Loose Skin after Weight Loss

[Stacy]

I need some help here. I'm 31 years old, I have 245 pounds to lose and have already lost 23 pounds in the past 7 weeks. I seem to be doing fine with the weight loss so far, but my question has to do with loose skin. I've seen people who've lost a ton of weight only to be left with lots of loose skin, and other people who's skin somehow naturally kept it's elasticity and "snapped back" after the weight loss.

There is no way I could pay for the cosmetic surgery to have excess skin removed once I hit my weight loss goal, so I'm really hoping to not have a lot of excess skin.

I could really use some advice on how to minimize (or, Please God, totally eliminate) excess skin. Please please - advice is needed here. Are there certain exercises I can do? Weight lifting? Lotions or creams? Strategies? I'm totally phobic of having mounds of skin flap after I've lost the weight and could use all the advice I can get.

 

[Stacy]

I don't appreciate the spam, jerk! I am looking for genuine answers and you coming up in here with your idiotic spam is not cool.

 

[KaraCooks]

Responding to spam doesn't solve the problem - it just draws attention to it. If you see a spam post, report it, don't make the thread about it.

There are lots of threads here that answer your question about loose skin - do a quick search and you'll see that your question has been asked by a lot of people with the same concerns.

 

[Kayshiz]

First off, It's fantastic that you have a true desire to get healthy. Determination and perseverance go a long way.

I could really use some advice on how to minimize (or, Please God, totally eliminate) excess skin. Please please - advice is needed here.

As far as loose skin goes, yes, you will have loose skin. The sooner you get it out of your head that your body will ever look the way it did before you gained the weight (or the way it would have if you hadn't gained) the better. It is unrealistic, and having unrealistic goals when it comes to weight loss is not helping you on your journey.

Are there certain exercises I can do? Weight lifting?

Yes, weight training now will help you to lose as little muscle mass as possible while losing the weight.

Once you have lost your excess fat, gaining muscle will help fill out some areas of your body and eliminate some of the loose skin problem

Lotions or creams? Strategies?

Don't put to much faith or money into these products. While I do believe that items like cocoa butter make my skin look more hydrated and feel softer, there is little to no proof they can eliminate things like stretch marks or make your skin as elastic as it was when you were younger. (I had very bad stretch marks on my abdomen that developed last year. I bought one of the products to help make them disappear, but I'm lazy and only used it for a few weeks before stopping. I started losing weight about 6 months ago, and low and behold my stretchmarks are almost gone. Time and healthy eating alone helped to eliminate them.)

I'm totally phobic of having mounds of skin flap after I've lost the weight and could use all the advice I can get.

You should be more afraid of not losing the weight and developing health problems that could potentially shorten your life span.

I've seen people who've lost a ton of weight only to be left with lots of loose skin.

When you have finished losing a large amount of weight, chances are you will still have a very high body fat percentage. Most of what people see as loose skin is just more body fat.

This is going to be a very long process. Probably longer then you think it will be.

So what can you do?

Don't give up!

A combination of a healthy appropriate diet, cardio and weight training will give you the best results.

Lose weight at a SLOW and SAFE pace. The faster you lose weight the less your skin has the ability to naturally shrink back on its own.

Don't let this fear stop you from what you are capable of.