Excess Skin - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

badassgrl · 12-04-2005, 08:19 PM

I've heard that you can avoid some excess skin if you apply Vit E to your Skin Daily. Just wanted to pass the tip along!

lessofsarahtolove · 12-04-2005, 09:31 PM

I think it would be great if you were right, but this long-standing thread over at the Maintainers forum tells a different story. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

But I'm sure the Vitamin E couldn't hurt, though -- let us know if it helps!

icedragon6669 · 12-04-2005, 09:58 PM

I too seem to think it won't really help, the only thing to do is wait a while (12 months after weightloss is a good time) and see how much the skin tightens back up (some of it will go, but not all) then the ONLY other way is to consider plastic surgery! I am sorry to say the damage we all have done to ourselves through obesity is here to stay! If only i had of considered the side effects before become a fat blob! LOL!

badassgrl · 12-04-2005, 11:16 PM

Ahh well, I tried. A girl I know used it and her skin firmed up and it lessened the apperance of stretch marks. She lost 196lbs, SO????

Heather · 12-04-2005, 11:55 PM

Just because her skin was firmer and stretch marks lighter doesn't mean it was the vitamin E that caused it. Perhaps that was just how she ended up after her weight loss... or a lot of other possibilities.

lucky · 12-05-2005, 02:40 PM

I have some excess skin from carrying the twins. For the first couple of years I never did any thing about it despite how awful it looked. Just this past year, after losing a decent amount of weight I started applying lotion to my stomach (something I've never done). The excess skin didn't magically disappear or anything like that but the lotion has improved the appearence of my stomach which, in turn, makes the exess skin SEEM better.

I agree with the others that Vitamin E oil or anything else isn't going to minimize loose skin if you have it. But, if you are like me and have never moisturized a particular area then lotion, oil, whatever, may make a noticeable improvement in how the skin looks.

JunebugMcCaffrey · 12-06-2005, 01:43 AM

But is there anything we can do to minimize the excess sking as we lose? About 7 years ago I got down to 200 and had minimal excess skin -- but now that I've been all the way up to 295 -- AND older -- wonder how much excess I'll have -- I'm gonig to lose it anyway. I have two friends who tell me they don't want to lose weight because of the all the excess skin they will have. I figure if I have too much loose skin -- I'll just hide it in my clothes -- to bad I couldn't make a pocket out of it or something -- you know, like a carry along pocket or someting -- imagine when you'd reach down to dig for loose change -- people would wonder WHAT you are doing!!!!!!! hahahaha -- sorry, just needed a laff after facing the scary thing about maybe having too much loose skin when I'm done.

Oh, does exercise help to tighten up the skin?

ChocLabLover · 12-06-2005, 10:45 AM

I think a lot of different factors apply with respect to loose skin. Age (Huge factor), how long you have been carrying the extra weight, etc.,

lessofsarahtolove · 12-06-2005, 11:08 AM

That link I posted above is to a thread in which so much information is supplied on this topic. Bottom line: it just is what it is. There are so many factors that impact the degree to which each of us will experience this, and almost all of them are just simply out of our control. I will say that I just canNOT imagine declining all the benefits of weight loss in favor of nic smooth (for now) skin stretched across my big belly! That's just crazy talk, in my book! That stomach is going to sag and become a big apron eventually, like it or not.....the years take their toll.

I like Junebug's suggestion of turning it into a pocket!! Like a kangaroo pouch! That's HILARIOUS!

I swear, I think I'm going to chuckle about that for the rest of the day.......

barbygirl43 · 12-06-2005, 12:26 PM

I used to worry about this and was of the same I would rather be fat than have sagging skin. As Sarah is always reminding us, life is short. I would rather be skinny with a ton of extra skin and know I can fit in a roller coaster than be as fat as I am and have to tell my kids that Mommy's going to sit this one out.
We have several members here who have lost a ton of weight and do have excess skin (bioaby-beverly and dowsx4-julie). I'm sure they'll tell you their loose skin (which can be tucked into clothes) is way better than it all filled out and complete with aches, pains and possibly diabetes or high blood pressure.
It's something we each have to come to terms with. I know realistically I'll never have one of those bodies that will look smoking in a two-piece but my body doesn't look smoking in a two piece now.

boiaby · 12-06-2005, 01:55 PM

Quote:

I'm sure they'll tell you their loose skin (which can be tucked into clothes) is way better than it all filled out and complete with aches, pains and possibly diabetes or high blood pressure. It's something we each have to come to terms with.

Precisely. Loose skin, especially if you've been morbidly obese for a long period of time, really is just a fact of life in most cases. There are those lucky ones whose skin seems to just "bounce back" but I don't know any of 'em, and I'm certainly not one, so I'm going with what I know. And what I know is that I have loose skin, a lot of it, and it's not going away on it's own, period. It's a hard pill to swallow after working your butt off (literally), but what can you do other than learn to accept it and be thankful to have your life back, or be willing to fork out a whole lotta $$$ to have it removed. And lemme tell ya, if I had it to spare, I'd have surgery in a heartbeat! But for now, clothes will cover it, I can fit into an airplane/movie theater/restaurant booth/amusement park seat and keep up with my dd, and I'm no longer facing any obesity induced complications or diseases. Plus, I really wasn't planning on parading around in a bikini anyway,

so, all in all, I say yup, it's worth it, no question.

Beverly

howie6267 · 12-06-2005, 02:49 PM

Well I've got plenty of skin. However I had a lot of skin that sagged when I was 200 lbs heavier too. My belly hung over my arms had bat wings. So as far as is it worth it? **** yes! How could it not be worth it. I have the same skin issues but I don't have all the health risk and I feel and look so much better. Kimberley is the only one that is going to see me naked and she she is fine with that. Even if you don't have a special someone at this point in life. I'm willing to bet when you find that person if they love you it's not going to matter one bit that you have some extra skin hanging around.

YP1 · 12-06-2005, 03:18 PM

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones in that 86lb down I've not run into real skin problems yet. It could be that my skin has shrunk as much as it will, and that with every extra pound I lose now it gets looser, or I could just be lucky.

There is no hard and fast rule, and you won't know unless you try. I hadn't really thought about it before I started to lose, but once I saw people talking about it I tried to put it to the back of my mind as something that I'd deal with if and when it happened. I would far rather lose the weight first then see how much it bothers me than assuming that it's going to be horrendous and never finding out.

I exercise a lot, but I think the thing I benefit from is that I'm fairly young and that means that, although I've been fat for most of my life, I wasn't huge for that long comparatively speaking.

I do wear a bikini, and always have done. I wear it for my comfort rather than other people's visual enjoyment, and if they don't like it they can look away

badassgrl · 12-06-2005, 04:15 PM

Well I'm 23 yrs old So I'm hopeful that everything will go back to some degree. I've only been this big for a couple years. Before that I was always 220. About 65lbs over weight.... So I'm not sure if I will have MASSIVE amounts of excess skin or not. I just want to be thin, And If I do have the excess skin I can always opt to have it taken off.

taekwondomom · 12-07-2005, 01:28 AM

After losing amost 70 lbs, I have some loose skin, mainly on my tummy. I have a shelf of skin and fat below my breasts that hangs over my belly button and protrudes out way farther than my 'lower gutt' so it looks like I'm wearing pants that are two sizes too small even when my pants are too big. I really hate it. And if I wear a really baggy shirt, it looks like I'm 7 or 8 months pregnant. If I ever have the extra $$$ I'm totally having it fixed!