Anything stopping you from losing weight?

cyaneverfat

I have about 150lbs to lose, and I'm scared I'm going to have a lot of loose skin by the time I get to goal. I think it stops me from trying. In the past, I sabotaged myself because my nice clothes were in a storage container for a year and I wanted to fit into them. Fail. I guess I'm also scared of getting attention from the opposite sex, I don't like letting people down.

I also struggle getting enough to eat with the calories I am allowed, even though I have set myself to lose the minimum amount of weight, unless I do a decent walk that day.

Lietchi

You know, I think fear of loose skin stopped me for a long time too. And I had less to lose than you (around 60lbs). But in the end the downsides to being obese started to outweigh the fear of loose skin.
To mitigate the risk of skin issues, I chose a slow rate of loss.
And now that I've lost 50 lbs so far, I feel soooo much better. The bit of loose skin I have so far is 'only' a bit disappointing/annoying and quite unimportant compared to the upsides of how good/fit I feel (and with time it should still get better anyway).

cyaneverfat

Lietchi wrote: »

You know, I think fear of loose skin stopped me for a long time too. And I had less to lose than you (around 60lbs). But in the end the downsides to being obese started to outweigh the fear of loose skin.
To mitigate the risk of skin issues, I chose a slow rate of loss.
And now that I've lost 50 lbs so far, I feel soooo much better. The bit of loose skin I have so far is 'only' a bit disappointing/annoying and quite unimportant compared to the upsides of how good/fit I feel (and with time it should still get better anyway).

The stupid thing is, if I got a good job, I could eventually get a tummy tuck, it's not like I have kids to support. I like that my skin is firm at the moment. On the other hand, my face looks terrible, my jawline is hidden with fat. I guess I'm also worried about someone seeing me naked. Hopefully I'll meet someone that doesn't care.

joyanna2016

It hasn't yet, but I fear the loose skin thing might be the difference between me losing down to the just "overweight" BMI versus "normal". Ive lost 38 lbs but am still obese for my 5'6" frame. I fear that when I start getting to that point where there is a lot of skin, especially in regard to my face, that it just won't be worth it and I will quit.

AndreaTamira

Fear of loose skin does not stop me, though it does affect me.

What stopped me for a while was the thought that "it wont work anyway, I'll just yo-yo up again." (Which is, to an extent, what happened after my last weight loss). Now I have decided, though, that if that is a possibility ai just have to plan on being diligent in maintanance, too. And aware that that means "for ever".

nanastaci2020

Where does fear of heart attack, stroke, diabetes fall for you? There are so many likely complications of being obese than complications from losing weight.

Slow & steady will be easier on the body/skin in general. But loose skin can happen.

I have a close friend who did gastric surgery last year - it was imperative for her to lose weight quickly in order to get a much needed back surgery. Gastric Dec 2019, and she has lost 130 or so pounds. She does have some excess skin. She had the back surgery last week. It was postponed a few times due to Covid and doctors/hospitals limiting what procedures were being done. I don't know that she'll be able to afford skin removal any time soon, but her health is no longer in jeopardy.

gewel321

I started at 400lbs. I am down to 201. I have skin but to be honest it is motivating me to continue one. I contacted a plastic surgeon last year when I was at 250 to discuss removing my "front butt" as my niece calls it. They wouldn't even meet me for a consult until I was at 174 (normal BMI). So it has motivated me to continue on. One day at a time but I will get there. I have decided that front butt and my thighs are what needs to go as I am the most self conscious about it.

springlering62

Honey, I’d much rather have loose skin than all the problems I had before.

And the loose skin does tighten after while, even at my age, and with a spectacularly lazy lack of any skin regimen at all.

AnnPT77

Many of us (me included) find that loose skin appears worse part way to goal weight than it will at goal weight, and worse at goal weight than it will after a time period in maintenance.

Fat can deplete anywhere in our fat mass. Therefore, the overall fat mass can get kind of squisy or floppy before it depletes all the way, down to the thin wrinkles that are true loose skin. (Rolls or flaps that are 1/2" plus tend to still have subcutaneous fat in them. "Just skin", IME, is thin wrinkles, like in a medium-weight fabric.) The squishy fat conspires with gravity to keep skin stretched out. Only after an area depletes further can skin meaningfully *start* to shrink. And then, it's a slow process.

My loose skin kept shrinking well into year 2 of maintaining a healthy weight (at age 60+, though I only lost around 50-some pounds).

You might want to go over to the Success Stories part of the forum, and look at some before/after pictures. There are many there, including some who've lost the kind of weight you're targeting. I think most people's fears about loose skin are more extreme than what they're likely to experience in real life, after loss and a couple years of maintenance. I'm not saying it's zero, but it's common not to be noticeable in street clothes, and sometimes even in a bathing suit.

Having lost weight, even if my loose skin hung on me like an old feed sack, I'd prefer to be thinner. I feel better in so many ways, and can do more. I wish I'd done it decades ago, frankly.

Stick with it, and don't be scared off if things look alarming before you've let the time play out for improvement.