Help loose skin!!

beccapineapple8756
beccapineapple8756 Posts: 56 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello fellow MFP users. I have lost about 30lb. And I have noticed that the fat is disappearing. But the skin isn't tightening up. I still have about 100lb to loose so I'm guessing it's only going to get worse. Anyone have any tips on how to tighten the skin up with out surgery?? Also looking for friends. Maybe others who have large amounts to loose like myself.

Replies

  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,647 Member
    Yeah, you have quite a long time to go and a lot of weight to lose before you have any idea of what you'll look like in the end. Even once you get all the weight off, you'll still have to wait a while before your skin reaches its final form. Relax and enjoy the ride. :smile:
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Make sure you're losing at a reasonable rate (no crash diets) and the skin WILL tighten up over time. After I switched to maintenance a few years ago I lost a few more inches just from the skin SLOOWLY bouncing back. Drink plenty of water and make sure your diet is rich in a wide array of vitamin and minerals. Use moisturizer if you need it. Get supportive bras.
  • hillarymouse
    hillarymouse Posts: 69 Member
    I've heard people say that adding collagen peptides to your diet can help, but I'm not seeing any differences since starting. I think patience and taking good care of yourself are your best bets. Congrats on the loss so far!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,672 Member
    Weight loss is faster than skin shrinkage. My loose skin kept shrinking even into the 2nd year of maintenance, even at age 60.

    Furthermore, we don't usually neatly lose fat starting from the outermost layer and proceeding progressively inward. Fat cells can be depleting anywhere in our fat mass, so the result is a mass that first becomes squishy and droopy (at which point many people freak out about "loose skin", which it isn't . . . yet).

    True loose skin is small wrinkles, like wrinkles in a fabric. (Think about how thin the skin is if you pinch it on a body part that's bony in you, like kneecap, elbow bone, back of hand). Bigger folds, like half an inch thick or so, are skin that still has subcutaneous fat conspiring with gravity to keep it stretched out.

    Keep losing fat down to a healthy weight, give the actual loose skin some time (many months, maybe a year) to shrink, then re-evaluate. How much it will shrink, once the fat is gone, is mainly a function of genetics and age.

    Exercise in general seems to make people's skin look firmer (not shrink faster), which may help appearance. Progressive strength training lets us have more muscle thus less fat at any given weight, so that can help appearance, too.

    So: Yes, probably your loose skin will get worse for a while, unfortunately . . . then it will get better. It's annoying, but patience is the answer. Nothing else does much.

    I'd suggest going over to the "success stories" part of the forum, and looking at photos of people who've lost 100+ pounds, especially those who included a regular exercise program. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by many of those results.
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