Loose skin advice

stephanie5505 · November 2018

A little over a year ago I started my journey. I was almost 300lbs (5'9). Now I am 202, still wanting to lose around 20lbs but I'm starting to get saggy skin. It's really bad in my legs and semi bad in my arms and belly. Does anyone have any advice on things I can do to help tighten it up? I know it'll take time and may never get better but I need to try. Please help

saraonly9913 · November 2018

Acceptance and/or surgery

maureenkhilde · November 2018

Congratulations that is a great feat. I am working on the same, being 5'9 started a bit over 300. And have wondered about the same exact thing. There is surgery for it, but what I have read it is scary beyond belief, and very expensive.
Also you can go to Search and type in Saggy skin, and or loose skin and it will bring up other discussions there have been about it. Pretty informative.

felixg1109 · November 2018

Depending on how low you want to go with your weight you won't get 100% rid of it. But there are some things you can do. First of all - do sports. Everything that gets the blood running is good for you. Second thing is to moisture your skin regularly by massaging the cream in. A good part of your skin will tighten up when time goes by, but in most cases you won't get a 100% tightened body. Most of it comes with your genetics.

If the saggy skin causes wounds or something like that you could even think about removal surgeries. In germany it's sometimes covered by the insurances, but i don't know about it in the american "health care system". But don't underestimate those surgeries. I am up to my last one in january and it gives you a hard time ;-)

good luck

cheryldumais · November 2018

Congrats on losing 100 lbs! I have been maintaining for about a year now and have had a tummy tuck for my abdomen which was really bad due to two very large babies in my youth. I couldn't afford any more surgery for the rest of my body but I have noticed lately that my wings have really gone down. What I mean is the really bad hanging skin on my arms has improved noticeably. I know you don't want to hear that you need to be patient but trust me it does get better. I am so pleased to see that slowly my skin is improving and I'm 62 years old! Yours will too.

AnnPT77 · November 2018

Also, be aware that there are at least a couple of misleading or confounding factors:

1. The appearance of loose skin can be worst when you still have fat pounds left to lose.
2. Skin shrinks much more slowly than fat is burned.

Fat doesn't neatly deplete from the outside layer than proceed inward, like peeling a potato. Instead, it can deplete anywhere in the fat mass, more like water escaping a water balloon. A full water balloon is rounded and firm. A 20% full water balloon is squishy and floppy, but still pretty big. The balloon can't really shrink until the water is gone.

Similarly, as fat depletes, the fatty areas get squishy, soft, maybe floppy. A small amount of subcutaneous squishy-fat conspires with gravity to keep skin stretched out. If fat in an area can be healthfully lost to the point where there remains just loose skin (thin wrinkles, like in fabric, not 1/2"+ rolls or flaps), then the skin can begin to shrink.

Shrinking will then begin, but it's slow. At age 60+, mine kept shrinking at least well into my 2nd year of maintaining a healthy weight, and maybe beyond. The long-term amount of shrinkage surprised me.

Many people fear their loose skin will be worse than it actually turns out to be in the long run, and much of what is there will be hidden by normal clothing. I always suggest that people go look at before & after photos in the "Success Stories" part of the forums to get a more realistic idea of what real people actually experience, even after substantial weight loss (some threads there actually talk explicitly about loose skin and have photos in bathing suits where they show it).

I'm not saying everything will be perfect, or that no one will want/need surgery to remove loose skin (especially where a small layer of fat unavoidably remains). I'm simply saying that real results, especially after some time at maintenance weight, are not as bad as many people imagine when they're part way through weight loss.

What can help is #1 genetics, and maybe just doing things that will lead to healthy skin (good nutrition, exercise, adequate fluid consumption, etc.).

Best wishes, Stephanie!

sgriska · November 2018

I’d concur with AnnPT77 that it might not turn out as bad as you imagine at this point. I’m down to half the weight I was in the beginning (143 out of 285), and as I approach goal/maintenance, though I have plenty of loose skin, it’s nowhere near as bad as I dreaded midway through. Things look a lot worse in the middle of your journey, and I’m actually pleasantly surprised.

I will probably get skin surgery in a few years, but it could be a lot worse.

GottaBurnEmAll · November 2018

Also agreeing with Ann. I lost almost 45% of my body weight at 52 and had a baby at 40 so I have a lot of loose skin experience.

Things definitely look worse midway and continue to improve as you maintain and keep eating well and exercising. You might never look 100% firm, but it wont stay 100% awful, either.

Loose skin advice

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