Yesterday a conversation started with a couple of friends who noticed I have been losing weight. I mentioned that I wasn't sure how my stomach would (or not) recover. A couple of them mentioned that when they were losing a lot of weight they started wearing a 'girdle'. The theory is that it holds your gut in place, and helps the skin to attach itself to the stomach muscles. Makes some sense, since I've been told that plastic surgery should wait a year or two because they want to see if your skin will reshape around the muscles. My question before I go out and buy some of the undies with a strong and high waist....Has this worked for anyone here? Any other 'tips' for tightening the tummy and avoiding hanging skin during weight loss? If something similar worked for you, what support did you wear and where can I get it?

Edited July 24, 201016 yr by Blondi452

My coworkers family is from Columbia and her mother just came back with some girdle like things that apparently all the women use down there after childbirth to make their stomachs flatter... my friend is dieting and using one as well- she says she knows people who have been successful with it.

I would ask my doc before using it because I am thinking the pressure may put pressure on the band?

I use Body magic whose company is in the South American area I love it, I first used it about six months after my lap band but it really does wounders, I lost 4 inches off my waist and 2 inches off my hips after wearing it 8 hours a day for six weeks, I still use it and it is amazing the way it puts stuff where it belongs...

LOL...I dont know about them girdles but I can tell you this I started high school wearing jeans as tight as a girdle and wore them every day til i graduated and my belly was bigger then than it was when I started...LOL

I actually bought a girdle before surgery to wear afterwards because a lady in my supposrt group said it helped her stomach not to jiggle around so much til she healed. I bought a darn 3x and it was so tight every time id move or bend over it would roll down my big ol belly.. didnt wear it more than about 15 minutes..LOL

The "wait a year or two" advice is outdated; now, surgeons simply want your weight to be stable, and for you to be at a good BMI (though some will operate well before most should consider surgery).

I think wearing compression garments (I like UnderArmour) is really helpful--it provides good support so that redundant skin and an otherwise pendulous abdomen does not strain the back. But it does not do anything structurally.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but your skin is already attached to your stomach muscles, or you'd be in a fair bit of trouble.

And unfortunately, when you're fat, the loose skin (if you've got it) has ALREADY happened. Nothing you do now can change that, you've broken collagen bonds in your skin and stretched it out as you gained and you cant undo that now.

The reason that you wear a girdle type garment after plastic surgery is to support the area, minimise swelling through compression and help healing, not to work any magic on your actual skin. Ditto to anything you rub inot it.

The 2 year thing, I'd say that's more for emotional reasons. I finished losing weight and felt sort of weird about myself. I looked different, my face looked different (and a bit older), I felt a little "loose" although I got out of the loose skin thing very lightly. If I'd had enough cash at the time,I would have done everythign to my body and face I could have afforded. Now, 2 years later, I'm glad I didnt. I dont need it and I think I would regret it and I can think of about a zillion better things to spend my family's money on, like our upcoming holiday to Thailand.

Jacqui - are you glad you didn't have plastic surgery because things settled into place, tightened up a little, and you got used to the way you look now, or because your priorities have changed as time has gone on?

Both really. I still might do something, but if I'd done it two years ago, it would have been for the wrong reasons. I was so, uncomfortable?(not really the right word) with the new me and I had trouble stopping the process of change and getting used to being a new person, if that makes sense. I wanted to keep that exhilarating change and improvement going. That's the wrong reason for having cosmetic surgery but I think a lot of people feel that way following weight loss.

Now, I can look objectively, I can see what could be improved, but I am more comfortable with me and know that improving it would be nice, this would look great or that, but I dont need it to make me happy with myself. So it becomes simply a matter of do I want to spend that money on that and for now, its no, I dont.

If DH gets a bonus this year, I really MIGHT though. I just had a brazillian (first ever) and can we say "old lady"? Eeeeew, a bit of camouflage is a good thing!