Loose skin! Do you think it will worse this time around?

shorty35565

In the past I lost 66lbs using mfp!!
Here were my results
https://i.imgur.com/UV8DLDJ.jpeg

You can see I had some loose skin at the bottom of my belly.

Well I gained it back and then some. My old starting weight was 185. This time I gained up to 230. The good news is I am losing again, but I am very worried that my loose skin will be worse. Here are comparison pics from my previous start weight and my current starting weight.
https://i.imgur.com/B6SLg1n.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/Kj7wgxY.jpeg
Do you guys think my loose skin this time will be a lot worse?

rosebarnalice

My experience is that as I aged it took much longer for my skin to rebound from weight loss.

elisa123gal

did you lose super fast last time? Did you moisturize your body skin a few times a day and especially after showering or bathing? Maybe you could do something different this time that works in your favor and your skin will bounce back.

shorty35565

I did not lose fast last time. Loose skin is all about genetics contrary to what people think. Some people don't get because they have great genetics. I have a friend who tried everything and still ended up with loose skin. I know I'm gonna have it. I just hope it won't be worse than last time. Last time was minimal and I came to terms with it. Anymore and I will have to start saving for a tummy tuck.

Beautyofdreams

How old were you when you lost weight the first time? How quickly did you regain and how old are you now?

IME. I lost 96 pounds over 3 years from the age of 46 to 49 after gaining 75 pounds from 43 to 46 years of age. I kept this weight off for 5 years and regained most of it back over 4 years. Lost 88 pounds over the last 2 years. At 58 years my skin has a lot of laxity that it did not have at 49. Though I would much rather have the loose skin than be heavier again. It is just so very much easier to get around and careful clothing choices can hide a loose skin most of the time.

AnnPT77

I have a different question, but it can be rhetorical (not asking you to answer in public, IOW): How long were you weight-stable after the previous loss?

Reason for asking: My experience was that fat loss and skin shrinkage were two overlapping phases, each somewhat lengthy:

First, the fat needs to be depleted enough in some body area that the remaining fat stops conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched. Only after that's happened (mostly) can the skin begin to shrink. Then the skin shrinkage itself is a slow process. I perceive that my loose skin (from losing 50+ pounds) kept shrinking well into my 2nd year of weight maintenance, and maybe beyond, even though loss was at age 59-60.

(I'm not saying I have zero loose skin. I'm saying that I had some body parts that looked like a bulldog's droopy face right after weight loss - yikes! - that I think now don't look dramatically worse than women my age who've always been relatively slim. (I'm 66, but most of the shrinkage was in the first couple of years.))

Fat mass in skin is vaguely like a water balloon: When we're at our maximum fat, the fatty area is somewhat firm and rounded, because its skin-sack is stretched but taut. It's the full water balloon. As we lose fat, it may deplete from any of the fat cells within the fatty area - I don't believe it neatly melts off from the outer layer first, then inward as if peeling an onion. It's like taking water out of the water balloon, we don't choose where it comes from.

Once the fat is depleting, it's X pounds of fat in a skin sack "designed" to hold X-Y pounds of fat. Like the partly-full water balloon, the area gets squishy, droopy, even though maybe its overall geometry is smaller. Just like the water in the water balloon, if you hold it up in the air by its balloon-neck, the weight of the remaining fat keeps the skin stretched to some extent.

Once most of that fat is gone, just like when all but mere drops of water are left in the balloon, then the skin can start shrinking. And for skin (maybe not now like the balloon), that takes time . . . possibly quite a long time.

So, my implication is, if you weren't weight stable for months to a couple years after losing 66 pounds, your "after" may not be your actual final "after".

Even if you were weight stable for an extended time, I don't think any of us can answer your question, because - as others have pointed out - genetics are a factor, as is (IMO) our lifestyle context. We can only tell you what happened to us, and if that's purely text description (rather than photos), it will inevitably be colored by how we feel about how we look. I'm not accusing others of self-deception; that's true of me, too. **

What I will say is what I say on all the "loose skin" threads, so I apologize if you've read the same words already. However we end up is how we end up. We can only do the things we know how to do, and are willing/able to do, to get the best possible results. Here's my view about what that is:

Since skin is an organ, the things that keep any other organ healthy are going to keep skin healthy, too, so more likely to be elastic and shrink. That would be

* avoiding fast weight loss (because it's a physical stress to lose fast),
* getting good well-rounded nutrition (macros and micros, especially but not exclusively protein),
* getting regular exercise (both cardiovascular and strength),
* getting good quality/quantity of sleep,
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding excessive alcohol,
* avoiding smoking/vaping,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

I'm a skeptic about creams, dry brushing, spells and incantations, or whatever. I suspect they're mostly things people do to feel some power over the situation, while time does what it was going to do anyway. But I didn't do those things, so that's pure prejudice on my part.

Usually, in loose skin threads, I'd also mention that I think most people end up in a place, long term, that isn't as bad as they imagine it will be, when they're doing the imagining part way through the process.

Because of the "overlapping phases" thing I mentioned above, some of us (like me) looked worse part way to goal than we would at goal, and worse at goal than we'd look some months/years into weight-stable maintenance. I usually suggest folks look at photos over in the Success Stories part of the forum to get an idea, and stay optimistic.

You don't need that advice, because obviously you've been at goal weight in adulthood, so you do have some general idea. (Probably obvious: I'm mentioning this in case there are people reading who haven't previously lost a meaningful amount of weight, but are worried.)

You looked really good after your weight loss, with (IMO) relatively minor amounts of loose skin. There may've been a tiny amount of subcutaneous fat in your lower abdomen still contributing to the loose skin appearance, so (even though I have no evidence that this works), you might think about trying the kinds of light compression garments that some women these days use after childbirth, or just wearing somewhat firm leggings in the parts of daily life when you can, to counter the gravitational effect.

Unclear whether a goal weight a few pounds down would make a difference, since abdominal fat can be the last to deplete, for a lot of us. (I get kind of over-thin in my upper body, when I still have a little bit more central fat than I'd prefer.)

** If you want to see my pictures, they're here, along with a bunch more blahblahblah about it, plus a bunch of other people's comments about what they found worked, or heard worked, etc.:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10809632/loose-skin-50lbs-loss-at-60-4-years-maintenance#latest

Best wishes with your weight loss, and for excellent long-term results!

shorty35565

Beautyofdreams wrote: »

How old were you when you lost weight the first time? How quickly did you regain and how old are you now?

IME. I lost 96 pounds over 3 years from the age of 46 to 49 after gaining 75 pounds from 43 to 46 years of age. I kept this weight off for 5 years and regained most of it back over 4 years. Lost 88 pounds over the last 2 years. At 58 years my skin has a lot of laxity that it did not have at 49. Though I would much rather have the loose skin than be heavier again. It is just so very much easier to get around and careful clothing choices can hide a loose skin most of the time.

I started in Sept 2011 at 23 yrs old and 185lbs.
I reached my goal of 119lbs at 24 yrs old in Feb 2013, a month away from being 25.
I started gaining back in summer of 2015 at 27 yrs old.
The gain back up to my original starting weight was very slow, taking 3 yrs. In Feb of 2018 at 29 yrs old I was back at 185lbs.
I hit 200lbs in June 2018 at 30 yrs old
3 years later in May 2021 I hit my highest weight of 230lbs at 33.
I'm currently back down to 221lbs.

shorty35565

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I have a different question, but it can be rhetorical (not asking you to answer in public, IOW): How long were you weight-stable after the previous loss?

Reason for asking: My experience was that fat loss and skin shrinkage were two overlapping phases, each somewhat lengthy:

First, the fat needs to be depleted enough in some body area that the remaining fat stops conspiring with gravity to keep skin stretched. Only after that's happened (mostly) can the skin begin to shrink. Then the skin shrinkage itself is a slow process. I perceive that my loose skin (from losing 50+ pounds) kept shrinking well into my 2nd year of weight maintenance, and maybe beyond, even though loss was at age 59-60.

(I'm not saying I have zero loose skin. I'm saying that I had some body parts that looked like a bulldog's droopy face right after weight loss - yikes! - that I think now don't look dramatically worse than women my age who've always been relatively slim. (I'm 66, but most of the shrinkage was in the first couple of years.))

Fat mass in skin is vaguely like a water balloon: When we're at our maximum fat, the fatty area is somewhat firm and rounded, because its skin-sack is stretched but taut. It's the full water balloon. As we lose fat, it may deplete from any of the fat cells within the fatty area - I don't believe it neatly melts off from the outer layer first, then inward as if peeling an onion. It's like taking water out of the water balloon, we don't choose where it comes from.

Once the fat is depleting, it's X pounds of fat in a skin sack "designed" to hold X-Y pounds of fat. Like the partly-full water balloon, the area gets squishy, droopy, even though maybe its overall geometry is smaller. Just like the water in the water balloon, if you hold it up in the air by its balloon-neck, the weight of the remaining fat keeps the skin stretched to some extent.

Once most of that fat is gone, just like when all but mere drops of water are left in the balloon, then the skin can start shrinking. And for skin (maybe not now like the balloon), that takes time . . . possibly quite a long time.

So, my implication is, if you weren't weight stable for months to a couple years after losing 66 pounds, your "after" may not be your actual final "after".

Even if you were weight stable for an extended time, I don't think any of us can answer your question, because - as others have pointed out - genetics are a factor, as is (IMO) our lifestyle context. We can only tell you what happened to us, and if that's purely text description (rather than photos), it will inevitably be colored by how we feel about how we look. I'm not accusing others of self-deception; that's true of me, too. **

What I will say is what I say on all the "loose skin" threads, so I apologize if you've read the same words already. However we end up is how we end up. We can only do the things we know how to do, and are willing/able to do, to get the best possible results. Here's my view about what that is:

Since skin is an organ, the things that keep any other organ healthy are going to keep skin healthy, too, so more likely to be elastic and shrink. That would be

* avoiding fast weight loss (because it's a physical stress to lose fast),
* getting good well-rounded nutrition (macros and micros, especially but not exclusively protein),
* getting regular exercise (both cardiovascular and strength),
* getting good quality/quantity of sleep,
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding excessive alcohol,
* avoiding smoking/vaping,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

I'm a skeptic about creams, dry brushing, spells and incantations, or whatever. I suspect they're mostly things people do to feel some power over the situation, while time does what it was going to do anyway. But I didn't do those things, so that's pure prejudice on my part.

Usually, in loose skin threads, I'd also mention that I think most people end up in a place, long term, that isn't as bad as they imagine it will be, when they're doing the imagining part way through the process.

Because of the "overlapping phases" thing I mentioned above, some of us (like me) looked worse part way to goal than we would at goal, and worse at goal than we'd look some months/years into weight-stable maintenance. I usually suggest folks look at photos over in the Success Stories part of the forum to get an idea, and stay optimistic.

You don't need that advice, because obviously you've been at goal weight in adulthood, so you do have some general idea. (Probably obvious: I'm mentioning this in case there are people reading who haven't previously lost a meaningful amount of weight, but are worried.)

You looked really good after your weight loss, with (IMO) relatively minor amounts of loose skin. There may've been a tiny amount of subcutaneous fat in your lower abdomen still contributing to the loose skin appearance, so (even though I have no evidence that this works), you might think about trying the kinds of light compression garments that some women these days use after childbirth, or just wearing somewhat firm leggings in the parts of daily life when you can, to counter the gravitational effect.

Unclear whether a goal weight a few pounds down would make a difference, since abdominal fat can be the last to deplete, for a lot of us. (I get kind of over-thin in my upper body, when I still have a little bit more central fat than I'd prefer.)

** If you want to see my pictures, they're here, along with a bunch more blahblahblah about it, plus a bunch of other people's comments about what they found worked, or heard worked, etc.:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10809632/loose-skin-50lbs-loss-at-60-4-years-maintenance#latest

Best wishes with your weight loss, and for excellent long-term results!

I plan on replying more to this after work but I commented above on my weight journey. The lengths of tine and such

callsitlikeiseeit

its mostly genetics. youth helps, but even then.... mostly genetics.

ive lost 230 pounds and dont have any loose skin to speak of. i only have 20-30 to go, so not much relatively speaking, so i could end up with some, but it wont be all that much. im 44 in 2 weeks and lost *most* of that (around 150) between 2014-2016, and off and on maintained/very slow loss of 30 pounds from 2016-2020, then this year lost 50 some odd pounds.

i dont do anything at all to my skin.