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Losing weight when you are younger ( I had surgery at 54 years old ) your skin has more elasticity and you will get more "bounce back" - I chose and continue to chose (now at 64 years old) not to have elective surgery. But that is both an economic choice as it is not covered by insurance, and a personal choice about surgery. Yes, IF I did have it I would lose more weight ! fat pockets hiding in skin would come off, but I did this to be a healthier weight and to live longer. I have saggy baggy arms and thighs but I wear those with pride ! I wear short sleeves and even sleeveless tops, because .... I can !! I would not worry about loose skin or anything else at this point. Exercise will help, if you can do it, as will keeping well hydrated and using good moisturizing creme on your body. I assure you, you will LOVE your smaller body.

Y’all make me so excited to see what the future holds for me ❤️ one of my biggest anxiety’s is a massive amount of loose skin. Here is me pre surgery:

Thank. You all. For you replies I am really greatful! Can I ask about excess skin please and your experiences. Also I have heard you can't drink carbonated drinks after you have healed and back on a normal diet is this true?

Thank you soo much for your reply, for being very open and sharing some of your journey with me I appreciate it! I hope the issues you have now resolve quickly! One last question can I ask about excess skin if you don't mind and also are you happy you made the decision you did xx

AMEN!!!!!!!! 19 months now post op, I don't even think about loose skin anymore. I am too busy enjoying my new life. I thought about plastics soon after, but am so glad I did not go through all the expense and pain and risk. It doesn;t matter. My hair is back as good as new, and my amazing new body does more that I had even hoped for. It looks a little funny without clothes, but not an issue since I don't make a habit of going out in public naked! Besides, it is so fun wearing cute clothes now, that even with some sags and loose skin, I still look a LOT better now that I did 100 pounds ago!

Welcome to the over 60 club! Because of the cost, I had to wait until Medicare kicked in. The surgery was very easy for me with not one post surgery food issue or pain. I'm down 55 pounds in 3 months and feel great. I'm realistic about loose skin and the shifting of weight at this age. I'll never have flat abs and I am more concerned about the loose skin on my face. I'm hoping some botox and fillers will help at some point. I have had to reduce contact with a few people who weren't supportive as they also have weight issues. I gladly give up a few of them to be able to sit on the floor comfortably with my young grandchildren. And I've been able to reduce my blood pressure medication in half and hope to stop it all together down the road. And I had the sleeve because I want to be able to enjoy some foods and a glass of wine at some point and don't need to be thin, but do want to be healthy and able to do more things that I enjoy that I can't do now with the extra weight.

Hi, I had the gastric sleeve in March, 2019. All my cons are from immediately after surgery. I had quite a bit of pain but it was controlled with IV and then oral pain meds. I wasn't able to eat at all for almost 2 weeks (I mean nothing). I drank protein drinks (not shakes but clear drinks) and that was it for about 10 days. Then I was able to drink shakes and soon I moved on to soft food and purees, etc. By 1 month out, I could eat soft regular food. I did have some early reflux issues for the first 3 months or so but that resolved and I don't experience it now. I had to learn what "full" feels like with my new tummy. I ate too much one time because I didn't recognize that I was full and that was totally miserable. Terrible stomach pain, nausea, I broke into a sweat and finally I threw up. I never did that again so that's the only time I have experienced that. All my "cons" were resolved by the time I was 3 months out from surgery. On the "pros" side, I had very little hunger after surgery and my appetite is still very low. I guess the surgery really did remove a lot of my Ghrelin-producing stomach tissue because I'm rarely hungry and when I am, it's different from that insistent, intense hunger I had pre-surgery. It's like now my body says "Excuse me, we need to eat something" where before it was saying "FEED ME NOW." I lost slowly with the sleeve compared to others I know who had surgery but the weight loss has not stopped yet. I am still slowly losing (about 2 pounds per month) and so far I am down about 110 pounds. I am only 18 months out so I don't know what it will be like years from now, but as of now I am really pleased with my results and I don't have any current cons to report. Edit: I did think of one current "con". I have a lot of loose skin on my abdomen. At some point, I will probably have it removed (which I will have to pay for out of pocket since it's not covered by my insurance). I guess that could be considered a con, but loose skin is better than tight fat!

P.S. Just wanted to add that most people really worry about losing hair and the loose skin - sometimes to the point that they don't go through with the surgery. I worried incessantly about this when I was pre-op and newly post-op as well. But I think I can speak for most of us that once you've lost a bunch of that excess weight, you'll start to wonder why you wasted any brain cells worrying about it. In the grand scheme of things, the skin and hair thing is really minor. I would take the loose skin any day over weighing 373 lbs again. ANY DAY!!

here's me after losing 235 lbs (originally - I've since gained 15 lbs, give or take). See all that loose skin? I can assure you I had A LOT of it. I just tucked it into my pants and wore slightly oversized, long-ish tops with 3/4 length sleeves (or longer). Ta da! No more loose skin. I should add that I've since had it removed, but that was for me. No one else knew all that loose skin was there since it was easy to hide. Again, this was BEFORE I had the loose skin removed.

O.K. So you had sleeve surgery a little over 3 weeks ago. And the problem that you were having was a severe allergic reaction to a cat. It wasn't the flu or COVID or a cold. Problem solved, that's good! What concerns me the most is your inability to drink fluids. Your surgery was a little different than mine but your requirements should be similar at this stage. My requirements read: "Drink 64-80 ounces of water or a low calorie liquid daily (1 sippy cup every 45 minutes to 1 hour). This includes any protein supplement in liquid form. [That means that your liquid protein shake counts toward meeting the 64-80 ounce fluid requirement.] 75-90 grams of protein is required daily following surgery. Do not start your protein supplements until day 5 after surgery or until you have passed gas. If you are struggling to get all your protein in after 2 weeks from being released from the hospital, please contact the dietitians. If you find a brand of protein not on your list and it has greater than 20 grams of protein and less than 5 grams of sugar, you may use it." So you are far enough out that your stomach should have recovered from the surgery and you should be meeting your daily protein and fluid requirements or at least close. So my concern is fluids. Without the fluids your body will become dehydrated. You will become weak. Signs of dehydration are: * Not peeing or having very dark yellow pee * Very dry skin * Feeling dizzy * Rapid heartbeat * Rapid breathing * Sunken eyes *Sleepiness, lack of energy, confusion or irritability *Fainting Severe dehydration is a medical emergency and needs to be treated immediately. So it is a little difficult for me to understand how much daily fluids you are currently taking in by your description, but if you are not meeting the fluid requirement and not even close, then you need to focus your energy here. I would also recommend you contact your surgeon's office and explain your difficulties.

Congrats on starting the process!! Any loose skin is easily hidden under clothes. I can wear pretty much anything, and you can't see my jiggly parts through my clothes. If you want to rock a bikini someday, then just start saving up for plastic surgery, as many on this board have done (I'm scheduled for it in a few months myself!). Best of luck to you!

Hi! I'm new here! I will be having the DS in March 2021 (I have to wait 6 months for insurance). I have been considering WLS for years. I had the lap band 12 years ago and it failed and I has to have it removed due to complications. I am a single mom to my daughter who I adopted. I am doing the surgery for us. I want to be the mom who can run and play with her at the park, ride all of the amusement park rides with her, go on her class field trips without concern of fitting, not hate myself for buying a 3 story house.. the list goes on.. Having had 3 abdominal surgeries in the past, I know what I'm getting into pain and post op recovery-wise.. having had bariatric surgery in the past I know what I'm getting into with the post op diet. My concern is my body after. I have always been overweight. Even as a child. And I honestly dont hate my body right now! I have a great butt! Lol I have no idea what I will look like after loosing 200 pounds. I am so worried about the excess skin and that I will loose the things that I feel like make me attractive. I know that is super superficial but I hope this is a safe place to express this. Thanks for listening and providing encouragement!

Where are you getting it done at? I did pali momi. I hear fowler has alot of xp but I chose Ver. It can be a bit tricky with planning travel if you have a complication. Make sure to give some extra time in case an incision pops back open. With incisions they can extend recovery. While i also have beach body im not approved for the hit cardio yet and im post op 1 month. Probably can start closer to six weeks if you heal normally and arent with any wonky complications. You could probably do watp until then. I pretty much just ask my surgeon directly because with ver she tailors it to your specific body and how its doing. You may have better skin that just heals right up but i have baby skin theres a nice support group for it where you can ask questions even preop and talk to others in different stages right now its via telehealth. See if your surgeon has something like that real people that have been there I’ll be doing vegas for 3 months in January but japan if you have a complication there’d be that big quarantine confusion when you fly back forth. Maybe vaccine will be out before then to make things less complicated Good luck with your decision 🦄its an interesting journey where you end up learning alot about yourself

I am 6 years out from surgery. I started out at 371. I am now at 234. I’ll answer your questions in the order you asked them: - What foods do you avoid? (Fatty foods? Carbs? Can you tolerate small amounts?) Foods I avoid: Rice! and Carbonated beverages. Both have a very negative effect on my stomach even now. Rice seems to grow once it gets in my stomach causing it to feel overfull. Carbonated beverages are to be avoided anyway but occasionally it’s the only thing around to sip and never has there been a time that I didn’t regret it! - Do you have diarrhea? Occasionally but it’s rare and usually something I know is going to happen. Constipation is a bigger issue and my go to remedy is a slice of plain cheesecake. Seriously. It works better than anything else. To help keep things moving I am sure to add real butter to any carbs I eat. Sometime I use MCT oil to help keep things moving but be careful cause it can cause very loose stool.  - How many Vitamins do you take? Have you experienced Vitamin deficiencies? Have you had to get infusions? I use PERSONA now for vitamins They do an assessment that determines your vitamin needs for me that is one Bariatric Multi, 8 Calcium Citrates spaced out in three doses, Vitamin D, and a Probiotic. I was seriously anemic and had to do iron infusions until I had a hysterectomy July 2019. Now I’m normal and won’t need them again. I take powdered Collagen in my coffee everyday to keep my hair growing, my skin from drying, and my muscle from aching. - Do you struggle to maintain your weight loss? Do you feel like you are constantly on a diet? Weight loss is a constant struggle, you will not lose on a smooth downhill slide. It will fluctuate and drop suddenly then rise and fall like ocean waves. Keeping the weight off is the challenge and with the DS weight gain is less likely it still is very possible if Carbohydrates are your source of comfort in times of struggle and stress. You won’t feel like you are on a diet, you will feel like you are a slave to your stomach. You’ll spend an hour making the most delicious meal and take two bites and be full. You’ll find that foods you once loved now don’t make your new stomach all that happy. But with all that you lose and all that is frustrating comes so much amazing stuff like feeling average sized. Shopping in a average clothing store, sitting in theater seats or airplane seats or really any seats and not worrying about what the person next to you might think. Saving so much money cause you can split meals with friends.  - Anything else you wish you had known before surgery? My words of advice: find a local support group or an online one if you can’t find one in your area and stay faithful to going to meetings and events for at least one full year but two would be better. Your family and friends will have no idea what you are going through and will say things that will be surprisingly hurtful but they won’t mean it that way, like “Wow, you look how small you’ve gotten!” (Internal thought: I must have been huge) You’ll need people who know not to say those things and instead say “You are making great progress! I am so glad to see you again!” Good Luck! It gets better! Walk Sip Walk Sip Never Trust a Fart! 😜

Some insurance policies will pay for skin removal, if the issues have been documented over time. I'd recomend you start documenting thm with your PCP. The either get a referal, or find a plastic surgeon on your own. Options are usually insurance pays in full for skin removal (assuming standard co pay and out of pocket rules apply), or you can pay additional cost directly to the surgeon for non covered parts of the skin removal procedure.

I had a bunch of this sort of thing pre-op. Post-op, while I had pounds of extra skin, no irritations or the like. Pre-op it came down to yeast infections. Got a cream and that was that. Post-op, if it's right at the paints waist line, you may be pulling the waist cinch a bit firm to compensate for the loose flesh. If it's itchy or in some other way unfomfortable you might want to make mention of it with your PCP. Good luck Tek

Hi I had a gastric sleeve done 7 years ago and recently I started to notice skin irritation around my waist line I have lost about 120lbs so there is loose skin. I never had a tummy tuck or anything like that. So I was wondering if anyone had gone through this and what they had to do to correct it. Thanks!

like others have said, there's not a straight answer for that. If you have a lot of weight to lose (esp 100 lbs or more), you'll most likely have some loose skin, though. How much depends on a lot of things....

Your skin is like an elastic band. It can stretch & contract until it gets to a point it can’t contract any more. How much you weighed before surgery. How long you weighed that much. How much weight you want to lose. How old you are all affect your skin’s elasticity & how much lose skin you will end up with. I was feeling a bit cocky about how little loose skin I had but once I started losing the last 10 kgs & surpassed my goal, it all started to droop. I don’t have a lot compared to others & I’m not contemplating surgery. But you won’t see me waving my arms about or wearing shorty shorts. My little tummy pooch doesn’t show in form fitting clothes. One old hair band used a lot. One new band hardly used. 😁

Not sure but I think all body fats cause excess skin since it's the skin that then gets a hard time to contract back to normal when you lose weight.

What body fat % causes excess skin? I know its not a clear cut answer, but there seems to be a point of BF % were you get excess skin, any ideas?

What does your plan say? When you are at an eating (chewing) stage it would probably be OK, aside from the fact grapes have a fair amount of sugar. Be sure to chew extremely well, because the skins may ball up and plug things. Good luck. Tek

19 months out and I sill have loose stools, 5-8 per day. Sill a lot of gas, too. They are getting darker in color but still float, so I know fat malabsorption is still an issue.

Actually followed my pretty loose guidelines this time. Some veg raw, some cooked and some fruit per day.

For post op I ordered vitamin patches so I don't have to worry about pills. Patch Aid multivitamin has all the requirements needed per my provider. I also ordered some biotin for hair skin and nails. Sent from my SM-N975U using BariatricPal mobile app