Excess Skin
 

I know I will be probably the 1000th person to post about this but, It's making me so unhappy. I've lost over 90 pounds. I weight 230 pounds when I gave birth and a little over a year later I am 139 pounds. I'm SO proud of myself but, there's all the extra stretched out skin on my stomach.

I'm 24 years old and I used to have an amazing body and perfect big breasts. Now they are saggy too. I'll probably never be able to afford excess skin surgery or a breast lift (Over 10K) I just want to feel sexy like I should.

I just can't and my boyfriend is trying to be supportive but, I made him be honest with me and he agrees that its all excess skin. I was wanting to strive for 120 pounds and I probably still will.

I've been doing p90x lately and its been building up a lot of muscle and I'm hoping that some extreme ab and upper body exercises will lift it some.

I would put a picture up but, I just joined so I can't.

I am really worried about this problem myself GeekMom. I'm twenty three and when I reach goal I'll be 90+ pounds down. I look forward to being thinner, but I have seen people honest-to-goodness look worse after significant weightloss and it scares me!

Some thoughts:

I know a lady who lost a lot of weight, and she says her skin tightened up a good bit after a year or two. *fingers crossed*

Get your body fat % checked. There's a chance that there's still some fat making loose skin look worse. Loose skin is really thin. Your plan to build muscle sounds like a good one.

Take good care of yourself and be proud of yourself! You've accomplished so much, and you've got a beautiful kid.

I hope others who've got more experience can post with encouragement/info.

I would love to post some encouraging words, but alas, it would be lying. I have lost just about 110 lbs. total. The worst spot for my loose skin is on the upper back part of my legs. My stomach has tightened up in the past 6 months, but my legs look like melted candle wax and feel like pizza dough. I can't even shave the back of my legs because the razor just gets stuck in all the skin. Eeewww....gross, I know. That's the best way I can describe it.

What bothers me the most is that I almost always wear running tights rather than shorts when I'm running, no matter what the temperature. I don't have any chafing, but I can't stand to think of someone seeing me from behind with all of that loose skin.

Everyone says "you should be thrilled, you've lost all that weight". It's hard to feel thrilled. Although, I can fit in small sizes now and can at least hide the loose skin with clothing. I appreciate the fact that my husband doesn't hide the truth from me. I wouldn't want him to say that my skin is smooth and beautiful. I'm not blind, I can see. However, he says that even though I have loose skin, he still loves me and thinks I'm beautiful. As far as being embarrassed during sex, I am somewhat, but he doesn't care. I am very thankful that I have a spouse who is sensitive to my feelings, but doesn't lie to me.

Things are rarely perfect in this imperfect life. But we have the choice of focusing on the positive or focusing on the negative. Whichever choice you make, you will greatly change your experience of everything.
I have some loose skin and do not want surgery (it goes against everything I believe in to cut myself up and risk my life in the name of vanity). So the only solution is acceptance and gratitude. I have a wonderful, 125 lb lighter, physically fit and healthy body. If there are some loose bits or jiggly pieces, so what. Life is about a lot more than having a "perfect" body- regardless of what they try to feed us through popular media. Ragging on yourself will not help. Try to focus on the positives and let the negatives roll on by.

I have the same issue. I have lost some weight, but I still have a ways to go. I'm worried by the time I have lost all the weight, that my skin will be saggy.

60 pounds lost and I notice that my stomach is all saggy skin right now. I was just talking about this with my fiancee because I've been working hard on my abs and I was laying down with him and poking my stomach. There was muscle hidden there underneath a layer of excess skin! :joker: He felt it too!

I sort of have hope that it might go away. I had the same thing with my arms where I had the excess skin but could feel the muscle I had been working on underneath. Now there's very little extra skin (actually I think it's just a little bit of fat now) and I can see the muscle definition I've been working so hard for!

I'm hoping that with a little more fat loss and some more strength training that what I think is extra skin will at least lessen, but I'm prepared for it to not do that, unfortunately.

For reference, I'm 23 and never had kids. So I suppose I'm just genetically unlucky.

Thanks girls. I don't want false hope. My boyfriend doesn't lie to me either I mean he isn't rude about it.

I'm hoping it does tone up but, you girls are right. I need to be positive about my weight loss. I'm starting to really love my body. I think I need to stop being over critical on myself.

I'm 28 and have lost about 185 lbs. At just under 5'5" I have been having loose skin issues too. I've been working with my doctor to look into options, because it's causing a few medical issues including the skin actually tearing and both she and a surgeon she referred me to recommended surgery. In the mean time I'm focusing on loosing more weight (I have about 30-40 until my goal) and toning. I've definitely noticed that toning does seem to help but so does time. I've maintained my current weight (175-185) for about a year now and I've seen seen the skin start to snap back.

Magpie PDX
 

MagpiePDX - Your weight loss is absolutely wonderful!!!! I am quite a bit older than you....64 and have 150 to lose and have lost 45 so far. You are so smart to do it at your young age. Part of me is wishing I did it when I was younger but happy I am losing even now.

You must be like a new person! Keep up the great work

Chubby G

PS: I am a grandma and my dream is to get down on the floor and ply with my 3 grand kids!

that is an awesome goal.

When I was around your age, I lost 90 pounds and faced a similar issue. I did lots of research and what I came up with was to moisturizer and massage those areas (to stimulate circulation and help break down any remaining fat deposits) and to do a lot of yoga poses that would help smoothe things out (you can pm me if you want more info on poses). After a few months, I saw a big improvement.

This time around, I know that as I am in my late thirties and have stretched and unstretched my skin so many times, I have to be realistic about my skin's elasticity. Still, I am massaging trouble areas with bio-oil and doing yoga to try to help as my body (hopefully) shrinks.

Thanks Lainee...It doesn't matter when you do it...just that you do it :)

Sounds like you're well on your way to your goals. Playing with your grand kids is a great goal.

I don't know if any of y'all have heard of this, but BeautiControl has a product that is SUPPOSED to "fix" cellulite, loose skin, etc. I've ordered it, but I haven't gotten mine yet. It's one of those "it-looks-too-good-to-be-true" things, so it probably is.

Although, I will say, I talked to a girl who HAS actually used it and she said that it worked on the cellulite on the front of her legs as well as the lasar treatments she had on the backs of her legs.

I think the real name of it is, sculpt, or something, but if you google "skinny butt beauticontrol" it will pull it up.

I'm not sure how true this link is but it was a VERY interesting read about the myth around loose skin.

http://www.bodyfatguide.com/LooseSkin.htm

InsideMe: that's a great link, but I don't know if I totally buy his theory....
Check out these two stories (which you've probably already read at some time in the past :) ) to see why:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/509459-post5.html

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/593338-post6.html