This thread over in MPSIMS got me wondering about all those people one sees in ads for weight loss programs. If a very obese person loses a lot of weight, what happens to their skin? Does is shrink along with the rest of the body as the weight is lost, or does it remain “stretched” (for lack of a better word) and sag on the body? Is its elasticity gone after years at a certain surface area? If so, is surgery performed to remove the excess?
In a few words, those who lose huge amounts of weight quickly look like deflated balloons with all that excess skin hanging off. Yes, sometimes the extreme cases are taken in for surgery simply because all that skin breeds infection and is as ugly as the southward end of a northbound dog.
If they are young, sometimes it stretches back otherwise like said above, the doctor takes it off. If you have ever seen a big tray of excessive skin…ick
I read an article once, quite a few years ago, about some city or town in the SE U.S., maybe South Carolina, that specializes in weight loss clinics and fat farms. There’s the rice diet clinic, etc. etc. There are also abundant plastic surgeons in this town (more per capita than anywhere else in the U.S.). Individuals go to these clinics to lose hundreds of pounds and I clearly remember the article mentioning that, in some cases of major weight loss, people end up with a flap or apron of skin that can actually hang down to their knees. That’s where the plastic surgeons come in.
I would think that a very young healthy person losing a lot of weight slowly on a medically sound weight loss program would re-absorb a lot of the excess skin, but the skin of older people is not as soft and flexible.
Have you ever checked out Oprah’s arms???
A fun thing to do after Gramma dies, is prop her arms up, and just flick the arm flaps back and forth.
Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.
–Tim
I remember a commercial for a treadmill that used to be shown quite often. It showed the guy on the treadmill, and filmed him supposedly during several stages of his weight loss. The footage obviously showed loose skin hanging from his torso, from what looked to me like two separate liposuctions. I wondered who they thought they were fooling.
FYI, I believe that would be my lovely town of Durham, NC “Diet Capital of America”. This place seems to go gaga over this sort of thing, with various signs extolling Durham as…“All-American City”, “City of Medicine”, “Diet Capital”…
Until moving here, I thought the Rice Diet described the predominant foodstuff comprising the diet. Turns out it was named for Dr. Rice, who later became embroiled in a seamy sex scandal, and I for one can never get enough of seamy sex scandals.
Shaky Jake
Here’s an off-the wall question… Could this skin be transplanted on burn victim?
Probably not. Rejection of transplant organs also applies to skin grafts. They’d have to take immunosuppresants to accept the skin, maybe even more than they need for “simple” organ transplants.
Sounds like you’re right AWB. This topic was covered in the mailbag here. The straight dope from SDSTAFF Jill:
You know, I’m glad someone finally asked that question.
Three years ago, I was enormous. I mean, to hell with that Jared guy from the Subway™ commercials, I was 522 lbs.
Well, Because of my poor health, I contracted a severe case of pneumonia, and pretty much wasted away. Though I wouldn’t recommend the deathbed-weight loss technique for others, I dropped to [drum roll, please] 210 lbs.!
Man, I had so much skin that once I had it removed, I was down to 170.
Here’s where it gets interesting:
I went to get the excess skin removed, and the way it was done, it was essentially pulled taut from the top of my head. The doc sutured and clipped it, and I was good to go.
One problem.
due to the displacement effect of this treatment, I was bald with a huge scar on my head, and my navel was right in the middle of my forehead.
No problem, I just wore a hat ALL THE TIME.
Until my third date with a lovely woman, when we got back to my place.
After a few drinks, she convinced me to remove my hat.
She looked at me, puzzled, and asked, “What’s the hole in your forehead?”
[gulp] “My…bellybutton.”
“Your BELLYBUTTON?”
“Yeah. Hey, wanna see my necktie?”
I think this explains why Jared never takes off his shirt.