If you lost 50+ pounds between 35 and 40 years old...

julepgirl

I'm 36 and I'm worrying about skin elasticity... If you lost a lot around my age, would you tell me what your skin did? I'm especially worried that my double chin skin won't suck back up - I don't want a turkey neck at 40. But also my stomach and arms... This is completely silly, but since I started losing weight, this has been my main concern, and I've gotten obsessed with body lotion, thinking that if I start intensely moisturizing, maybe my skin will act "younger"....

jswmom

How your skin responds to weight loss depends on many, many questions:

- have you been overweight all your life?
- have you yo-yo dieted a lot?
- how did you gain your weight -- is it related to pregnancy? If so, do you have lots of stretch marks?
- do you have wrinkles?
- do you drink lots of water? (Water may help with skin elasticity.)
- have you espoused an extremely low fat diet? (Oil may help with skin elasticity.)
- do your relatives have lots of wrinkles at relatively young ages (50+)?
- did you exercise (both cardio and weight training) throughout your weight loss?

I hope you don't have lots of excess skin, but if you do, cardio can help get rid of the underlying fat and help the skin appear tighter. And it will tighten up over time.

And excess skin is still so much better than fat.

julepgirl

Haha, lots of questions. I'll answer them within your quote...

How your skin responds to weight loss depends on many, many questions:

- have you been overweight all your life? No - I started gaining it during college, so a little under half my life, but especially the last ten years or so.
- have you yo-yo dieted a lot? Not at all. This will only be the second time I've ever made an effort to lose weight.
- how did you gain your weight -- is it related to pregnancy? If so, do you have lots of stretch marks? I am heavier than I was before my pregnancy, but no stretch marks that I can see yet. Don't they only show up when you lose weight, or would I see them already? My baby is 15 months old now.
- do you have wrinkles? some, in my face. Mostly this obnoxious frown line between my brows from when I think hard
- do you drink lots of water? (Water may help with skin elasticity.) I meet the 8 cup suggestion easily, but some days that's all.
- have you espoused an extremely low fat diet? (Oil may help with skin elasticity.) Nope. I'm stubborn and refuse to exclude oils, meats, and an occasional ice cream or serving of chips.
- do your relatives have lots of wrinkles at relatively young ages (50+)? not that I've noticed.
- did you exercise (both cardio and weight training) throughout your weight loss? I've just started my weight loss - I'm at about 9 pounds, I think... and I've just started the 30ds and am joining a gym. I'll be doing mostly weights at first and increasing cardio as I get lighter - I have bad knees that are already arguing with Jillian Michaels, but I'm trying to ignore them.

I hope you don't have lots of excess skin, but if you do, cardio can help get rid of the underlying fat and help the skin appear tighter. And it will tighten up over time.

And excess skin is still so much better than fat.

Absolutely! I'm not using this as any kind of excuse, it's just my one concern. If I lose the weight, I want to like how I look, not have some new thing to try to hide when cameras come out :P