Lose weight = looking older??

lkpducky wrote: »

middlehaitch wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

CSARdiver wrote: »

I imagine a good deal of the comes with the individual weight loss plan. I talk to a number of people and find most look more youthful after losing weight, but they also implemented some manner of progressive resistance and gained a good amount of muscle - maintaining the aesthetic ratio.

How does lifting help how someone's face looks after weight loss?

All that tensing, straining, and grunting really works the facial muscles and keeps them lifted I wish

Cheers, h.

I do find that my face is more defined when I do a lot of upper body lifting (especially bench press and pushups).

We were doing downward dogs in yoga the other day and it felt like my face was going to fall off onto the floor. (You know like the tummies in the 'uterus' thread, my face does it- not posting a pic of that!)

Losing during menopause had me first worrying about the eye wrinkles. I had just accepted those and the naso-labial lines started to deepen. Once they had etched their way into my face, my lips started to wrinkle (can lips lose weight?).

It can't get any worse I thought. Oh yes it can said my face- my cheeks sunk and my chin weakened.

Now I am sat with a face that looks like a wrinkled prune needin to poo.

This is of course all very tongue in cheek.

It's 10 years (in Jan) since I started menopause and decided to lose weight. At first I looked slightly haggard, then normal, time added all the extras. I have no idea how I would have looked now if I hadn't lost weight.

Cheers, h.

middlehaitch wrote: »

You surprised me @AnnPT77, as I know your general disconcern for aesthetics.

I know those funny little droopy pouches well- how did I miss mentioning them. They seam to go hand in hand with the mouth starting to droop and the deepening of the naso-labia lines. I'm such a smiley person in real life but my face looks like I am in a permanent bad mood. I sit and smile while driving or watching a movie trying to strengthen the underlying muscle, SO thinks I've gone crazy.

I think we know I am the dye my hair and put my face on type, it makes me happy, but I get the not doing it. My sister was obliged to wear makeup for her job, now she is retired she loves not having to cake it on.

Totally agree with your last paragraph.

Isn't it fun, little old ladies doing comparisons .

Cheers, h.

100% support the dye and makeup for those who enjoy it - no diss intended. It's the disconnect that puzzles me (and puzzles is what I mean): Metaphorically, paint on the siding while the roof-joists collapse, while evangelizing for the paint. Your roof-joists are in excellent shape, I know.

queenoscots wrote: »

Before I got very far in my weight loss journey, I spent time with a dietitian and a psychologist. It was the psychologist who warned me to be prepared for when acqaintances thought I looked ill and wondered if I was sick. I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't. The truth is, I see it in the mirror every day. My doctor and dermatologist reminded me this is one reason to lose the weight while younger: the skin has more elasticity and shrinks better. And of course, the health benefits cannot be underestimated. I'm one of those folks who was morbidly obese, but still had normal blood sugar blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. But my joints really suffered. I'd love to have lost weight sooner and enjoyed the increased mobility in particular. If I hadn't so much weight to lose, perhaps the effect on my skin wouldn't be so dramatic. I have no intention of quitting, and look forward to losing more weight, saggy skin notwithstanding. It takes from the joy, however. Onward, and cheers to all!

As usual, I agree with @middlehaitch.

I know it's hard, but take heart, and hang in there.

While genetics matters, and there are no guarantees: For a bunch of us, appearance is materially worse partway through weight loss than it will be at goal weight, and worse at goal weight than it will be a few months later, and after reaching goal than it can keep improveing for a year or two after that.

Personally, I definitely looked worse partway to goal than I did at goal, in terms of saggy/loose skin. What can happen is that fat depletes from anywhere in the fat mass, not neatly starting with the outside layer and proceeding inward. As a consequence, midway to goal, the remaining fat mass gets kind of floppy/squishy - like a squishy partially full water balloon vs. one that's all firm when full of water. That residual fat conspires with gravity to keep skin stretched out, by weighing it down into floppy flaps. (Sorry for that analogy; clarity > diplomacy, I'm thinking).

As particular areas continue to lose fat, the "weighing down" effect decreases, and the skin can get down to the "thin wrinkles" phase (looking like wrinkles in fabric, not 1/2" plus wrinkles or rolls that still hold subcutaneous fat). That's when the skin can actual begin to shrink. Even then, the skin shrinkage will be slower than fat loss, for most of us.

So, at goal weight, we look better in terms of loose skin then with pounds still to go, but it will continue to improve further over time. Admittedly, I didn't lose as much as you have (it was around 50 pounds or so), but even reaching goal at age 60, my loose skin kept shrinking well into year 2 of maintenance. At the risk of TMI - sensitive souls will want to stop reading now! - at goal weight, I swear my rear view looked like a bulldog's face, all droops and sags. After a couple of years, it looked much more like a regular li'l ol' lady rear: Not centerfold material for Playboy, but not suited for the American Kennel Club magazine anymore, either.

Beyond the loose skin question, for me, the point just before and continuing after reaching goal was the maximum for looking haggard, drawn, and generally unwell. I hadn't cut calories crazy far, had tapered off my loss rate near the end, kept nutrition in reasonable territory, kept working out . . . but I still looked pretty strained. Thing was, that improved greatly within a few months, based not just on self-perception, but the reaction of friends who saw me near goal, then not again until a few months later, and told me that they'd earlier been worried about me, but later thought I looked slim and healthy (at exactly the same weight, BTW).

So, if you're concerned how things stand now, when you have 40 pounds to go, try to stay optimistic. None of us are going to suddenly look like buff 18-year-old beauty queens (though I swear haitch comes amazingly close sometimes ), but there is certainly potential that you'll see improvement beyond what you're expecting from what you see right now. I've heard that most plastic surgeons will want you to wait at least a year after weight loss before undertaking skin removal surgery; this is part of the reason why.

Best wishes!