Actual experience with skin bouncing back after 100+ # loss?

cherbapp

Ok so I know the question has been asked and answered a million times about skin going back after weight loss...but I am not seeing any personal experiences of people who waited two years after hitting their goal weight. It seems like everyone here is still in the weight loss process...which makes sense...that's why we are all here. But by chance is there anyone here who was SURE you would need a tummy tuck after losing a large percentage of your extra weight, but then hit their goal and as time went by, the skin improved? Or is this just wishful thinking?

I have lost 130 pounds from my highest weight and at 38 years old, and after three kids, I was sure I needed a tummy tuck. Actually had a few consults a couple months ago, but now all of a sudden the skin looks slightly better. I am wondering if I lose the last 25 pounds and just wait....is there hope that I can just live with it? And keep my $8k? Lol

And just to be clear...I don't even hope for tight skin....just not the 4" flap! Ugh.

cherbapp

Looking like its probably a myth...

aadutton

bumping in case anyone responds...

i hear it's all case-by-case, everyone is different, blah blah blah...but it would be nice to know it does happen in real life

Warchortle

If you use tightening creams and body suits underneath your clothes I've heard it helps with loose skin overtime.. I'm at -80 and haven't had any real skin issue except stretch marks.

GURLEY_GIRL3

bump! I too would like to know about this. After 3 c-cections I have a permently sewed in flab roll I fear

GadgetGuy2

I've been more or less at target for about a year now. Maintaining requires I still track intake vs expenditure. Also, I'm still trying to get the sugar down (doing well an everything else, even salt).

After this one year, I do see significant tightening of the loose skin. As I understand it, you have to wait for the microscopic cells to die, replacements will be fewer and smaller. Don't know if this is true, but it makes some sense (I have a life science degree including cellular physiology). I only had to drop 40lbs, so your skin tightening recovery may take much longer. I'm guessing it will take another year before my tummy skin is not loose anymore. I purposely didn't say tight.....'cause I'm getting old ...and that's a different issue all together (skin collagen etc).

So......I'd say the future looks bright for you. Save the money.....or buy a new wardrobe.

PomegranatePriestess

There are so many factors that go into this, including having kids... I know of at least one person here who has lost 100+ pounds over the course of about five years and she does not have any sagging skin... but she hasn't had kids, she's a bit younger than you are, and she lost it over a longer period of time so her skin had more time to adjust.

If I were in your shoes, and I started to see improvements, I would probably wait... especially if I were still looking to lose 25 lbs. I've thought about this myself, and decided I would not do any skin surgery until I reached my goal weight (whatever that ends up being... I'm going to evaluate once I lose this first 100 and I've got 64 lbs to go to get there) and was able to maintain the loss for a year. If I can't maintain the loss, there is no point in having skin surgery. I'm not even sure I'll need it. I lost 110 lbs ten years ago and was pretty happy with my skin. We'll see if ten years has changed things. Only time will tell.

XDiet_SlayerX

Hello.
Any major weight loss will result in loose skin and creams or so called "remedies" will not cure this or tighten it up. The only tightening up it will help with is small amounts of loose skin.
But if you’ve carried a hundred or more extra pounds for many years, you may be a candidate for plastic surgery to tighten and lift loose skin. This fix should only be used in extreme cases, and I should warn you: people who have undergone this operation have actually gained more fat afterwards while they were rehabilitating from surgery!
Rather than letting this stress you out, you should focus on the things over which you have control—like exercising and eating right—and you’ll find that you will always look good. Your skin is more elastic than loose. And it can be tightened up dramatically with the proper diet and continued weight loss.

cherbapp

I've been more or less at target for about a year now. Maintaining requires I still track intake vs expenditure. Also, I'm still trying to get the sugar down (doing well an everything else, even salt).

After this one year, I do see significant tightening of the loose skin. As I understand it, you have to wait for the microscopic cells to die, replacements will be fewer and smaller. Don't know if this is true, but it makes some sense (I have a life science degree including cellular physiology). I only had to drop 40lbs, so your skin tightening recovery may take much longer. I'm guessing it will take another year before my tummy skin is not loose anymore. I purposely didn't say tight.....'cause I'm getting old ...and that's a different issue all together (skin collagen etc).

So......I'd say the future looks bright for you. Save the money.....or buy a new wardrobe.

.

This helps a lot...I just need reasons to be patient...and this is definitely a good one!

CyberEd312

I am on the other side of the coin and knew before I even started that there was no way in hell that I would not need some kind of intervention down the road but I was also at 560 lbs. so with the loss I was facing it was inevitable. I was at this for 39 months (42 months now) when I finally had my circumferential body lift. I was at 250 lbs. down 310 lbs. and was pretty much with in 20 lbs. of my ultimate goal weight range of 230 lbs. so I went through with it. They removed 17 lbs. of skin in that surgery. My neck and arms (for the most part) did return to normal with the aid of weight lifting but my torso and inner thigh's was a totally different story. I still have the inner thigh problem (the body lift did not address the inner thigh just the outer... You can check out my blog if you would like to see or compare lose skin... www.gettingfit4life.com Best of Luck to you.....

HIITMe

Hello.
Any major weight loss will result in loose skin and creams or so called "remedies" will not cure this or tighten it up. The only tightening up it will help with is small amounts of loose skin.
But if you’ve carried a hundred or more extra pounds for many years, you may be a candidate for plastic surgery to tighten and lift loose skin. This fix should only be used in extreme cases, and I should warn you: people who have undergone this operation have actually gained more fat afterwards while they were rehabilitating from surgery!
Rather than letting this stress you out, you should focus on the things over which you have control—like exercising and eating right—and you’ll find that you will always look good. Your skin is more elastic than loose. And it can be tightened up dramatically with the proper diet and continued weight loss.

eff dat....after 3 kids ( or 5 in my case) and a 100 lb weight loss, Ive been too patient and deserve a tummy tuck... you dont gain fat FROM the surgery...you gain WEIGHT, usually only until the swelling goes down....

Genetics, how long ya been fat and so much else goes into play and some people will NEVER get rid of the flap...Im not willing to wait a few years so see IF....

cherbapp

I am on the other side of the coin and knew before I even started that there was no way in hell that I would not need some kind of intervention down the road but I was also at 560 lbs. so with the loss I was facing it was inevitable. I was at this for 39 months (42 months now) when I finally had my circumferential body lift. I was at 250 lbs. down 310 lbs. and was pretty much with in 20 lbs. of my ultimate goal weight range of 230 lbs. so I went through with it. They removed 17 lbs. of skin in that surgery. My neck and arms (for the most part) did return to normal with the aid of weight lifting but my torso and inner thigh's was a totally different story. I still have the inner thigh problem (the body lift did not address the inner thigh just the outer... You can check out my blog if you would like to see or compare lose skin... www.gettingfit4life.com Best of Luck to you.....

Ed...you have been my inspiration for many months!! I so appreciate everything you have shared!

PXMike

This is a very timely topic for me. In the past 4 years I have lost from a high weight of 345 pounds with a 64" waist to 177 pounds and a 35" waist. That is nearly half my waist lost in 4 years! Up until a few months ago I was very seriously considering having plastic surgery as 52 year old skin does not exactly just snap into place. Well, I'm very happy to report that I am finally seeing a reduction. Both my doc and trainer kept telling me not to rush into a decision to be cut on and I am glad I didn't. I don't carry any false hopes of every looking like I could model for the cover of Men's Health or Fitness and I still think I will eventually need some places tucked a bit but who knows. ***GROSS OUT WARNING*** my legs look great but there are still quite a few folds around the waist and still a trace of "Moobs." My nutritionist got me started on an increase in the amount of Fish Oil I take each day as well as a diet rich in healthy fats as well as daily applications of Shay Butter and Vitamin C Creams. In concert with this plan, my trainer focuses a healthy amount of my workout strictly around Core exercises. Our Core is our skin's support structure and if the support is weak it is very difficult to tighten the covering. Hope this helped a little.

waldo56

Not 100, but I lost 75 lb in my initial loss and have lost about 6 more lbs of fat since (also gaining muscle weight, I'm only 62 lbs below my starting weight now but a good bit leaner than I was at my goal weight).

The best loose skin remedy there is period is to get very lean. Layers of fat are attached to the skin. A lot of this fat was deposited when you were at a much larger circumference, preventing your skin from shrinking. It isn't a problem with your skin, there is still fat in the way. True loose skin should be no thicker than the skin on the back of your hand when pinched. The absolute best remedy for loose skin is to go well beyond typical "goal weight". For both men and women this means readily visible abs. 8% or so BF for men, 17% or so BF for women. This will get virtually all of the excess fat off your skin. From there your skin should shrink quite rapidly (will make huge progress in a few months), and after a bit when you regain back up to more normal BF levels (assuming you don't want to maintain super leanness), your skin will be much more normal, the loose skin problem pretty much gone.

It will gradually over time go down even if you are at a higher BF, however the more fat you have left, the slower the process. At a higher BF, much more typical BF levels for people who hit their goal weight when trying to lose weight (high teens for men and mid-20's for women), this process can take many years.

I was sorta like a deflated balloon when I hit my goal weight, and was at about 13% BF. Within a few months that had mostly disappeared. But there were still remnants, and I dropped to 11% BF, and it has noticably declined again since. Later this spring I'm going to drop into the 8-9% area to eliminate all traces. I'm not in a huge rush though, the most visible effects were gone within 3-4 months of reaching my goal weight and holding that BF%.

mdbs2004

I've been at this for almost 2 years. Lost nearly 140 pounds and I recently adjust my goal weight up from 200 to 220 pounds. I've notice every pound I lose my skin gets saggier and saggier. I think I would look bad by the time I got to 200 pounds. When I hit 220 pounds I plan to lift heavy and see if I can fill in as much of my loose skin as I can.

GadgetGuy2

It will gradually over time go down even if you are at a higher BF, however the more fat you have left, the slower the process. At a higher BF, much more typical BF levels for people who hit their goal weight when trying to lose weight (high teens for men and mid-20's for women), this process can take many years.

This fits me. It's taking a few years for me to loose the fat cells under my tummy (omentum....and sides). I'm in upper teens BF.

...what Waldo said.