their face fill back out a little in maintenance. How many have experienced this? I’m hoping it’s temporary, maybe from the calorie deficit? I am 46, so maybe just age? But I’ve seen a definite change in the last two months...
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Replies
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I've lost 16 lbs and am also seeing some emphasis on my smile and squint lines. It usually appears when I've lost a lot of weight quickly and settles back down after a few months of losing slowly or maintaining. It's not the same as my "heavy" face, but I stop looking like I've been deathly ill with consumption or some other Victorian wasting disease...
I seem to lose my weight from the top down, chest and face going gaunt before my body will even consider making a dent in the old muffin top. Once I can slow my weight loss from 2#/week to something more reasonable like .5#/week that usually starts to even out a little. Maintenance is usually even better.9 -
I found this as a side effect too...the fat in my face went away and so I looked less soft and rounded in my face, and yeah, that looked gaunt rather than fashionable. I think I've rebounded a bit and have moisturized religiously. But still, I think 40 year old skin just doesn't rebound like it did when I was younger.
Still wouldn't want to regain the weight, though.9 -
lightenup2016 wrote: »I’ve only lost 13 lbs so far, but I’m already seeing more lines in my face, and I look older and tired. I’ve read that some people who have seen the same thing, see their face fill back out a little in maintenance. How many have experienced this? I’m hoping it’s temporary, maybe from the calorie deficit? I am 46, so maybe just age? But I’ve seen a definite change in the last two months...
Thanks!
Wait till you hit 54 like me 😛 I figure if my face doesn't fill out a little, dealing with that and some squishy skin is much better than the alternative of being obese again!12 -
I’ve experienced this too, around my eyes and neck. I moisturize like crazy, but.... oh well, I’m 39, so I know I’m no spring chicken. I don’t really mind it, I guess, it’s just.... different.5
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My face has filled out some after a couple of years. It's still easy to slip back into "diet face" though. My mother swears she can tell from my face if I drop calories for any length of time. What I think helped most was talking to the doctor that does my Botox. We added a few units on each side of my mouth to ease some of the lines that were getting altogether too comfortable on my face. A few tweaks like that and the passage of time have helped tremendously!5
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Yes. Skin shrinks more slowly than fat depletes. Also, there's some glycogen depletion, often, from the calorie deficit, while weight loss is still in process. Maybe there are other factors.
I looked pretty haggard in the face at goal, but it improved over several months at the same weight at maintenance calories.
I still have some deep wrinkles and droop that I didn't have when obese, but I lost weight at age 59-60 (now 64). It's better than it was at first, definitely.
I suspect regular exercise, good nutrition, adequate hydration, and not losing at too fast a rate are good allies. Skin is an organ, and the same things that make other organs healthy are likely to keep skin as healthy, supple and elastic as is possible.15 -
Yup definitely better now after a couple of years. Everything seems to tighten up and redistribute. Patience is the key.11
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How long does your botox last?1
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I'm 46 and my face is definitely showing more lines that weren't there when I was chubbier. Around my mouth .. and while I don't have loose skin, the skin on my neck and also underside of my upper arm are a bit wrinkley. I wouldn't want to go back to being overweight again but my 'diet face' definitely does make me look older. I'm not sure if it will change because let's face it, I'm getting older so wrinkles are normal I guess.3
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Mine may have filled out a bit in the past year, but not significantly. I consider it a small price well worth paying - of course, being a guy I know there are double standards, though!5
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I've been in maintenance for about a year and a half. My face hasn't exactly 'filled back out' - I still have quite hollow-looking cheeks - but the skin has tightened up a lot so that most of the lines are gone and I'm back to my accustomed youthful appearance.7
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Yes, I am more wrinkled with the weight off. I started taking collagen supplements about two months ago. I was hoping it would help my other saggy weight loss issue, 85 pounds and on maintenance now for a year and two months.
I think the collagen has helped my joints thus far, otherwise I may be just wasting my money, time will tell.
Doe some research and make up your own mind. The below article briefly discusses potential benefits and safety concerns:
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20180308/collagen-supplements-what-the-research-shows5 -
I will probably collect a whole load of disagrees for this but high dose liposomal vitamin C has been reported to improve skin elasticity. I have been taking it for a year and my skin is in great shape. I'm early 50s. My weight loss has been large but slow and steady. The bingo wings are an issue but facially I'm in good nick. That's probably mostly down to good genes and skincare but since taking the vitamin C my facial skin feels bouncier.5
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I'd add that there's a whole 99-page (!) thread over in Success Stories with before/after face photos - huge range of ages & weight loss amounts. It's a reasonable caveat that people might not post on that thread if they thought they looked really bad after weight loss . . . but also that a super-common comment by others on those photos, in that thread, is some variation on "you look so much younger". FWIW.
It's here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10207059/before-and-after-face-edition
. . . so others can take a look, if feeling that I'm biased.6 -
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Nope. My face is looking gaunt at the moment unfortunately. I’m 46. I’m gonna gain a bit thro bulking. Maybe my face will fill out a bit. Fingers crossed !6
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Give it time. It all redistributes. And it gets worse, then all the sudden better. I promise.7
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agreed ^2
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@lightenup2016
Check the link below. I think that you will get answers to your questions in those postings.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10207059/before-and-after-face-edition/p1000 -
Not really. I feel like maybe it sagged a little more right after the weight loss. It's been over 5 yrs now, and I'm also older.0
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I don’t have time to locate the photo right now but I will post a comparison shot later. My face did get better after a year.0
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My face fills out if I gain a few lbs back but not if I’m just maintaining the weight in which i was “gaunt”3
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Nope, it didn't fill out, , , so I grew a bigger beard!!!11
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Yes, I am more wrinkled with the weight off. I started taking collagen supplements about two months ago. I was hoping it would help my other saggy weight loss issue, 85 pounds and on maintenance now for a year and two months.
I think the collagen has helped my joints thus far, otherwise I may be just wasting my money, time will tell.
Doe some research and make up your own mind. The below article briefly discusses potential benefits and safety concerns:
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20180308/collagen-supplements-what-the-research-shows
This is sort of funny to me anyway. Been doing the collagen supplement now for about three months. Yesterday my wife asks if I am getting botox injections, which I am not. Not really taken collagen for my dace but...1 -
Okay, I found the pictures I was looking for. On the left is me on Christmas morning 2017 after a 125 lb weight loss. Next photo in the middle is Christmas morning 2018, same bathroom, camera, lighting, angle. The third photo is me on the morning of November 9 2019, same bathroom, camera, etc. In all pictures I have just woken up, no makeup except leftover eye smudges from the night before. Same weight within a couple of pounds, about 150 at 5’8”. I am 51 years old now.
To me there are subtle but noticeable improvements in the fullness of my features and the wrinkles around my eyes and mouth. I also have fuller eyebrows in the last due to thyroid medication.
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Thank you, @rheddmobile: Yes, subtle but noticeable, similar to things I noticed in myself (but didn't photograph). It's so helpful that you have photos taken under nearly exactly same conditions.
I don't understand why this is hard for some people to believe: Stress shows in our faces, and weight loss takes us a few percentage points away from optimum good health, which also affects appearance. Weight loss is a stressor. Beyond that, there are additional adaptations to completed weight loss that happen over time, after goal, like glycogen replenishment, continuing tightening of skin, and so forth. Some of them are slow.
I can easily believe that the effect is greater for some, less for others, potentially for reasons not clearly related to magnitude of weight loss, speed of loss, age, etc. But for people on the route to goal, it seems reasonable to expect that there may be some gradual improvement, and not to let worry about this be an additional stressor.
The idea that we're all going to look olders/worse is just not born out by the before/after photos in Success Stories, or by yours.6 -
@rheddmobile - wow. You clearly have great skin, which helps, but I am knocked out by the difference between first and last pictures. Yes, it's subtle, but very noticeable when compared side by side.4
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nighthawk584 wrote: »lightenup2016 wrote: »I’ve only lost 13 lbs so far, but I’m already seeing more lines in my face, and I look older and tired. I’ve read that some people who have seen the same thing, see their face fill back out a little in maintenance. How many have experienced this? I’m hoping it’s temporary, maybe from the calorie deficit? I am 46, so maybe just age? But I’ve seen a definite change in the last two months...
Thanks!
Wait till you hit 54 like me 😛 I figure if my face doesn't fill out a little, dealing with that and some squishy skin is much better than the alternative of being obese again!
^^ Exactly right. For me, it's not my face, but my neck. Ugh. Suddenly, I'm starting to resemble a mummy (and I don't mean a British mother). I'd rather have wrinkles, though, than a stroke, or be one of those obese older people taking millions of pills to stay alive.
Edited to add @rheddmobile, you look great and give me hope. Thanks for posting those photos and congrats on your weight loss.3
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