You lost 100+ lbs w diet exercise & then need skin removal?

I've lost 75 lbs and I definitely need skin removal (which I'll probably never be able to afford) - belly is the worst, upper arms a little bit, and thighs are pretty bad too (inside). I'm 35 but my skin has always been pretty bad with scarring, stretch marks etc, so it's not really a surprise. It really depends a lot on genetics unfortunately. Some people claim that exercise can help, but I'm the living proof that it doesn't always make a difference (I've pretty much exercised every day from the start, including strength training and weight lifting). Maybe it will get better with time, but I highly doubt it will go away... at least not my belly.

Now, I'm not saying that if you lose weight slowly it will be that bad though. I lost 75 lbs in a year, which is pretty fast.

personally. i will take excess skin anyday over excess weight.... i don't weigh myself so can't tell you how much I lost (I do have a starting weight)... The largest size I have ever worn was a size 26... a month ago I bought my first pair of size 10 jeans.... last week I bought a size 8 dress.... I have excess skin, but I am still working on losing a little more... I walk between 5-10 miles a day-- averaging 7. My plan is to hire a personal trainer as a birthday present to me in July.... until then, I am happy where I am at and what I achieved... The fact that I have excess skin is the price I have to pay for excess food.... but, like I said... rather have the skin over the weight...

I lost the majority of my weight through my early 20s so that probably played a part - I don't have a lot of loose skin, maybe just a bit more jiggle under my arm than I'd like and a little crease of skin on my lower stomach. I think my age, how slowly I lost the weight (over 2-3 years) and lifting heavy all certainly helped.

First off, happy early birthday! I just turned 56 a few weeks ago.

Loose skin has been a concern of mine also. I was doing the weight machines 4 days a week, but my weight wasn't moving and so I just do them once a week now. I do have a good bit of muscle that is coming back to life.

Two things I do religiously are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTGBFlB1fEI and 150 sit-ups everyday using an excercise ball (I worked up from 10). I do the arm excercises everytime I take my dogs outside and so I do them 4-5 times a day. I am hoping that these will help my arms & stomach with loose skin.

As far as skin removal, in May, 2013 I paid for my best friend to have excess skin removed from her abdomen (gastric bypass), She says that she is glad she did it, but she is having her 4th surgery next Tues, her doctor made belly button has disappeared and she has an incision completely across her abdomen.

When I reach the 70lb mark in my weight loss, I am giviing myself a neck lift, but I can say with certainty that I will never have my torso worked on .

I think it depends on how fast you lose it. Right now, I've lost 60lbs over the last eight months and have no need for skin removal. My inner thighs have gotten a little easier to grab, but that's it, but are nowhere near what I've seen in pictures of rapid weight loss. I honestly don't even think that my boobs have suffered either. I'm 29 so I'm no spring chicken. I haven't done much exercising since November, either, when I quit my job.

I'm almost 52. I do have some loose skin, but it's not as much as I thought it would be. Do I jiggle a little? Yes! It's still better than being morbidly obese though. What I have learned is that I should have started in the weight room at the gym when I started to lose. The consensus seems to be lifting weights is the best way to help with the loose skin.

I lost 100 lbs over 2 years, and I was 32 at the time. So I don't think my excess skin issues were as bad as some people's. I also found 80% of the saggiest of skin tightened up eventually (after about 6 months after the weight was lost) ESPECIALLY around the face. That being said, at goal weight, the following areas never tightened: upper under arms, skin around the top of the knees, skin at the previous FUPA region, breasts -- think regions most likely to have stretch marks from things other than pregnancy. But it's so much easier to mask extra skin than mask the extra 100 lbs I was carrying around.

But as I've put back on muscle, I hardly notice the saggy skin anymore. Like, building muscle in my quads helped tighten the skin at the knees, that sort of thing. The girls though, they're just a mess. They're the only thing I'd have surgery on now.

I lost weight through the normal diet/exercise and have a lot of excess skin. Belly, upper arms, and inner thighs mainly like another PP said. But I have overall loose skin everywhere unfortunately, even though I have a lot of muscle in my arms, shoulders and thighs. The excess would definitely have to be removed via surgery. It's unfortunate because the excess skin, for me personally, I feel doesn't reflect the true weight I've lost and true results I've achieved.

YES!! I am right in the same boat you are!! I am almost at the 100lb loss mark (I lost 30 lbs before starting MFP) and I tell you the arms are so bad along with other places. My arms though, I have a huge complex about it even though I have SO many "new" muscles, it doesn't really show because if I flex, the skin just hangs like I've spread my wings to take flight!! UGHHhh It bothers me so much I keep googling, MFP pal searches to find a glimmer of hope that the flappy fairy will come swooping in to take them away but the reality is, they wont...and with each pound lost and new muscle gained, they get worse...I'm bound for either excess skin or plastic surgery. We shall see when I lose the rest and attain my goal. But thank you for your comment, you hit it right on the mark!!

I've lost 89 lbs so far and don't really have tooooo much excess skin, but I figure that if I have the grit to accomplish 89+ lbs of weight loss and maintain it...I totally have what it takes to save up for a skin reduction surgery IF I decide that I really want one.

I've lost over 100 and still have a way to go yet but will stop at the point where I feel I can cope with what I'm left with. I'm fit-fat now, have a lot of muscle tone below the fat from a varied exercise regime but yes I do have loose skin, but is it really any worse than the intensive scarring would be from skin removal surgery? We're never going to be able to completely erase our pasts. Might be better to accept we'll look better in clothes than out of them once done and be happy with that?


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I've lost 139 pounds via diet and exercise and yes I have a wee bit of loose skin but nothing drastic. It can take up to two years for your skin to retract anyway I have another couple of stone to go but even with that I won't need surgery and I'm pretty confident that it'll retract quite a lot more. Most of it's down to genetics and it's almost impossible to predict how much if any loose skin you'll get. The myth about the speed you lose weight affecting the amount you have is that a myth all it means if you lose it slower is you wont notice it as much as your giveing your skin more time to retract through the weightloss. The comparison I always give is a balloon it doesn't matter how fast you let the air out the saggy balloon is still the same at the end.

A wee bit of loose skin is preferable to the health problems and shorter life span being 100 pounds over weight will cause IMO.

I lost over 100 lbs in my 40s and the last 130ish lbs in the past 18 months (now in my 50s) through diet and exercise and I have 35 – 45 lbs left to lose. My upper arms are the worst closely followed by the amount of loose skin on my thighs. My stomach is not too bad so far but it is also the last place I seem to be losing. With the amount of weight that I had to lose (250+) loose skin was going to be a problem even if I had been smart enough to lose it earlier in life.

I did cardio from almost day 1 and started light weights with multiple reps a few weeks later. My muscle tone is really good but the loose hanging skin is not pretty. I’ll never say never but at this point I am not considering skin removal surgery. Maybe I have watched too many shows like “My 600 lb life” where some of the patients sail through their bypass surgery but develop some sort of complication from skin removal surgery that keeps them in the hospital for weeks or months. I am sure that this is not typical but if the skin doesn’t cause me any medical issues, I plan to cover it up and keep enjoying my new life!

Edited to add that I had been heavy my entire life which was another strike against my skin's ability to rebound.

I have a masseuse come in every two weeks and do deep-tissue work on my whole body, for stress and mild arthritis. I got her to switch from using almond oil to coconut oil, which is reputed to help tone the skin. She even massages my stomach (love that abbreviation, FUPA = fat upper pelvic area), and she says that will help, and that my skin will tighten up well with gradual weight loss. I do have good genes, but still, I'm 55 and it would be great not to sag. In the end, like other posters here, I'll take some saggy skin any day over the 100+ extra pounds I've been lugging around for most of my adult life.