Meg---

I have never seen a visual of fat vs. muscle...just heard about. I am sooo glad that you posted that picture!! For some reason... it put a whole new perspective on my exercising routine!! Makes me want to work at it even more!!

Thank you so much!! I'm going to share this with friends if you don't mind!!

Thank you again.

Marti

scoob - may I offer my opinion that particular doctor is full of.....incorrect information

If one eats proper nutrition, but limits the calories, so the body draws on the excess fat for energy; and one exercises both aerobically and with weights, eventually that body is going to look great!! It might take months...and be a "work in progress" for many months more....but there will be major improvement. Unless I'm totally ingorant of any medical condition that might prove me wrong on this...?

I just think it's very irresponsible for someone in the medical field to flatly state that plastic surgery is the only alternative

Hi Scoob! About the excess skin issue …. there’s a lot of factors that figure in to how your skin is going to look when you get to your ideal weight. Some are your age (skin is more elastic when you’re younger), how overweight you were, genetics, sun exposure, pregnancies, how long you were overweight etc. No one can tell you for sure what you’ll look like until you get there.

Holly has good advice for you: exercising with weights, cardio, and good nutrition will certainly help your skin tighten up as you lose the fat layer underneath. Building some muscle also helps fill up some of the loose skin.

But once the underlying layer of the skin is broken — not just stretched — through fat or pregnancy, it can’t snap back regardless of how much you exercise or how much fat you lose or water you drink. If that’s the case, then you have a choice of living with the skin (and it usually can be covered up nicely with clothes) or having it removed through plastic surgery (like a tummy tuck).

I had a whole lot more to lose than you do and yes, I did end up with a lot of excess skin problems, despite good nutrition, a lot of exercise as I was losing, and getting down to 13% body fat. I’ve chosen to go the plastic surgery route and am very pleased with the results.

Scoob, my advice to you is not to worry about the skin now. Wait until you’re at your goal for a while and then decide if your pouch bothers you or not. Unfortunately, we can’t spot reduce fat or exercise to tighten up skin, so just keep on with what you’re doing. It sounds like it’s working well for you.

Hi there

I just wanted to second everything that Meg stated and tell you my experiences. I lost about 45 pounds of fat through the magic trinity of nutrition, cardio and weightlifting. My highest weight was about 176, just like Vermont Mom's. I've kept the weight off for 2 1/2 years and still eat the same and workout the same as when I was losing. I lift HEAVY, and eat a bodybuilder's diet.

I have dreadful skin problems on my abdomen and have since a 60 lb pregnancy when I was 27. I'm 49 now. The skin looks like an old deflated balloon with that crepey, shredded under the surface look. There is no cure for this other than surgery. Which I will have when I can afford it and figure out a time that I can be out of commission for a while. I spent many years wondering what I was doing wrong. Why did my stomach look like that when others had lost more weight and didn't seem to have any problem? So yes, there is a medical condition which can cause skin to not shrink. The underlying layers of elastin are torn.

Despite the skin, which drives me wild, losing the weight was well worth it. Like Meg, I weigh considerably more that people think. At 135 lbs, I wear a size 4 jeans, thanks to replacing bulky fat with much more compact and attractive muscle.

Mel

Gotta throw in my two cents with Meg here out of personal experience.

I also believed - not so long ago - that as long as I worked out (weights and cardio) drank a lot of pure water, ate clean food and took supplements, that my skin would just magically 'tighten up'. (remember, I have lost over 100 pounds and kept it off during the past 14 years). It's basically a genetic crap shoot; some people are lucky, or don't have that much weight to lose, or are still young, etc. and the skin has a better chance of 'tightening up' after weight loss. However, Meg and I are amongst the many, MANY people who weren't 'that lucky'. Incidentally, my baby sister (who has never been overweight) has stretched-out skin on her abdomen from two pregancies (her children are ages 12 and 8, and she does work out). She is thinking of having a TT at some point...especially after seeing my results

I just had a tummy tuck six weeks ago, after realizing that the pooch of skin and fat cells was never going to go away by itself. I must say that even this early on, I'm quite pleased with the results; however, I know that not everyone wants to do plastic surgery. It's definitely an option, but it's a personal choice. I would suggest that if you DO go the plastic surgery route, that you get to your goal weight and maintain it for at least 6 months or more before proceeding - if there's a shot of your skin 'tightening up' it will happen then.

Bottom line - it's a personal choice - the important thing is to lose the weight and keep it off through permanent lifestyle changes. If you still have loose skin and it really bugs you (like it did me), then it couldn't hurt to do some research. There is a lot of good info out there - one of the sites I recommend is www.tuckthattummy.com - you might want to check it out...

And there are a lot of threads here about the topic of loose/extra skin - here's the big one:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...highlight=Skin

I would never consider a tummy tuck unless I had achieved my goal weight. Right now I don't have any loose skin just a slightly sagging gut. The doctor said that my stomach muscles were totally stretched out of shape causing the sag but it seems to me that it's just squishy fat. I know the loose skin is coming though because my stomach is starting to get that crinkley look. You know I can never understand how all these celebrity moms come right back with flat stomachs and no stretch marks. Some of them have to be going the plastic surgery route. I know of course that their careers depend on their looks so they must workout like demons but I saw a Shania Twain video the other night and the woman must have a 15 inch waist and no stretch marks! It must have been hard for some of you guys to lose all that amazing weight and then have to deal with loose skin. I wonder why this loose skin thing isn't brought up more. I can't imagine how many people are dealing with it.

Don't dwell too long on stressing over the looks of the rich and famous in videos and pictures... air brush and fuzzy lens covers all sins and wrinkles and other surfacey perceived 'imperfections'!

Embarassed face for me! I guess I was ignorant about the fact of elastin being damaged...I apologize for making a statement when I didn't have all the information. I was thinking that the physician was just making a case for surgery. Sorry, ladies!

Meg and Mrs. Jim are trophy ladies for eating right and exercising right...and keeping it up for life!

This is the exact thing that I am dealing with...the sagging belly. I hope and pray that with a diet plan and exercise that I will be able to tighten it up, but I will wait and see how it all pans out. I am working on the body ball and doing ab work and I can feel it, so hopefully that is a step in the right direction Tight jeans doesn't necessarily hide it unfortunately, it is still visible and I dislike the look on me. Sooo I am striving to make it better...one step at a time!

Jodi

It definitely sounds like exercise is the problem, especially if she "jiggles" all over and just looks flabby. Exercise can also even out your look if you are a pear or an apple. My proportions have changed dramatically since I started my current program-- I'm not pear-shaped anymore. But there is a limit to what exercise can do-- it can't fix your skeletal proportions. I have narrow shoulders, a short distance between the hip bone and pelvis (short-waisted), relatively long legs. That's just the way it is. Your friend may have some such inherent proportional problem, which might very well improve with exercise, but it may not be possible to eliminate the problem completely. Nothing in this world is going to give me broad coat-hanger shoulders and slim hips. But I can improve the flaws and emphasize the assets, certainly. Your friend can do the same.

And BTW, while I do agree that most women will never "bulk up" if they lift weights, a few do. I have PCO and a lot of testosterone, in fact I'm taking a testosterone-blocker medication. I can get muscle just thinking about weights, lol! But even so, I'd rather have muscle than fat. To me, muscle just feels better than fat. So maybe I will never be an ultra-feminine delicate ballerina type, but I can strive for "Amazon goddess." (Note to self: do ab work tomorrow and check out Demi Moore in G.I. Jane for inspiration.)

That's exactly what happened to me - not only the saggy skin but the stomach muscles being stretched out - my surgeon went in and did a 'muscle repair' which is often part of a full tummy tuck - she just sewed the muscles up like lacing a corset together. I now have THE LINE - you know, the definition line that runs between the six-pack - and I can tell I'm less than 10 pounds away (plus it's only been six weeks since my surgery - it takes six months or more for the *final* results to appear - eeek! ) from actually seeing a six pack - not that a six-pack was my goal - I just wanted to get rid of that pooch - even at a size four pre-op, I still had that hangy 'pooch' of skin...I would grab it every morning and evening in disgust...as far as the stretch marks - my PS says I was pretty fortunate as all my torso stretch marks were located under my belly button but the skin between my BB and breast line was in great shape - all the stretch marks got cut off Just today, I started really lifting again for the first time since my surgery and one of the 'regular' guys actually yelled at me from across the gym that I was "lookin' good" and said my waist looked tiny... felt pretty good because he didn't know (until I told him right then) that I had had surgery...

And the question as to WHY the loose skin thing isn't brought up more? Well...it IS coming up more and more - I think that the boom in weight-loss surgery is responsible for at least part of it, since those folks tend to lose a huge amount of weight in a relatively short time period and end up with massive loose skin issues...also that so many of us (I know I was one of this number) see those "Before and after" fatburner and supplement adverts (i.e. Hydroxycut, etc.) where the after photos show tight, taut skin...many of us gals who were or are fat tend to think beforehand that we'll end up like the 'after' photos (not being aware that most of those women in the ads are professional fitness models who might have had a baby or gained a great amount of weight for other reasons, even for the purpose of doing the ad!).

Not to mention the popularity of the "Extreme Makeover" (which BTW I have only watched once - I'm usually in bed by 9:00 - 9:15 pm) and the plastic surgery shows on the Discovery channels (I do enjoy watching those). Cosmetic/reconstructive surgery is transforming from a medical procedure only available to the wealthy and famous to becoming more and more mainstream. Lord knows, I didn't get my TT and lipo to become a fitness model or fit into society or attract men or even to please my husband (he was happy with me the way I was, but he admits to being THRILLED with the results now!) - I did this for myself...and it was worth every penny!

I have 20 pounds to go to reach goal 130 Ibs. I'm not too worried about a little loose skin I just want the speed bump to disappear. I never was a bikini or thong wearer so as long as everything looks okay under clothes I won't sweat it. If I have on anything form fitting like a dress, I have worn stomach support underwear and everything looked okay.I think! I do "grab it" everyday and think about it everyday so if I can't lose it $7000 for a tummy tuck would be money well spent. The thing that cheeses me off though is that I always had a flat stomach. My problem used to just be too much butt. Even at 125 Ibs. I still had a large butt. Now it's butt and gut! I have to admit I love Extreme Makeover! I have no problem with anyone having plastic surgery if it's going to make them feel better about themselves. People who haven't had to live with a huge nose, ears that stick out a mile or a sagging gut etc. don't realize what fixing these problems can do for a persons self confidence and that definately is not a superficial thing!