I've lost 55 lbs. My arm are flabby stomach is going down and a little saggy. But it's my legs. They are getting smaller and I'm exercising but it's the cottage cheese and sagging. Even when I lose all the weight I want to I will never be able to wear shorts with them looking like this. Any body have any solutions.

Are you lifting weights throughout your loss? That can help maintain muscle tone while you're losing and to the end.

No munchy I have not. I jog on mini trampoline and then do floor exercise. Don't have a bench or anything. Any natural suggestions. Things I could use at home?

Squats and lunches are great exercises to build muscle. You could do modified push ups, tricep dips on a chair or couch. You can google or look up on youtube "body weight exercises", there's tons of them. No need for a gym either. If you start needing weights you can you canned goods, gallons of milk/water/laundry detergent. There are all kinds of things you can do!

Surgery may be the best solution if you dont want to add muscle to fill out the excess skin

I agree with LockItUp, squats and lunges are great. Also you could try single legged pistons (or pistol as some people call them). Those are some of the things I have done with my trainer for leg exercises that don't need a gym or equipment but really get my legs sore and stronger.

Believe me when I say that muscle is your friend. I'm not quite sure what women have against gaining muscle. It is not jiggly, squishy or unattractive in any way. And yet women everywhere are afraid of "bulking up." If it was that easy to do, every random guy in the gym would look like Arnold. But they don't. Because it's difficult to add a ton of muscle, especially if you don't have a man's testosterone. Muscle is sleek, sexy and makes you strong! Look to add more muscle to your body and you will be happy- guaranteed!

Ditto on building muscle. When you lose weight, 20% of that is muscle so it's very important to strength train to build it up. Squats and lunges go a long way. There are tons of exercises for the legs. And don't worry about bulking up...that'll only happen if you're eating an insane amount of calories and lifting weight like a madwoman.

Thank you for the tips. I have been doing some leg lifts and other floor exercise but I will have to step it up. Hope this smoothes out my cellulite.

I don't want to be the one to throw cold water on anyone's hopes, but sagging skin is a fact of life with big weight loss and especially in those of us who aren't in our 30's anymore. I posted in one of your earlier threads that we have a lot in common. I'm over 60 and had been at 250+ for 25 years or so. I exercise several days a week now and was at the gym almost every day while I was actively trying to lose. Mostly group fitness - heavy on the cardio, with some strength training and body sculpting exercises thrown in. I would use the machines a couple times a week, too. I stopped short of my 100 pound goal because of saggy skin. I'm perfectly happy - at least for now - with being the size and shape I am. Yes, I'd love to be a bit smaller, but I'd rather feel comfortable in shorts and tees, and losing more right now would make that uncomfortable.

Building muscle is a way to fill out saggy skin when you are close to your goal. But if you fill out the skin that's sagging, you might still be bigger than you want to be, even if you are healthier than if you were the same size and weight with more fat and less muscle. Skin will possibly tighten up a bit after you stop losing. Or we might be stuck with what we have. If our skin is only going to snap back to a certain point, no amount of exercise will change that. Strength training that builds muscle will fill the skin out with muscle instead of fat, but our skin is still a certain size. Here's how I think of it: My body now fits into size 10 or 12 jeans. If I filled out my saggy skin with muscle or fat, either one, my body would probably fit into size 14 jeans. My skin is size 14, so to speak, and no matter what it's filled with, it's still size 14. It would be way better to have it filled out with muscle, but my skin is still that size.

Eating right and getting enough rest, moisturizing, waiting - all these might help your skin to tighten up, but you don't lose skin as you lose weight. For me, there had to be a happy medium in being healthy and looking the way I wanted to look. I've said all along that one of the advantages to losing at my age is my lack of desire to look "smoking hot." I wouldn't wear a bikini even if I weighed 115 pounds, and many other styles for younger people aren't going to work for me. And for most people, naked at 60 isn't the same as naked at 30, no matter how much we want to think it should be if we weigh the same.

I hope you'll continue to eat well and exercise. You're 10 years younger than I am, so hopefully your skin is more elastic. As the weight comes off, I know you'll notice many changes. And you'll notice them for a long time after you stop losing. But skin will only go back as much as your DNA allows. Good luck.

Lin

^^^ yeah I'm with her! Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but after losing a ton of weight chances are you're not going to have a perfect body. But so what? You'll still look way better in clothes, oh and NOT DIE young!!!

You might luck out, have skin that snaps back ok. I was lucky, it's not terrible. It's not smooth and perfect either but I'm ok with that. Pilates and yoga really helps elongate and shape the muscles too.

Best of luck but don't ever let something like this stop you from continuing on your way.

I knew that I would have sagging skin but was just surprised that when my legs got smaller they tripled in cellulite. I will never stop trying to lose this weight. Can't look left or right only forward. Can't go back either. Thanks for the support. I will keep exercising and try to be patient.

I'd also like to chime in that age doesn't necessarily help anyway, so wishing one was younger doesn't always help

Signed,
the 24 year old with loose skin who weight trains.

I've also heard that even though the skin sags, it continues to shrink as you lose weight, even a couple years after you hit a maintenance weight. I know I'll never be miss 20-year-old firm again, but with added muscle and lots of time, I trust my skin to sag a little less than it does now (and I'm only at 50-some pounds gone).

It happens. My legs are a little dimply but I don't care. It looks much better than it did when I carried around 100 extra lbs!

http://www.amazon.com/Nivea-Body-Goo.../dp/B000O5MCPW I use this Nivea gel when I want to wear shorts. It really smooths things out, though temporarily.

I was at the mall this morning and made it a point to check out people's legs. There was not a single person, in shorts, with perfect legs. I never noticed before... everyone's got a little cottage cheese! It's no big deal .