is being significantly overweight most of your adult life (not trying to lose) and then around age 49 you decide to lose the weight and do so and now at almost 51 and at goal, feeling kind of shocked at the new you...nice new shape but really kind of shocked and dismayed at the new face looking back at you, certainly minus the nice layer of subcutaneous fat of youth

Oh if i could spot reduce! i'm just still kind of really struggling at how i look and am wondering if that is ever going to change? My face and upper body is really lean (butt and legs are fine) but of course the loose skin and some stubborn fat around the belly. i wish i could just LET IT GO about how i feel inside about how different i look. Wish weight loss didn't strip some parts of you and leave other parts nice and padded.

Are you sure your belly is stubborn fat? I think a lot of women confuse loose skin and fat. Because we are women, we have fat in our skin layers. So, what you are thinking is stubborn fat is probably just skin layer fat that is 'essential' and just extra from the loose skin.

I'm turning 51 this year and I'm nervous about this too. I carry most of my weight in the upper body including my face, and even when I got to 198 in 2011, I still had a fat face. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that somehow, when I get to my final goal, I'll end up with a thinner face but not too lean. I'm not counting on it though, I know our bodies love to tease us and keep the padded parts too padded and the leaner parts too lean.

Maybe it is! it is kind of hard to figure out. Most definitely there's loose skin, though. Just wish i could drop the vanity and not stress over how much my looks have changed. I know no matter how much i lament on 3FC it's not going to change i guess i'm just trying to work it out on the forum plus i wasn't prepared for how the body reacts to weight loss, just never had experience with it or thought about it, LOL

April Snow, maybe you'll luck out, you just never know!! i know other people that don't know me, think i look great but they didn't have the old me to compare. i was shocked at how my face went from really chubby and double chin to just about every bit of fat sucked off, LOL. But don't worry about it until you get there!

Loose skin often is embedded with stubborn fat especially when one was significantly overweight for a long time.

Blood flow is low to some of those "outlying areas" so mobilization of fat from their cells can be challenging.

Probably not going to be easy to get rid of short of surgury. (Guessing obviously but I've seen many similar cases)

If your stats are correct you have lost 100 pounds ! Congratulations ! I just have to ask, didn't you realize you would look different after losing 100 pounds? You have surely seen before and after pictures of other dieters, you must have noticed how different they look.

i did think i would but i didn't anticipate how my weight loss would strip just about every bit of fat from my skull (you can literally see the huge vein that runs along the side of the temple up around my forehead--it's SO gross) so that was a shock and i think people just envision how they're great they're going to look and not know HOW weight loss affects the individual person. Especially with age. And most of the time i think the before and afters are much better in the "afters" but i am struggling with feeling a bit of the "uglies" with my after. I know too that some of it IS my age and that i look older and it is something that people who are aging have to come to terms with, doesn't make it easy!!

Thanks, JohnP

that's probably it in my case, it really is hard to determine but i think i don't want to lose any more weight, i'll just have to deal with that spare tire area with some shapewear!

I can second that about losing weight in your face. I'm thinking (hoping) some may migrate back...but I'm also thinking of getting a little work done. (There are so many things you can do now!)

I had the same thing you describe on my belly. Then I lost some more weight, past my goal (it just kind of happened), and have been doing Jillian Michaels Six-week Sixpack religiously, and it's getting pretty lean and tight.

Congrats on your very impressive weightloss!!

I believe you might be going through a stage of grief. I haven't experienced this myself, but I have heard that women feel depressed after they have had breast reductions. This is because they feel they have lost a part of themselves. I only say this because you said you had been overweight almost your entire life, so you are used to seeing that body when you look into the mirror -perhaps even feel the person staring back isn't you?

Perhaps talking to a counsellor will help you with your new figure?

P.S. Congratulations for getting to where you are now!

Thank you!!

That's very interesting. Even though i'm loving my new body, the "new me" is certainly different from the one that has stared back at me for about 17 yrs. People intellectually know that losing weight and becoming thin isn't going to solve their life's problems but i think most of us aren't prepared (ESPECIALLY those who are OLDER) for the fact that weight loss itself and our new bodies are going to POSSIBLY present an entirely new set of problems we haven't anticipated unless we spend a lot of time on weight loss forums! Things like a new, gaunt face, loose skin, or just simple aging and the fact that our 20 something bodies (even the same size ones) are vastly different from our 40, 50, 60 something ones!

Even though i know i am brutally hard on myself and i probably look fine, i just wasn't prepared for how different i do look

Boy can I relate to this. (I'm 42) What keeps me hopeful is that everyone I have seen that has lost a substantial amount of weight evens out in their face. It takes time, a few years even, but it does get better.

I can relate to this fear, though not the reality yet. So many people have been surprised when they find out I'm 48; I look much younger. I know, intellectually, that part of that is because I have that chubby face that fills in wrinkles and makes you look younger. I KNOW that my face will become leaner, and I'll have more prominent wrinkles, and I'll end up with a chin wattle. I can see them beginning to show more even now, and I have 100 pounds left to go!

But I really can't imagine what that will look like farther down the journey. I've seen folks who have lost 100+ pounds, and in truth, they look ill and haggard at first, until that look slowly takes the place of the mental image I've had for them all along. I KNOW I'll probably look ill and haggard to people who care about me; I've heard others who have lost weight say similar things over and over again.

I'm not there yet, but I'm really trying to prepare myself mentally for it.

I'm 38.

A year ago people thought I was in my mid 20's, 6 years ago people thought I was a late teenager! Now I'm thin but I look every bit of late 30's. :/ My facial skin did firm up a bit with time (and face creams) but at first I thought I looked so old! Can't win.

I'm that vain chick that will be getting injections.