excess skin from weight loss - can anything help?

[Reastie]

Aside from surgery!

I've lost over 70lbs in the past year or so. It's been gradual loss of weight, nothing extreme, just moving more and eating less.

I'm now getting to the point of having alot of loose skin which looks just awful. I'm doing alot of toning exercises and weights to help but have been googling and it looks like there's nothing that really can be done to help this (?).

I know this is ridiculous thinking about celebrities, but Mariah carey gained alot of weight when pg from here and looks amazing and so slim now here . How does she not have loads to excess skin and stretch marks?

Bump

Well done on losing 70lb, that's amazing. I have been trying to lose around 40lb since forever and only lose a few pounds and it goes back on. Once I feel successful for having lost a bit, I almost instantly go back to picking at things I shouldn't. It's like finding a tenner in the pocket of your old coat and whereas you know you should save it, you spend it. I can't resist "spending" the weight I've lost. How do you keep it up and keep banking the weight loss? I'm of you!

I don't know of anything except quite drastic surgery to remove excess skin unfortunately. Regarding your point about celebrities, I think the longer a person has been overweight has a lot to do with not having excess skin afterwards.

ie if a person is usually fairly slim, but puts on weight quickly, but loses it relatively quickly too (within 18 months of putting it on) there seems to be less or no long-lasting damage to skin. Whereas if a person has been large for a long time, or possibly most of their life, at least 3-5 years + anyway, then over time the extra weight strains the skin thinner, so the elastic in the skin is worn out and is so stretched it is permanently stretched out of shape.

eg if someone with size 8 feet stuffed their feet into size 6 shoes, it wouldn't matter if it was just a minute, or even probably half an hour, whereas if they kept them on all day, the shoes would permanently be stretched out of shape.

So it's not the size, it's the length of time being that size that contributes to the loose skin problem, as far as I can see.

I would be wary of any products that claim to help this problem because I don't think there's a product that could do it .

But again, just wanted to say I think what you have achieved is really fantastic x

and PS if you would share, I really would love to hear how on earth you keep up the weightloss to add up to 70lb. Do you get tempted to jack it in? if so what stops you? How do you keep the willpower going?

I really must have lost the same 5-6lbs maybe ten times over. which takes me around 2-3 weeks. by the end of 2-3 weeks, there will be a party/meal/celebration/invitation to sunday dinner/girls get together in coffee shop, and I think "I'll go, but I won't have any pudding/wine/cake" and invariably I do, then I get the taste for it, then I falter over the next week and then I am splat bang back buying up stuff I have given up for the past 3 weeks. Every fricking time. I am so sick of clearing my cupboards, swearing off sweetie stuff, being virtuous, I love healthy stuff but I can't resist the biscuits or whatever and always feel like anything eaten outside of the house doesn't count eg buffet food at a party....

Thanks guys

You see little I'm not sure that logic works for me. I put on about 5 stone when pg/bfing in the space of less than 2 years. DD is now 2 so it took me around a year to lose it. That's 3 years in total that I've gained/lost the weight, yet still loads of excess skin!

I guess the secret is just to stick with it and if you have a pig out, not to worry and just start again afresh the next day. I also joined a fab group of ladies on the weight loss threads and we weigh in every week. I'm still 1 stone until I'm a 'normal' BMI though so don't imagine me all slim and wonderful!

I'm not looking for a miracle cream etc, just thought someone might suggest something, anything to help (exercises etc)

Oh, and I took each lb at a time. I never thought I'd get here tbh and nearly gave up so much! Breaking it down to half a stone, then a stone etc etc really helped as 5 stone seemed such a huge amount (am now nearing 5.5 stone).