Sagging vs toned skin
 

What has been everyone's experience in regards to their skin elasticity? With a lot of quick weight loss, skin seems to get saggy, but that doesn't seem to be the case with IP. Any thoughts?

I think this is very individual. It depends on your age, how big you are, how much sun exposure you have had, how much muscle tone you have. I will say that my abs look much better on this than when I was down to the same weight on weight watchers and I am doing the same amount of core work, if anything a little less because I am 12 years older with sever arthritis.

Also, remember:
We have control over muscle tone/definition.
Not-so-much with skin. You can't exercise-away saggy skin. You can tone muscle under it, you can lose fat under it but skin is gonna do what skin is gonna do

Personally, I think people spend way too much time worrying about this. It is out of our control (other than plastic surgery).
Like I tell my preschoolers: you get what you get and don't throw a fit.

I was advised to drink one of the grenata (sp?) drinks every other day or eat a jello pack every other day to help with the skin issue.

My kids have always been told "you get what you get and you don't get upset!"

I've called it quits on worrying about my skin. I've tried to lose slightly slower to give it a bit of a break but I learned through pregnancy and applying 100 different creams that ultimately, there's no real way to prevent what's going to happen.

Quite honestly, I'll take some sagging skin over 100+ extra pounds on my body any day. I can camouflage the sagging skin (thank you spanx!) but there is no way to camouflage that much extra weight.

with any rapid weight loss, you'll see sagging skin. I understand your worry about it because my main goal is to wear a two piece. You just have to be realistic in what will happen to your body when you loose large amounts of weight. Be proactive during your losses. Drink tons of water, moisturize a lot, workout (helps tone the muscles) and eat the proteins with collagen protein in it a couple times a week. Like others have said, we can't control our skin. It's our largest body organ. Give it time. It's held onto your weight for a while and needs time. It may never. I've had the conversation with my doctor and parents about a tummy tuck but that will only happen after I give my body time to recover!

I don't think this is evidence-based, just something that sounds like a good idea and probably won't hurt. Mostly, it sells more packets for IP :D

my coach told me that they use different types of protein in different packets. Soy protein being their main source. They do have a 'collagen' protein that they use in the jello, granata drink and chicken noodle soup. My coach hasn't been amazing with everything she tells me, but I do believe this to be true.

It is true those have collagen (and the strawberry-banana RTD has collagen, as well)
However, the evidence I believe mars was referring to was whether consuming collagen actually makes a difference for your skin or not.

Sadly I don't care for the jello (or regular jello prior to ip) and the aftertaste of the grenata drink is not pleasant for me... I'm looking forward to giving the strawberry banana a try though!

My trainer and my doctors (GP and derma) have been adamant that I chill out about my skin for at least 6 months after reaching goal. My trainer has worked out a program to tone me and build tighter muscles everywhere (what use to be my 'bubble butt' is now several folds hanging over the back of my thighs, sigh). I treat myself to facials once every 8-12 weeks, and had some age spot removal right after Xmas and my dermatologist said she wouldn't discuss anything like fillers or botox or surgery with me until it'd been 6 months. So I'm chilling and just hydrating, using oils and creams, exfoliating and committing to my exercise and weight-lifting. The good/bad thing about IP is you lose consistently and fast, for the most part so we need to give our bodies time to catch up.

Like some extra skin is a worry for me. I'm drinking one of the drinks that contains collagen and doing some weight training in hopes of avoiding tons of loose skin.

I think any collagen cream is total BS. It's been debunked many times before. Unless there is something new, it's a waste of money unless you really enjoy those packets. But that's just me.

The last time I went in to visit my dermatologist, I decided to get the answer to the skin issue from the source, as I am supposing I am going to have a lot of loose skin when this is all done! (already do!)

He summed it up by saying there is no miracle cure for loose skin. He also said how much of a chance skin has of bouncing back depends on how overweight a person was and how long they were at the higher weight along with age. (This was true of me when I was 25 years old I lost 65 pounds and my skin shrunk with me just fine, not so this time around!) He said no collagen product was going to be the answer. He told me when I get to the weight I want to be, I have to maintain that weight for a year and then I would be a candidate for skin removal surgery.

I am not worried about loose skin at this point. I will gladly trade in my fat for some loose skin! But I will cross that final bridge when I get there.

Still, the allure of the collagen products if they will do ANYTHING is tempting, and I do use them on occasion.