For those of you who may be interested (and who haven't already seen it) there is a site called realself.com which shows before and after pictures of various plastic surgeries. One part of the site is devoted to "body lifts" which people get after losing a lot of weight. Here is a link:

http://www.realself.com/Body-lift/reviews

*WARNING * - Some people have posted pictures of themselves nude, so there is definitely NSFW content on the website. The "before" pictures are probably the type that some are concerned about scaring people away from weight loss. Please bear in mind that these are the examples of people who elected to get surgery. These people are not representative of all people who have lost significant amounts of weight.

Thanks for the link!

Lost: 60+ pounds
Age at weight loss: 29-30
Number of years at high weight: 5
Weight loss surgery? No
Pregnancy stretch marks? YES!!
Fat gain stretch marks? Probably. (Combo of pregnancy and excessive weight gain.)
How long did it take you to lose the weight: 7 months, then toning
Months/Years maintaining: Almost 2 years

From the front, standing. (Flexing. Looks pretty flat. You can see my abs, but they are still covered by a pocket of skin/fat.)



From the side, standing. (Flexing, of course! The small belly bulge is just skin and wont ever go away without surgery.) Stretchmarks. (I have them covering every square inch from my calves to my hips. Only 2-3 on my belly.)




Bending. (This is my lovely "pooch" of saggy skin and fat. I have 20% body fat and you can see all my ribs when i bend over...THIS will not go away without surgery.)



Side view. (My thighs and butt have shrunk considerably, but I will always be a pear. My myriad of stretchmarks will not allow my legs to shrink any further...no more elasticity.)



My experience is that I DID shrink down, even in areas that are covered in stretchmarks. However, only my stomach has the "wrinkly" appearance, and only when sitting/bending. I've toned up quite a bit, and for me, this is as good as it gets, and I am very happy with it.

Wow you look fantastic, way to go!!

Chickiechicks, you look fantastic and I would not say you have a pooch on your stomach at all. Everyone has folds when they bend over! And look at your hot booty! Dang!! You look great!

You look amazing! I would be thrilled to look that good in a bikini.

Thanks.

I really want to show that some skin does bounce back. Not all the way, but it can. I was deathly afraid of losing weight, because I had so many stretchmarks that I was sure I would turn into a sharpei dog. I see it a lot on here, too, people being literally scared to lose weight, because of the potential skin issues.

And trust me, I hate my stomach. It is logical or justified, probably not, but we will all have our issues regardless.

I can only hope I'll look half as fantastic as you, Chickie!

I have a couple anonymous submissions I'll be posting this afternoon, but wanted to give this a bump!

I chimed in above to give my feedback, but alas -- I am not maintaining yet. I have lost 117 so far, but I have about 60 - 70 pounds to go. (I was aiming to get down to 220, but as I am losing weight, I realized that I am not going to lose all of this excess skin, and I wonder how much that actually weighs. Thus, if it weighs 15 pounds, I am wondering if it is more realistic for my goal weight to be 235). Anyway, I am not worrying about it now. The only reason why I have a "goal weight" at all is (1) because that was my lowest adult weight back when I was in college and lost 40 pounds. (I was 260 when I graduated high school); and (2) because the user profile for this website has a place to put that information. But otherwise, I really don't have any set "goal." I'll keep losing as long as I need to, and I'll stop when that happens and move to the maintenance phase.

But anyway, I digress. The purpose of this post is to inquire whether I should post any pictures of my current body state of loose skin, given that I still have almost 70 pounds left to lose. Would this be of any use or interest to anybody? I will hold back unless somebody says yes, because (1) I am not at my goal weight yet and (2) I noticed that most - maybe all - of the other people who have posted in this topic are women, so you all probably aren't interested in seeing pictures of a flabby, hairy guy with loose skin - and I don't blame you! It was disturbing to me to take the pictures! But like I said, I got 'em if anybody wants to see. Oh,and here are the statistics:

Lost: 117 pounds so far, ~68 to go until goal.
Age at weight loss: 42-43
Number of years at high weight: 20+ years over 300. A few years over 400.
Weight loss surgery? No
Pregnancy stretch marks? No! (LOL)
Fat gain stretch marks? Yes.
How long did it take you to lose the weight: 7 1/2 months so far. Still losing.
Months/Years maintaining: Not there yet.

Other factors: I have lost and gained weights exceeding 40 pounds about 3 or 4 times in the past 20 years. When I have gained the weight back, I put on an additional 30 to 40 pounds each time.

Joefla70, I think in your case, (and others in similar situations), that an "in progress" photo is fine. Might be awesome actually so that people can really SEE how skin does shrink up over time. So, as you get to goal, show that, and perhaps after maintaining too - I'm going to go amend the OP to mention that.

And, you won't be the only guy photos - I have another anonymously.

If I look like you Chickie, I'll be beyond thrilled! I'm a similar height to you and have the same target weight, so it's such an inspiration to see your pictures, thankyou!

Ok, don't say I didn't warn you!

Without further adieu, here they are:


Lost: 117 pounds so far, ~68 to go until goal.
Starting weight was 404.5. Current weight is 288.5.
Starting pant size 60. Current pant size 42.
Age at weight loss: 42-43
Number of years at high weight: 20+ years over 300. A few years over 400.
Weight loss surgery? No
Pregnancy stretch marks? No! (LOL)
Fat gain stretch marks? Yes.
How long did it take you to lose the weight: 7 1/2 months so far. Still losing.
Months/Years maintaining: Not there yet.

Other factors: I have lost and gained weights exceeding 40 pounds about 3 or 4 times in the past 20 years. When I have gained the weight back, I put on an additional 30 to 40 pounds each time.


Here is a picture of me with my new size 42 pants that I just wore for the first time today. Woo hoo!
(Although, you can see a preview of the man-boobs picture here through my shirt. Boo hoo!


Arm sag and side-chest sag:



More arm sag:



Uggh! Ok, prepare yourselves for... hairy man-boobs! This is what I warned you about! Oh, and side chest sag too:



Gut:




Ok, ladies and gentlemen, as bad as these pictures are, I assure that the before pictures were worse. Sure, there wasn't as much sag, but where there wasn't sag, THERE WAS FAT! So, I'll take the sag because of the fact that I can fit my comparatively less-fat a$$ into size 42 pants now, rather than the size 60 pants that I was wearing last year. More importantly, I feel better ... physically and mentally -- knowing that I am doing something great not only for myself, but for my wife and children. The main reason for doing this was so that I can be around - and be healthy - for as long as possible!

Melissa... I think I scared people away from this thread with my pics! LOL!

You are doing great, Joefla!! And you look so happy today in your new pants!! Thanks so much for sharing, I give you and everyone else so much credit.