Hi guys! I have been posting randomly in the IP protocol section but not really anywhere else. I am struggling a little bit here and need some advice/boosting up.... Basically, I wrote this the other day, and I can't get it out of my head:

I have wrinkles, dimples, flaps, and divots where I have never had them before. There is more hanging, jiggling, and waving going on here than there should be. While losing weight feels wonderful, and I look better in my clothes, I am struggling with what my body looks like out of them. This is pretty hard for someone who has never lost a bunch of weight to understand, but no matter what I do, I will never wear a bathing suite comfortably, There will be no body-con dresses, or exuberant waves of hello or goodby if I am wearing a sleeveless shirt. No amount of exercising or lifting will tone this stuff up...To put it bluntly, I am starting to look like a deflated balloon...

I've never really struggled with body image before, even at my highest weight. It is difficult to deal with this now.

I am really struggling with this. I don't even know if surgery will be an option for me when I get to goal or not. I'm just feeling... like....

My body is looking the same way and I've only lost 27 lbs. I'm hoping its because I lost it so quickly and I will start to firm up soon.

Nope. Sorry. You need to hang on. It's too soon.

You will lose weight.

You will look great.

But your body does take time to adjust.

My advice is to lose the weight and tone it up with weight training and cardio. (I started going to the gym at 220lbs and just did diet for the first 60lbs lost or so).

You are 5'7" at 280 (down from 320 and congrats with that). So everything will be cool.

Just hang on in there. And give it time. And start working out when you feel the time is right.

Lose the fat. Build the muscle.

That's been my approach.

Unfortunately, and contrary to a false belief I held most of my life, body fat cannot be converted to muscle.

You're doing really well
I agree with Ian, you have to give your skin a chance to catch up to your weight loss. I am 46, and my approach was always fitness first, diet along with it. I sag a little here and there, but yoga and weight training is making good improvements.

Also before you even consider surgery, see how you feel/look when you're near your goal and have started an exercise program/kept with it. Vitamins, especially A,C,E should help with skin elasticity...so I have read!! I've always taken supplements so maybe they do, maybe they don't. Why not invest $15 in some kind of cream to help the skin? I've read good reviews about Nivea Q10 for skin "firming". I'm going to buy it next time I'm at the pharmacy and see if it makes any difference over 6 weeks.

Hi! First off, congrats on your progress!

Second, I think we have all been there. I have been there, and will be again. It's a lot for a person to take in when your body is going through these big changes, but if you keep on the path you are on, and focus on your weight loss, it will happen. Remember things shrink, fat disappears, your body rearranges itself. Weight loss cannot make everything completely perfect, but we learn to love ourselves.

Hope you cheer up soon.

I hear you, I do. I lost 107 (have gained some of it back unfortunately), and definitely struggled with the sagging and wrinkling where there wasn't any. I hear that keeping yourself well hydrated helps, and as a previous poster said, building muscle will help, and also that it does take time. I think the younger you are, the more your body will bounce back - I don't know you or how old you are, and your profile pic is pretty small, but you look youthful enough to me that I bet my doc would be telling you that you have youth on your side.

That said, I really do understand that struggle. I'm 40 - which means I have some bounce back ability, but not as much as before - and I've had 4 kids (which caused sagging all on their own), and then because I haven't been thin since my 20's, it definitely wasn't all a rosy picture after the weight loss. I would look at myself and realize that as much as I wanted to look at my "new" body and forget about the problems that led to my being so overweight, the effects were still there, and I have to be reminded daily of those problems/mistakes/faults/etc... One thing that helps is to look at it as battle scars. There is so much to be proud of when you lose a lot of weight, can we turn these blemishes into a reminder of how hard we worked?

There also is the fact that we are bombarded with airbrushed photos of "perfect" people in the media, and we probably don't realize how many people look like us - or at least sag and wrinkle more than we think they do. It comforts me to realize that a lot more people look like me under their clothes than I realize.