I was reading this thread and had the following question, but didn’t want to hijack that thread:
For those of you who’ve lost significant amounts of weight, say 50-150 pounds, do you have problems with loose skin? Or, did everything pretty much “shrink” back to normal?
I ask this because I’ve seen documentaries and read stories about folk with large weight loss amounts that have this problem. Is 50-150 pounds a large amount in this context, or does large imply something like 200 pounds or more?
Also, if you’ve experienced the loose skin, what was your age at the time of weight loss?
I’ve thought of this as well. I’d ideally like to loose about 50 lbs., and a good portion of it is in my stomach. After three babies (many years ago), I already have a slab of skin hanging. I shudder to think of what it’ll be like once the fat underneath is gone. There’s no way I can afford cosmetic surgery to have it taken off (my insurance won’t cover cosmetic surgery), so I’m trying not to think about it now. However, when I look at my body thus far, and my hips are slimming down, and my waist is disappearing and even my thighs are thinning, I still have a slab of skin at my stomach…
Anyone ever gotten their insurance company to pay for the fixing of this?
Nope and I’ve lost about 10" on my waist. The smallest my waist has gotten is 39.5" (Its closer to 40.5" now) and I have never had loose skin problems.
I’ve dropped 89 (as of this morning) and I’m not having a lot of these problems. There were some loose areas at the beginning, but they’ve tightened up over time.
There are a couple of factors involved in the skin issue. As we age, our skin loses its elasticity, so it won’t bounce back as easily. In addition, the longer you’ve been overweight, and the larger the amount you’ve been overweight, the more stretched out your skin is. I’m lucky that I’m fairly young still (25), so my skin is still fairly elastic. However, I’ve been significantly overweight since I was about 10 years old, so as the last weight I need to lose comes off, those areas may not return to normal as well as they should. The option then is surgery.
My Mom slowly lost 50-60 pounds and is now in the process of keeping it off. She is kinda bummed about the loose skin problem, but would rather have that than the extra weight. She’s in her early 60s.
I think my skin quit being able to spring back sometime in my early 30s. (Unfortunately I’m a yo-yo person - minimum 115 to a maximum of 135 or so). The last time I yo-yo’d up to 145 then back down to 115, I was 34 and the stomach skin never went back to normal Dammit.
According to all the experts at the bariatric weight-loss center, if you can prove a medical necessity (rashes, irritation, etc) insurance will cover the tummy-tuck. But it means documenting such lovely situations with your primary care doctor.
I’ve been wondering about this myself. I lost about 70 pounds over the course of a year, and I’ve been at my current weight for about six months. I’m a 43-year-old woman who’s had two babies, so my lower abdomen is nothing to write home about. I must say, even that skin did shrink down to some extent, so there may be some hope, phall0106. There is still very definitely loose skin in the area, though. I find it almost more worrisome that I’ve still got somewhat loose skin on my upper legs and upper arms (although I’m beginning to come to terms with the idea that the triceps area in people over 40 is supposed to dangle a bit). When I do a “downward dog” in yoga, I can see the skin on my upper thigh puckering and trying to hang down, and my butt jiggles far more and in a far more distressing way than it should when I jump up and down. I have a very respectable amount of muscle, but I’m hoping my skin will eventually get the message that it just doesn’t need to be that large.
I do think there has been some shrinkage over the past six months, but it’s very hard to quantify, and I still find myself inexorably drawn to ads for and shows about tummy tucks and other skin reduction surgeries.
Wouldn’t the rate at which you lose the weight affect this loose skin outcome? It seems if you took the weight loss slowly loose skin might not be a problem, course I might be completely wrong.
27 male, lost 50 pounds in a couple months. I don’t have loose skin but I do have stretch marks now. I was overweight for about a year, previously I had always been pretty lean.
A friend of mine lost a huge amount of weight and did have surgery to get rid of some of the loose skin. She felt self-conscious about it, and now she feels better.
Dammit.