Is this excessive skin??

Yeah, it's some excess skin and also some fat. Looks about like me, with some stretch marks. I wouldn't worry about getting cosmetic surgery...unfortunately some people like you and I don't have the genetics for our skin to look great after weight substantial weight gain/loss. I would set a body fat % goal for yourself (maybe 15?), then get a dexa scan or some other reliable method of measuring body fat. If you get to your body fat % goal and your skin is still not to your satisfaction, then consider taking further action to address it.

Yes and no. There is still some excess body fat there as others have said and it hangs because you have lost some fat. Having said that and also having experienced a large weight loss I can tell you that you should wait until you have maintained for a year or so. I had a tummy tuck right after losing and had a lot of problems. I remember wishing I could have my arms and thighs done as well. It's been a year of maintenance now and they have since improved dramatically on their own. I'm 62 years old so they will never be perfect but I'm sure glad I didn't get that surgery. Give your body time to correct itself. Plastic surgery is major surgery and the recovery, for me anyway, was harder than I expected not to mention horrifically expensive.

I was like that for over a year after I hit my target weight. After two years of exercise, it’s mostly gone. The remaining loose skin is only visible when I do planks.

Fatty_Nuff wrote: »

Trust me, it doesn't look as bad as you think. I need to lose over 100 pounds and will probably end up looking like a melted down candlestick.

You might want to go look in the Success Stories part of the forum, to see people who've lost 100+ and been there for a while (long enough for skin to catch up as much as it will). You might be surprised: Very few "melted candlesticks".

For folks still somewhere in the middle of the weight loss process: For quite a few of us, things look discouraging part way through, because skin shrinkage happens slower than fat loss, and can't happen in a major way until enough fat is gone that it is no longer conspiring with gravity to keep the skin stretched out.

Forgive the analogy, but we start out like a water balloon that's totally full of water: Plump, rounded, almost firm fat mass. As we lose, the fat cells can deplete anywhere in the fat mass, so the fat areas get more squishy, and even droopy, like a water balloon with some water removed (but no air added). The skin can't much shrink, because the remaining squishy fat is pulling it down and keeping it stretched.

This is a point where people sometimes get discouraged, think this is loose skin (or that it will look like this permanently, anyway), and sometimes give up. Don't!

For a lot of us, things look worse part way through weight loss, but improve as we get closer to goal, and for quite some time beyond goal.

As a previous post helpfully showed, true loose skin is thin wrinkles, like wrinkles in fabric. That kind can shrink more readily, but it's slower than fat loss. Thicker wrinkles or rolls, like 1/2 inch plus, still have some subcutaneous fat. Most folks will see more of the "thin wrinkles" stuff, and gradually less of the "thick wrinkles/thin rolls" squishy stuff, along the route to goal weight. Then, the thin wrinkles skin can keep shrinking for months to years (mine was still shrinking well into year 2 of maintenance.).

At goal weight, we can still have some of the area with subcutaneous fat pulling on skin in some areas. Continuing exercise, especially strength exercise (during loss and at goal), can really help minimize this over time, by increasing muscle mass at the same steady weight (which implies a very slow loss of fat, because it's the same body weight, right?). Exercise (all sorts) and good nutrition may also keep skin healthy and more elastic. Also, some people find that the residual small amount of fatty tissue rearranges itself a bit in maintenance, whether through the skin shrinking despite the gravitational effect, or something else.

I'm not trying to say "no one should ever have loose skin removal surgery". That's an individual decision.

What I'm trying to say is that if the results midway through loss are worrying to you, try to step back and recognize that things will very likely improve as you continue down the path of loss and maintenance. Don't get discouraged, don't give up: It gets better!