Hhmm, wasn't sure how to put that! So I was telling a friend that I wanted to lose about 10 more pounds. While she thankfully didn't say, oh, you're so skinny already, she did say not to lose so much that my face would get all sunken in and wrinkly. Frankly, I'm a little concerned about that. My cheeks are looking a bit sunken, although I prefer to look at it like my cheekbones are now more prominent! I am a fanatic about skin care, and I know I don't have as many wrinkles as my sister did at my age (54). Since I don't dye my hair, nobody is ever going to mistake me for a 40 year old, but I would like to maintain a reasonable-looking face, and not one that's drawn and sunken. So far I don't have any issues with excess skin, which I'm tremendously thankful for.

So I'm just wondering if anyone had a problem with wrinkles and sunken faces as they lost weight? While I'm not even sure if my body will let me get to the weight I secretly hope to get to, I would like to try. And if I lose it, I sure don't want to gain it back just so my face looks better. If I'm going to work hard to get there, I want to be able to maintain it!

Ha - I appreciate your delicate word choice. I guess "mature" beats some of the alternatives.

I was 46 - 47 when I lost weight and my problem was with too much leftover skin more than wrinkles or a sunken appearance. My formerly plump cheeks ended up piled into masses of creases (like pleats!) and my formerly chubby neck developed a truly horrendous turkey wattle. Because of the piles of excess skin, I looked gaunt - that was the word that everyone used. Not wrinkly or sunken, just gaunt.

I'd stand in front of the mirror and pull the skin back and it looked so much better! So I had it fixed when I did the lower body lift in 2003.

In your case, Sheila, you've already lost almost every bit of weight that you plan to lose, so it's hard to imagine that ten extra pounds will change your face much from where it is now. If you're OK with your face after such a stupendous weight loss, I doubt that ten pounds will make a huge difference. It seems much more likely that the ten pounds of fat will come off some other area of your body than your face.

I don't know how mature I am, but I am aging rapidly it appears. I'm in my late 30s and have chicken neck and parentheses around my mouth when I smile, plus lots of little wrinkles. My skin is also a lot dryer now. I was pretty much wrinkle free before I lost the weight, and it came on when I was near my maintenance weight. I can only imagine it will get worse as continue to mature!

But I agree with Meg, 10 more pounds shouldn't make much of a difference.

Anne

Well, I am very fortunate that my neck didn't take a beating with my weight loss at all. It's perfectly in tact. The only wrinkles I have developed when I lost the weight, all right make that the only wrinkles I have developed - on my face - are those parenthesis lines on the sides of my mouth. And oddly enough one side is deeper then the other. They were definitely not there before - and now - they definitely ARE. I suppose they were there for years now, but was being plumped up and filled up by the fat.

Sheila, I'd have to agree. I think you're home safe! Whatever was going to happen has most likely happened and another 10 lbs shouldn't affect that.

I'm in denial about wrinkles. Some folks tell me that when I'm in the bottom range of my chosen weight ... I do look drawn. But I don't know how I would have wrinkled if I was still heavy.
I choose to believe it was gonna happen anyway. My Mom is softly wrinkly at 77 ...
It's the bony chest I'm afraid of. Ya know how some aging actresses insist on still wearing strapless and look positively skeletal through the chest and knobby shoulders?
That was pretty negative and I apologize

If you are eating the right fats and other nutrients, then your skin will be properly nourished, and that helps. Drinking enough water helps also.

My face is now thinner than when I was obese, and I imagine it will get a bit thinner when I lose more. But it seems fine! I look younger in some ways, actually. I don't look drawn as long as I get enough nutrients while losing. I start to look drawn and pale if I don't get enough of the right foods and forget to take my vitamins. That's just me, though.

Sometimes when people tell overweight friends not to lose more weight, they have to come up with a reason, and "You'll look old and wrinkled" is an easy one. Don't worry about it! The weight you have to lose will likely come off elsewhere. In my case, most of my fat is around my midsection, so my face, arms, and legs got thinner first.

Jay

Well, I'm *only* 35 but I did notice something new crop up when I lost weight. While I like the appearance of my face better overall (I have good cheekbones), I notice that my neck is a teensy bit turkey-ish (where it was just filled with fat) and I have a little bit more indentation next to my mouth when I smile. I'm hoping that with continued careful skin care, that it won't get too much worse too quickly. I don't think I look old for my age, I just think these might have been things lying dormant and plumped up with fat.

I'm 44 and have lost 30 pounds. I don't notice any additional wrinkles showing on my face, but I do see my cheekbones are more prominent now. My neck has always been a bad subject, but I doubt there is much I can do about it. It has fewer rolls now, but the shape that I inherited from my Dad won't go away. Thankfully, I got a chin--my brother didn't and his neck starts from his bottom lip. Seriously, it looks silly! He wears a beard to camouflage it.

The only thing that I don't like about my body after having lost weight is the back fat--you know, right above the bra. Yuck. I'm thinking that perhaps weight work might help in this area--lat pull downs and that sort of thing. I've really got to get a plan of attack there!

My chin/neck is the area that looks the worse when I'm at my lowest. It's not pretty, but I figure it's a small price for the rest of the package. I don't have a lot of facial wrinkles, a few around my mouth and eyes. (I'm 62). But I've got very fair skin and have always used a ton of sunscreen, plus having spent my whole life living in northerly areas (New England, Seattle, Alaska) I'm not as exposed to as much intense sunlight anyway. Anne, I suspect that living in Arizona contributes a lot to your dryer skin.

An interesting sidenote, my doctor was talking yesterday about the number of Alaskans who have a Vitamin D deficiency. If you don't drink milk, or take a supplement with Vit D, it's hard in Alaska to get the required sunlight. She commented she be interested in doing a study of Alaskans vs. SW dwellers in regards to Vit D.