After being in "maintenance" for roughly a year.

This time last year i was 160 and i'm probably around 153 now? So i've gradually lost those few lbs over last Spring/Summer so i consider myself in maintenance now for quite a while.

I did write in a few times about being so dismayed that i had that "lost a lot of weight" look to me, it was very tough going for quite awhile. While i don't like how the loose skin on my tummy makes me LOOK like i have a tummy, or the other places i've accumulated loose skin, it was my face that bothered me the most, that gaunt look, more pronounced NL folds, the comments endlessly asking me if i'm "done losing weight" all led me to really feel UGLY.

I think though that my skin may finally be responding and while i'll probably never lose those NL folds, maybe i'm starting to look better? And please please weight loss Gods, i hope it continues!! Anyone else have anything to add? Maybe i should just be happy i look slightly better!

Your experience mirrors mine, and I'm so happy to hear you're happier about your looks!

At 60 my skin can only adapt so much. I have found those comments to be so undermining. After gaining 12 lbs over the holidays, everyone said I looked better, not so gaunt. I enjoyed that, even knowing I needed to shed the weight to feel my best again. I now make a conscious effort not to respond internally to comments. I'm still not sure what I'll do about the turkey neck, though. I've always believed internal beauty is what matters, but......

Thank you for posting this. So nice to hear.

I am trying "Facersize" exercises for turkey neck, etc. Also drinking a LOT of water and hoping this helps with the hydration of the skin.

I am so tired of hearing, Face it, you'll have loose skin.

UGH, i know, i wish people didn't think they had the "right" to comment on our physical bodies, especially when it comes to weight loss, somehow society thinks it belongs to them, if that makes any sense and that saying we are underweight or gaunt wouldn't be hurtful (probably because they're overweight and would LOVE to have those comments, i don't know...) but i know my vanity took a huge blow with it, you would think with 100 lb weight loss and a size 8 that gee...all of your problems would be solved well i didn't anticipate this, truly.

I feel best when i'm leaner even if it does accentuate my NL folds and i have a chiseled face. I would have to gain 20 lb's to put an appreciable amount of fat on my skull and i just don't feel good at that weight but like my original post, i think (either that or it's my imagination) that i'm starting to look a little less like that lost a lot of weight look and i'm hoping that as more time passes that my skin will respond even more although i don't expect it all to disappear .

Who said that when a woman gets to "a certain age" she has to choose between her face and her *ss? No advice, just commiseration - I have the same issue, and I haven't even lost all that much.

I'm so happy you are updating what has happened with you after being in maintenance a while. I'm almost 50, and I facial fat-wise, I look okay-ish when I smile and my cheeks puff out (see my avatar,) but when I'm not smiling, I'm starting to get a somewhat gaunt look... and I'm just barely out of the Obese BMI range! I'm not even near normal weight. At this stage of my life, collagen obviously isn't what it used to be and it shows. My goal weight is about 14 lbs away, smack dab in the middle of the Overweight BMI range. I don't think I'll be lowering it further than that. I imagine at my age, skin recovery will be minimal and agonizingly slow over time.

My face seems very quick to show any interruption of sleep, water consumption, or moisturizing. I am trying to stay on top of all three of those things. This is the first time in my life I've ever been concerned with how my face looked, because it's never been a problem before. I am happy that I have tried to stay out of the sun as a rule (I'm a redhead,) and also that I didn't smoke. At least I hope that has minimized facial skin problems to just dealing with the aftermath of morbid obesity and normal aging.

I'm nearing 52 and never anticipated this either. It is agonizingly slow though i must say and i was hoping for more to weigh in on their experiences. I think my skin is starting to respond but it certainly isn't going to go back to that youthful plumpness i had unless i really gain 20 #'s and i'm just not going to do that so i'll have to be happy w/what i have and i'm trying!!

Neurodoc, that saying quite frankly p*sses me off also (woman having to choose at a certain age that it's her *ss or her face) i'm going to be at a weight that *I* deem feels good for me, whether i look like a beauty queen or not, well TOO BAD! OY!

I think we could quickly fill up a thread called "Do you think about plastic surgery." I have to laugh at myself for always saying I would never consider plastic surgery EVER. Period. Never. And now I think about it every time I look in the mirror. I think if it were guaranteed to go well, I'd probably go into debt and do it. Then I find myself thinking that I may as well get rid of the puffy lower lids while I'm at it, and the NL folds. Hmmm how much for a Barbie makeover? I'm beginning to understand a little more why people go down that path. And yet i like how I look overall --it's just when I zero in on each little "flaw" that I want to fix--. At work we say 'better is often the enemy of good.'

Just curious, if anyone knows, what sort of plastic surgery can they do to soften the look of your NL? Is it a botox filler thing?

Fillers like Juvaderm and i'd LOVE to get them but alas, no $$$