Loose skin and weight loss

Ashlove5

I am around 230 pounds now and want to get down to 160 - 170 pounds and fear some sort of loose skin which i know is hard to get rid of without surgery. I am also 22 right now so i don’t know if age has any factors in it. But is there tips or ways you can prevent it before happening? Did you get loose skin after loosing weight?

Lietchi

It will be very individual, depending on age, speed of loss, if you have lost a lot of weight before and most of all individual disposition. Your age is definitely in your advantage.

I lost from 208lbs to currently 133lbs. While I'm not old, I am not as young as you (currently 39) and I consider myself to have 'horrible' skin generally (very prone to stretch marks for example, not very resilient at all) - I do have some loose skin, but it's not bad enough IMHO to require surgery. I lost slowly, so perhaps that helped.

Also keep in mind that the skin can still tighten up to a few years after weight loss, so how you look right after losing weight might not be representative of how you will end up looking.

I was also fearful of loose skin, that's why I chose to lose slowly. Please don't let the fear of loose skin stop you from losing weight. The bits of loose skin I have now are insignificant compared to how much fitter I feel now and how much better I feel about myself!

Xellercin

I agree, don't let the fear of loose skin hold you back from pursuing a healthier lifestyle. The best way to prevent loose skin is by being as healthy as possible.

This is why when I was obese I didn't have a weight goal, I had an ideal lifestyle goal, and I was ready to accept whatever body came with being a hell of a lot healthier.

sijomial

"But are there tips or ways you can prevent it before happening?"

Don't get fat, don't get old (really, really don't get old and fat....), do choose parents with good genetics.....
Don't smoke, don't get excessive UV exposure you can add to the list.
Healthy diet and lifestyle would be positive factors.

Yes age is a huge factor in your favour - you must have noticed how older people's skin is different to younger people's, you lose skin elasticity as you age. Pinch, pull and release the skin on the back of your hand and at your age it will probably snap straight back - then accost an old fart like me and do the same and you will see a big difference, it settles back rather than snaps back.

I lost 30lbs at age 53 and had a little loose skin which improved over next couple of years at maintenance, really wasn't any big deal. It's an experiment you will have to run for yourself as your situation and skin genetics are individual.
Losing weight slowly will reduce any problem while you are losing but probably not influence your final results.

Thewonderofitall

I went from 239lbs down to 155lbs. I had a lot of loose skin on my chest and belly. At 63 years old I knew tightening the skin up was going to be a problem. I had read about collagen supplements as the only possibility outside of surgery. It's been a year now taking the collagen as well as working out with weights and running and I have made a great improvement! The collagen also seems to really help with my joints as my knees never hurt even after a 5 to 8 mile run!

kshama2001

In my 30s, I lost @ 80 pounds with no loose skin. I lost slowly, and exercised along the way.

Xellercin

kshama2001 wrote: »

In my 30s, I lost @ 80 pounds with no loose skin. I lost slowly, and exercised along the way.

Same.

I then regained a bit and lost it again in my late 30s and now have some loose skin.
*shrug*

Is it age? Is it yo-yo-ing? Will it go away or at least improve over time? Impossible to say. The loose skin I have now doesn't make me regret losing the weight though.

AnnPT77

I think most people fear that loose skin will be worse than it actually will be in the long run.

It's common for it to look worse part way to goal than at goal (because some remaining subcutaneous fat is conspiring with gravity to keep skin from shrinking), then better as goal nears. Even then, as some above have reported, it can look much better after a few months or so maintaining at goal weight, than it did on first reaching goal. It's a gradual process, and the fat loss - at least most of it in some specific area - needs to happen before the skin shrinkage can really get going. My skin kept shrinking at least into year 2 of maintenance, maybe longer - hard to tell, because it slowed and tapered off rather than just doing an obvious hard stop.

What I often recommend is that people go look at threads in the "Success Stories" part of the MFP Community. Many people share before and after pictures, some even in bathing suits or sports bra/shorts. I think you'll find the results not as bad as you're imagining. There can be some loose skin, sure. But lots of people look good - pretty much everyone looks good in clothing, and many look pretty darned good even in swimwear or equivalent. I had a little less to lose than you (it ended up being between 50-60 pounds. Now, almost 7 years later, I don't think I look much different than other women my age (now 66) who've always been around my goal weight.

Here's one candidate thread:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1167854/photo-only-success-stories/p1

That one's been going so long that some of the photos from early posts have disappeared from the internet. You can skip to a higher numbered page, and pick up there . . . there are lots. So many.

There are other good examples in the "Most Helpful Posts" section there, including some very large losses. Here's a direct link:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300359/most-helpful-posts-success-stories-must-reads#latest

As far as how to minimize loose skin, here's what I think: Genetics matter, and likely age does, too. That's the hand we're dealt, and it's unpredictable and pretty much unchangeable.

Beyond that, skin is an organ. The things that keep other organs healthy will also tend to keep skin healthy, which means elastic and more willing to adjust. These include:

* avoiding fast 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),
* managing all-source life stress,
* hydrating adequately (not crazy much, but enough),
* avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol,
* specific to skin, also avoiding tanning.

People will say all kinds of things about creams, dry-brushing, etc., but personally I'm inclined to think those are mainly ways to pass the time while skin does pretty much what it was going to do anyway. Help a little? Maybe. Big help? I doubt it. But it can feel good to feel like we're doing *something*.

With time and patience, odds are good that you'll come out OK, especially after a year or so at goal weight, especially so if you pursue health more energetically than you pursue fast loss. If you're worried, a thing I've seen some people do here was start saving money at the start of loss for their future skin-removal surgery . . . then, when some of them didn't need the surgery, they took a nice vacation instead. 😉

amoangelus

I've gone from 220 to 168 and am in my mid 30s.
I don't have loose skin really. I have a loose tummy from having a baby, but I had that before I gained the weight and it likely will always be there. It's nothing to do with my weight loss journey and has firmed slightly due to more exercise. But I don't have loose skin.

GinLee61

When I lost 92 lbs at age 30 I had no problem with loose skin. At your age I doubt it will be a problem for you. You may have some at first but it should firm up over time.

Now at age 60 I've lost 32 lbs and I'm already seeing some loose skin. Maybe it will firm up some or maybe it won't. Either way I'm fine with it because I feel great!

Sinisterbarbie1

I am 54 and have been saying here that I lost just over 50 lbs in a little over a year, It turns out that I lost closer to 68 lbs in 2 yrs when I went to my dr last. I just hadn’t realized/started keeping track etc. In any event I have almost no loose skin anywhere and I haven’t done anything specific other than lose at a reasonable rate (about 1 lb a week at most). The place where I do have loose skin is on the back of my thighs/my butt because I think I lost a good bit of muscle along with fat there. I used to be an altitude hiker and with lifestyle changes and injuries I can’t do that anymore so I think I have deconditioned and that is the biggest muscle in anyones body, and was the strongest muscle in mine so its not a surprise.

Tips - work out while you lose weight to minimize this sort of preventable loose skin.

bojaantje3822

I've only lost 20-25lbs so far since late january but throughout I had loose skin in several places. I lost weight first off my legs/hips/butt so after a few months I noticed that I had loose skin there. And the tape measure agreed. But from one day to the next it disappeared - or so it felt. It was probably more gradual but it did feel sudden. Since then I've lost elsewhere too. Idk if I had loose skin on my back as I don't typically check there. Right now I have loose skin all over my arms, upper and lower.

It's invisible.

You can only tell when you push my skin around or just by feeling it under your hands. I'm sure it'll go away soon because it feels and looks the same as it did on my legs. My arms are the only place the tape measure hasn't budged yet (I even lost a cm off my head circumference, compared to the size measured while I was in high school! So weird) so it's about time.

Tmi: I think my breasts are also due for a downsizing as they've been feeling saggier than ever and the chest measures were likely only down because I lost fat off my back.

I've been exercising a lot throughout weightloss, between 4 and 7 hour-long trainings a week, including heavy lifting during most of those. I'm 26 and still cat 3 obese if that's relevant, idk.