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Well. I got my wls at 48, right before I turned 49 last year. I'll be 50 in August, and you can darn well bet I'll get plastic surgery if I feel I need it. I've lost almost 150 and would like to lose another 60, so I am definitely doing to have a very saggy stomach and my legs are bad already. I'm not as worried about how I look as how I feel and if that skin is in the way I will get surgery. As for age, I feel very young. People don't usually think I'm close to 50, although I think I look older now that I've lost so much weight, but I don't care. Age is just a number and I feel very young at heart. 38 is certainly not old. I got pregnant at 38 and had my son when I turned 39! You're just getting started! Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using BariatricPal mobile app

I've been thinking a lot lately about how it's already been 10 years since I got my sleeve. I've also been thinking about new people just starting on this journey and remembering how I felt about the whole process. I should mention I'm 5ft 2in and weighed 233 lbs and was 56 years old at the time I started my journey. I tried every diet, I mean every diet. Spent too much money on fads and diet supplements. In the beginning I was excited and worried about having the sleeve. You can't grow your stomach back! Not that I had an emotional attachment to my stomach and actually thought my stomach was my enemy. The thought of removing part of a perfectly good organ in my body. Well, that's just crazy - isn't it??? I have to go to this extreme to stop killing myself?? I couldn't eat hardly anything at first. If I ate one bite too many I was in horrible pain and had to lay down. I remember thinking if I just could eat 1/2 of a small hamburger or one little taco I'd be happy. But pretty much 2 bites of anything and I was done. The weight came off fast in the beginning. But my energy was low, I didn't feel good and I had some regrets. Couldn't go out to eat it was a total waste of money. Besides since I could only eat a couple bites the waitress thought there was something wrong with the food. Naw, just wasn't that hungry I'd tell them. I get a doggy bag and attempt to eat the rest later. So yes, the first 8-10 months the weight fell off. I don't remember exactly how long it took me to loose the first time over 90 lbs. Yes, I said the first time. I didn't gain it all back though. I still was not at peace with my sleeve. It was the enemy keeping me from eating as much as I wanted and when I wanted. BTW I still can't eat salad anymore it's just too hard on my stomach. I loved salad but NO sleeve doesn't like it!! So here's the deal...no I couldn't eat a whole hamburger BUT I can eat maybe 1/2 now and then 2 hours later I eat the rest. Same with everything else. HAHA sleeve I win. I really struggled with my love/hate relationship with my sleeve. A couple years go by and I gain back around 50 lbs. HAHA sleeve I win???? Did I already say that learning to live with the sleeve was a real struggle for me? So, it took me along time to be at peace with my sleeve. Well, I am now. It wasn't easy but I did it and it feels good today not to stress out over not being able to eat as much as I want and I stop when my friend the sleeve says "that's enough!" Okay, you win sleeve. I've lost the weight that I had gained back. No, I'm not skinny but I'm at a comfortable weight that looks good on me. The real win is my health. My blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol are good/normal! My sleep apnea is gone! I don't shop in the "big ladies" department and I fit in an airline seat and can put the tray table down! I can walk for miles and I don't break out in a sweat just walking to the mail box. I can play with my Grandkids! If I were to give advise to anyone considering having VSG. Don't expect the sleeve to be the magic bullet. You have to work with it and listen to your sleeve. You might have to go through what I did. I hope if you do eventually you'll start listening. Most, not all of us have a food addiction and most of us don't want to stop eating when we are really full. Food tastes good, we love it. It's social and everything we do socially has food involved. Television ads for fast food, and restaurants at every commercial break! I was so addicted to food. Well, actually. I still am. But.. most of the time now I stop eating when my sleeve tells me to stop. I have a family member who had gastric bypass. She is so frustrated. " Ya can't eat a meal!" " Nope, we can't but we can share a meal and still have leftovers." I believe long term success (not that I'm saying I have that either) will happen when you accept, make peace and listen to your sleeve. It could just save your life like I believe mine has done for me. Good luck to everyone on this journey or getting ready to start it. It was the best decision I've made for my health. No regrets!

I was released to workout on weights around 6 weeks. I use the machines and free weights. I am three months out now and work out 1 to 1 1/2 hours 4-5 days a week. It really helps me lose weight and reduce stress. I am trying to get everything turned into muscle and it is working out well. I know I will still have some loose skin but my core will be tight.

This has been... just a whole crazy crazy adventure. Highest weight 402, currently around 200-210. Had my surgery at 325lbs 2018-01-22, will have my TT on 2021-06-04 over 3 long years. I am happy I am stable (weight shifting a bit up and down but never too major) and i was approved for a panni. But with my weight loss and how my skin hangs, the surgeon suggested a fleur de lys since my upper stomach have what I call my second set of boobs. I am excited and scared of this new adventure but I will say my self confidence took a big hit with how my body now is first two is the current me, and the last one probably at my highest. I hate showing my stomach now, even to my partner. When i bought my bikini, they had a hard time to find a bottom that I was asking for to cover the whole stomach. While the skin on my arms bothers me, it will most likely never be done. My legs will be as they are covered but should be in a year from now I assume.

I see some loose stuff in the front of my neck but otherwise am doing pretty good. I'm over 100lbs lost and that seems to be the most visible. I exercise quite a bit and don't have a large flap around my abdomen just yet.

I’ve lost 137lbs so far and my skin really isn’t that bad. My nips are lower than they should be and I could probably use a couple chip clips on my back to pull things taut to where they belong but overall it’s not bad. And to repeat the point made several times, I’d rather flap in the wind like a pasty white flag than have people think “I’m going to have to order new lawn chairs” when I go to sit at their house. Fun fact: I recently visited my sister in law and she has pvc pipe chairs on her porch. Old me would NEVER have tried to sit in them… “no I prefer to stand” (like come on, I was fat and used that excuse like anyone believed it). I enjoyed the view from the chair, not the floor with shards of pvc splayed around me, so non scale victory!

It may or may not happen, as mentioned above by such factors as genetics & how long you’ve been overweight. I had a ton. I’d take every flap of skin any day for the 140 lbs lost. I had plastic surgery in January to take care of it. Upside of that is I now have the boobs of a 25 year old at age 51 😂

How much loose skin you have depends on a number of factors like age, genetics, how many years you’ve been overweight, how much excess weight you carried, ... Think of your skin as an elastic hair band - ain’t nothing can unstretch a well used, old elastic hair tie. Unfortunately, the only way to really reduce sagging skin is surgery. I don’t have a lot of excess skin - pinches not handfuls & I decided not to have surgery. I scar & decided loose skin was better than scars. It doesn’t bother me that much - I’m way past showing a lot of skin. LOL! I’d rather have some saggy skin than the fat. I added collagen & silica to my diet but don’t believe it did anything really. What helped me was I had bounced around 60 - 75kgs for most of my adult life, gained 16kgs over about 3 yrs & only sat at that weight for not quite 2 yrs before I had surgery. When I hit my 60kg goal I had hardly any loose skin at all but when I lost the extra 10 odd kilos there was noticeably more. A friend did weights to help ‘fill in’ her loose skin but while she gained some muscle, she still has all the loose skin on her tummy, under her arms & between her thighs that she had to begin. Moisturising is likely only going to help the texture of your skin which is always good.

It really depends on how your skin is already as well. I have a limited amount of loose skin. My wife on the other hand has a lot of loose skin and will need plastic surgery to remove it after she is done losing weight. So there are many factors you can control such as the health of your skin but there are also things that are outside of your control and if your skin has lost it's elasticity already, then there is a good chance that will not significantly change enough to keep it tight and firm.

Can you eat the apples without the skin?

How do you minimize loose or saggy skin?

Well dang I don’t remember signing on to become a lifelong bariatric surgery counselor when I got surgery. I’m a private person and I don’t discuss my medical issues with people I’m not very close with. There’s a huge difference between me just living my life and not sharing my personal medical information and someone positioning themselves as a weight loss expert/influencer and not disclosing it. I’ve had some comments on how great my skin looks at my age as well, and for some people I offer a thanks, and for others I offer information on my Botox provider. It’s almost like I’m an adult who doesn’t owe every human I meet my life story. Do you think I should put a sign on my door that outlines my various surgeries and medical procedures on the off chance it influences someone? Oh maybe I should also list any marital/child rearing difficulties I’ve ever had and information on my bowel habits too. Or do I maybe have the right to decide who I share what information with? Let people live their lives and worry about yourself and your own decisions.

Omg stalls are the worst!! I’ve had about three since surgery and I now know it’s part of the process and once you start loosing you really lose. I made my husband hide the scale and I only weigh myself once a week. I have lost 50 lbs so far so it is working!

Thanks so much for responding. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me your stories. What was the final straw for you to finally make that move to go to a surgeon? Did something happen or were you just fed up with being overweight and just decided to go through with it? I guess I just have reservations about doing it. I know a few people who had the gastric bypass. One is gaining his weight back 3 yrs in and the other a female seems to have put alittle bit of her weight back but she has had ALOT of hair loss. She also had skin removal not long after her weight loss. Both seem deficient in vitamins etc. I just dont want to go through all this and ultimately end up gaining it back. Id like to think that I could say on target and make a change in my eating habits and the types of food I eat but seeing others starting to put the weight back on makes me second guess doing it.

it's probably safe to get a tattoo pretty early on (but I'd ask your clinic just to be sure), but the thing to keep in mind is your shape is going to change quite a bit, depending on how much weight you lose. People often have sagging, hanging skin on their arms and legs after massive weight loss (well, torso, too - but you asked about arms and legs). So your tattoo would sag and hang right along with it. It may not be affected too much on your lower leg or arm - but upper extremities can get pretty saggy.

One week post op and I see my skin is breaking out (acne). Sent from my Pixel 4a using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi all, i’m nearly 4 month out from RNY bypass i’m taking my vitamins and extra hair, skin and nails supplements, i’m also reaching my protein goal each day but my hair has been falling out really badly. Does anybody have any advice ? treatments to use ? thanks xx

Biggest fear for sure was surgery not working. I’ve spent so many years going through diet after diet and exercising my butt off only to gain back more weight. I was used to the failure and felt this would be no different. Second is loose skin/sagging breasts. So far none of the above fears have happened, but I already have a plan in mind for plastics later on.

Here is today's new dress. @ms.sss.... I know, the bottom half is too big... heee.... Tim originally bought a size 2 which the bottom fit perfectly, but the boobs did not. So we sent back for a 4, now the top fits, but the bottom is too loose. It's black with lite pink dots This is the link to untuckit..... I love everything he has bought from them so far. https://www.untuckit.com/collections/womens-dresses/products/michelle-dress

I had my bypass on 3/3/21. I went into my consult asking for the sleeve but based on my doctor's recommendation and my own research, I went with bypass. It's a misconception that the bypass is more invasive. From the patient side, the recovery is the same as both surgeries are done laparoscopically. It is a more complex surgery for the doctor and it takes about an hour longer, but other than that there's not much difference on the patient side. My doc said that the sleeve is a good surgery, but if it were a race, the bypass would win every time. I was also diabetic, and there's a higher chance of being cured of diabetes with the bypass than the sleeve. My endocrinologist said they're not really sure HOW it works, but it does! My endo told me to stop taking my diabetes medicine once I had surgery because many people never need it again. I go to him next week so I hope that's how it works for me! In the months leading up to my decision, I read a lot of posts about people switching from sleeve to bypass because of GERD. I would get it occasionally before surgery and didn't want to take the chance of it happening afterward. My insurance also told me that it was a one-time coverage so I wanted to make the best choice for myself. As for prep work before surgery, I agree with @lizonaplane I spent the time having extra appointments with the nutritionist, working with my therapist, and generally lurking around here soaking up knowledge for other folks' experiences so that when these things - like stalls, hair loss, loose skin - have occurred, I'm mentally ready for them. I also changed a lot of my eating habits. I really think those changes have made my post-op months so much easier.

I think my parents did a lot of damage to my relationship with food and eating when I was a kid. I know they didn't mean to. They meant well -- they just wanted the best for me, and they knew that being fat would be a hard life, so they tried to stop me from being fat, but unfortunately, most of what they did was totally counterproductive. I remember my mom always being unhappy with her body, but looking back, I don't think she was as fat as she thought she was. She was probably overweight, but not obese (but of course her weight fluctuated as she yo-yo dieted). I remember once when I was very young, we were on vacation and my mom had a meltdown because she ordered curly fries and they gave her regular fries and she didn't want to waste her calories on regular fries. That was probably my first awareness of dieting. When I got older (junior high), my parents made me participate in whatever fad diet they were doing at the time. I was always chubby, but I have brothers who were skin and bones and couldn't gain weight if they tried. And they did try. My mom bought them all kinds of cookies, crackers, candy, soda, etc., but she didn't want me to have any, so she had them hide their snacks in their rooms. I think this is one of the biggest things leading to my food issues because it made me feel so deprived. It felt so unfair that my brothers were being rewarded and I was being punished, basically for no reason other than my natural body type. So every chance I got, I snuck food. I spent all of my allowance money on candy and junk food. I hid food in my room because I wasn't allowed to eat it openly. It blew my mind when I went to friends' houses and they just had chips and cookies in the kitchen that they were allowed to eat in front of their parents. When I was old enough to babysit, I always looked for junk food to eat after the kids were in bed. I'm so embarrassed now to think about what the parents must have thought of me pigging out on their junk food! I got into a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting, losing a little weight but gaining it all back and more, my parents trying to control my eating more and me feeling more deprived and sneaking more food (which got easier as I got older). My parents made me go to counseling and dietitians, and for a while, my mom weighed me every other day and tracked my weight in a notebook. It made me feel like my entire worth as a human being was based on my weight, and I could never be good enough. Ironically, when I first looked into weight loss surgery, my mom talked me out of it. She cried because it was so dangerous and she was afraid I would die on the table. That's a big part of why I haven't told anyone in my life -- not even my parents -- that I did it. It was my decision that I made for myself and my own health. Not to finally win my parents' approval. My parents were actually the first to notice my weight loss (actually before surgery -- I lost about 70 pounds before surgery) just by seeing my face on a family Zoom call, And the first time they saw me in person after surgery, of course the FIRST THING out of my mom's mouth was how good I looked. Now, my parents had given up on trying to get me to lose weight by the time I was in my 30s, so my weight had ceased to be a topic of regular discussion, but it kind of hurt to see that they are still so hung up on my weight that they got so excited to see that I lost weight. Even though they stopped talking about it, it's obviously still important to them and to what they think about me.

Just wanted to check in and see how everyone is doing. HW 264 SW 235 CW 195 GW 130 Height 5’5” BMI 32.6 I was sleeved 2/24/21 and am down 40 lbs since surgery and 69 lbs overall. I recently made it to Onederland and am down 3 sizes- gave all my pre-surgery clothes to a friend! Finding this is very doable and sticking with program. Using Baritastic app to track macros/ meet protein and fluid goals. I am attending support group hosted by my surgeon’s practice and belong to a couple other online bariatric social groups/ recipe groups. I am so happy I did this and looking forward to meeting my goal weight sometime. I eat between 650-900 calories per day ( not per surgeon- just the info from my tracking app) and exercise daily. I worry I am too high in calories but I feel good and the weight continues to come off- 5 lbs this week. Looking to start weight lifting to add muscle and help with sagging skin. I would love to hear how you are all doing.

Great outfits!!!! Especially LOVE the light blue top on you. Wonderful asymmetric lines and color for your pretty figure and fair skin. Before COVID I had bought three T shirts in this styling and adored them - but never had the opportunity to wear them. Maybe I'll pull them out for Mother's day lunch with Mom at her assisted living today. They just opened her facility to visitors May 1st. Yay! Bayou, maybe shop for a summer dress in this pastel blue color, too! You've also inspired me to pull out my new white jeans that I have never worn yet either. Remember how many of us had just replenished our new wardrobes 14 months ago? Then, March 2020 lock down! All dressed up and no where to go. Literally. Maybe now all those little outfits can "come out of the closet". Haha.

For the 1st 4-5 months I was having very loose stool and going to the bathroom like 6 times a day. Now I am almost 9 months out and am extremely constipated. My doc told me to take miralax every single day, and also 3 stool softeners at night before bed. I have been doing this for a week and although my poop is coming out, I still have to strain really hard. This has given me hemorrhoids, and I have to take at least 2 sitz baths a day. It is very painful. I tried to take Metamucil but it gave me massive cramps. I drink 1/2 gallon of water a day, eat a lot of veggies, fruit, etc. but it doesn't do anything. Doc says its because of all the protein and vitamins with iron. Hopefully it gets better. There are days where I can't even sit down because it hurts so bad.