absolutely TERRIFIED of gaining loose skin

BeautyFromPain
BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
edited October 3 in Health and Weight Loss
Any tips on how to avoid it?

p.s. I weight train 3 days per week, increasing when possible and drink around 12 glasses of water per day.

Replies

  • sexy_FORD_girl
    sexy_FORD_girl Posts: 3
    I would be interested in knowing the answer to your question as well. :frown:
  • city_of_frogs
    city_of_frogs Posts: 101 Member
    you'd want to use a lotion to promote elasticity in skin

    c'mon people, we want answers!
  • Visser1971
    Visser1971 Posts: 131
    Hi there,

    There are many posts on this already in the forum if you use the search function. One really good one is:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/360317-found-this-and-had-to-share-for-loose-skin?hl=loose+skin#posts-4883474

    Hope this helps!

    Cheers, Christy
  • daydream58
    daydream58 Posts: 572 Member
    All I've heard is to go SLOW and incorporate exercise to tighten things up, but you sure don't see much of the results really. You regularly see pics of young people's belly after losing 30 lbs or even more, but older and significant weight loss? Not so much.

    If there are people on here who have lost 50+ pounds and want to show their midriff pics, it would be interesting to see how they compare - those who lost fast and those who lost slowly, etc. and at what ages of course too.

    I have seen a couple, but pics showing the extra skin are rare, and that makes me afraid of the same thing. But I do know it won't stop me from losing 50 lbs or even 60-70 or whatever it ends up being - because even with loose skin, you are still going to look way better in clothes. A bikini body would be fantastic, but if it isn't to be - at least getting in shape and looking good in clothes is a huge improvement. Besides maybe over time it improves? You just don't hear a lot about this do you! I would love to hear more about it too.
  • claire_xox
    claire_xox Posts: 282 Member
    Hun you're 19... you'll be fine! You may have loose skin initially but it wont last long.
  • ludgerclay
    ludgerclay Posts: 95 Member
    Chelated copper is said to return the elasticity to skin. I've heard of research that showed that copper deficiency causes grey hair and loss of elasticity in tissue often resulting in ruptured aortic aneurysms. (that was Einstein's cause of death). Increasing copper won't bring back hair colour but is supposed to return elasticity. But I would do more research (It's certainly worth the effort, right?)
  • margo36
    margo36 Posts: 222 Member
    I think a lot of it is what type of skin you have and how fast you lose the weight. I used to weigh well over 300 pounds and weigh about 188 pounds now. It has taken me a long time to get here by losing about a pound a week and sometimes I have just maintained for few weeks then started up again. My main exercise is swimming and walking. I'm 62 and I don't have any loose skin or any wrinkles as yet but maybe I have been lucky. It's just my opinion but I know someone is going to disagree but eating healthy foods, going for slow gradual weight loss and looking after your skin helps a lot. I've seen people go on unhealthy crash diets, lose a lot of weight quickly and ending up with loads of spare skin.
  • Blackthorne99
    Blackthorne99 Posts: 250 Member
    Any tips on how to avoid it?

    First - If you're truly terrified, seek counseling. And no, I'm not being sarcastic or facetious. Terror implies an inability to accept yourself as less than perfect, and that needs psychological help.

    Second - what creates 'loose skin' is EXCESS skin and connective tissue that the body has created to feed flesh that used to be there. From various discussions I've had with plastic surgeons, the body creates about 6 lbs of skin, veins, connective tissue, etc to support each hundred pounds that you are/were overweight. As you lose weight, that skin does not magically disappear.

    Third - depending on age and how overweight you are/were will affect how much damage you have done to your skin's elasticity. Younger people and those who were overweight for a shorter period of time will be more likely to have their skin snap back to almost normal. If you were extremely overweight or carried a lot of weight in a particular area, you're going to have excess skin - nothing you can do about that.

    Now - can you do things to disguise it? Absolutely. Spanx are your friend. If you bulk up & tone the muscles under that skin, you can give the illusion of tightness, but you're only going to fill that space so much. There are creams which can minimize the appearance of stretch marks, but they do nothing to actually reduce the amount of skin there or make it tighter. Staying hydrated and taking care of your skin will also help keep it healthy, so it will look its best.

    There's also a procedure called Thermage which can tighten up the skin SOME, but it is extremely painful and results are limited. The last resort, of course, is reconstructive surgery which can remove excess skin, and tighten muscles underneath as needed.
  • daydream58
    daydream58 Posts: 572 Member
    Hun you're 19... you'll be fine! You may have loose skin initially but it wont last long.

    Oh good call - yeah anyone under 25 I am going out on a limb and say this is a non-issue if you lose slowly. Course I do know a couple of young people that did resort to the loose skin surgery but I do not know their reasons for doing so. In one case, he lost weight very quickly instead of slowly tho, so that might have something to do with it.

    As for those ideas in the link... tanning and prep H - um no.

    As for the copper levels - that sounds like a good thing to investigate... thanks for the clue. :)
  • daydream58
    daydream58 Posts: 572 Member
    ... I'm 62 and I don't have any loose skin or any wrinkles as yet but maybe I have been lucky. It's just my opinion but I know someone is going to disagree but ...

    Wow I wouldn't disagree with success and a true story - you are a true inspiration!

    Chelated copper - OH - I skimmed right over that word "chelated" I probably wouldn't mess with that myself, but I'm glad there's copper in my mutual-vitamin. My only exposure to chelated metals was a story about people that turned themselves permanently blue drinking chelated silver.
  • zorbaru
    zorbaru Posts: 1,077 Member
    lots of water helps too from what i hear.
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
    Hi there,

    There are many posts on this already in the forum if you use the search function. One really good one is:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/360317-found-this-and-had-to-share-for-loose-skin?hl=loose+skin#posts-4883474

    Hope this helps!

    Cheers, Christy

    Im sorry but, unless that poster is a Certified Physician with the Board of Dermatology, Im not willing to believe any of it. Especially when Dermatologists do tend to advocate 'no tanning' due to serious long term exposure leading to a variety of skin cancers... I get my 15 minutes daily sun-exposure for the calcium/Vit-D dose, and thats it - thats all I can expose myself to (certain prescription Im taking requires extreme-limited sun exposure) .

    The Preparation-H? Honestly, would you consider putting hemmorhoid cream on you, epidermically?
  • shakybabe
    shakybabe Posts: 1,578 Member
    I think you'd have to lose slowly and maybe it won't happen as much if you don't have huge amount to lose?

    I was watching 'Embarrasing Fat Bodies' on telly last night and people who had lost loads and their entire middle was just folds of skin, a girl is on next week whose 19 but has boobs of about a 90yr old they gone really saggy and her middle is entirely loose folds skin... not a body I would have wanted at 19! (or any age for that matter) Often their only option is surgery and as NHS don't fund many cases of removing skin after persons lost the weight, they go on telly cos the program pays for it if they let them film it all.

    I'm maintaining at 160lbs this last week although I'm desperate to get into the 150's for the first time in years, but due to injury can't exercise so I don't want to lose too fast until I can get back to my 5am, 2hr early morning workouts!
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    As a result of a tablet I also used to take (Roaccutane, for very very bad bouts of acne) if I stay in the sun longer than 5 minutes I will burn no matter what.

    Also I don't really want leathery looking skin :)
  • amkelley
    amkelley Posts: 81
    Slow and steady wins the race.=) Seriously, if you are doing strength training while losing weight you should be fine. I lost over 70 lbs last year and didnt have any loose skin. I was 28 then and had 2 kids in 2 years...I just had my 3rd kid in July and have about 13 lbs to get back to where I was ....still no loose skin.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    OP, as some of my friends on here may remember, i had a tough time with this realisation too. It was the one thing that really threatened my determination.

    There are several factors that come into play when determining if you will get excess skin at the end.

    1) Age - The younger you are, the less likely you are to get it.
    2) Genetics - Nothing we can do about this.
    3) Rate of loss - Do it slowly, less chance to get it.
    4) Amount lost - Obviously, the more you lose, the more chance there is.

    Things that also help include exercise and weights, getting your water, and ultimately time! It can take up to 2 years from when you reach your goal for your skin to "settle".

    Either way, just accept that it COULD happen, but given your stats, it probably wont for you.
  • samntim
    samntim Posts: 47 Member
    I would love to say if you lose the weight slowly, exercise regularly, rub creams and oils into your skin, if your young, if you haven't been overweight for long, that your weight hasn't gone up and down, up and down etc etc etc that you will not have to worry about loose skin - but unfortunately it quite often comes with the territory of weight loss and post-pregnancy - unless your Angelina Jolie of course!

    I think people who come out of weight loss completely unscathed with the skin snapping back like a new rubber band are few and far between. Perhaps you will be one of the lucky ones and I hope you are.

    The Biggest Loser contestants on television would be a pretty good cross section of the average person that would probably use this webside, some are young, some old, some really really big, some not so big but have struggled with food demons all their life. At the beginning of the series the ladies are wearing short lycra bike shorts and small sports tops the men are lucky enolugh to get pair of shorts and nothing else! At the end of the series when they have lost the weight and look great, there is not a small sports top to be seen, the ladies and the men usually wear t-shirts. Hiding their arms and tummies. Recently there has been stories in Who Weekly magazine showing them being quite open about have surgery to remove the excess skin and showing before and after pictures.

    My weight has gone up and down drastically over a 20 year period, the highest that I ever weighed myself was 120kg (I never stepped foot on scales for about a year after that weigh-in, and trust me, my weight went up a whole lot more!) and the lowest was 54kg. In between it has gone from 120 to 63 to 90 to 70 to 100 to 60 to 90 to 54 and now I'm bewteen 55 and 59 and have been for the last 18 months.

    Five years ago I had the first stage of a body lift removing excess skin from my front and quarter way around my back, a year ago I had the final part done having skin removed from my legs,back and butt. All together I've had 19kg of skin removed. Sure I could've squished it all into Spanx - but I'm proud of my weight loss and I wanted to wear a bikini, short skirts, crop tops, shorts - I wanted to enjoy not hide.

    So, I know I've waffled on a bit, but I just want you to know that if you do have loose skin, be proud that you have obviously accomplished something very major in your life and if at the end of the day you need a nip and tuck then you will wear your scars like a badge of honour - and to be honest, only my husband and masseur has seen my scars, they are low enough to hide under the teensiest of bikini bottoms! I know most people want to say nice reassuring things and say everything will be fine, but everybody is different and if you are prepared for what may, then everything will seem better at the end.

    Good luck and don't let fear stand in your way!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

    Also, if you live in Australia and have private health insurance, most insurance companies will cover the hospital costs (theatre, room etc) for having excess skin removed if it is from a lot of weight loss (not pregnancy) so you only have to pay the surgeon and anaethatist... I guess they figure you have done something to improve your over all health and since a lot of excess skin gets in the way with exercise they want you on that treadmill, haha!
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