Hi there everyone,

I only joined the forum a couple of days ago, I live in England and was only referred for surgery last Monday (11th) so I haven't seen any of the surgical team yet. I am on here for info, inspiration and advice and also love reading everyones success stories! I cannot wait for my surgery but am told it could be another six months before I actually go under the knife as it were.

My question is about skin folds. I was told that vertical sleeve surgery generates very rapid and sudden weight loss (sounds good to me!!) but that skin folds can be an issue because of the speed of the weight loss. Soooooo, any advice on how to prepare/avoid skin folds? Anything I can start doing now to get skin folds to a minimum? And how are people who have lost lots of weight coping with their skin folds?

I am just a fraction under 5 feet tall and I weigh 119 Kilos (sorry, don't know what that is in pounds but it is around 19 stone).

Any advice welcome!!!!

Pip x

Hiya Pip,

There are a few of us from the UK here... I am in Wales and now 15 weeks post op and loving my sleeve!! My weight loss is slow compared to some on here, but I am more than happy with it!!!

As regarding lose skin and skin folds, I don't think there is much we can do... I suppose the age of the skin and the amount of weight lost will have a difference to each and every one of us. Personally, I will probably need a tummy tuck and boob job if funds permit! I do a little weight lifting and toning and although that helps, I don't think it will stop the skins folds.

Any questions, feel free to ask... this place is great for advice, ideas and support!

Hi there, I had my surgery here in England 10 weeks ago. When I started the whole process I weighed 102 kilos. Now I'm down to 81 kilos, around 8 kilos lost gradually in 3 months before suregery. I do have excess skin now, especially round my tummy and bingo wings, but it's notTHAT bad at least yet! There's not much to do about it, i would just recomMend to start a healthy lower calorie diet and exercise now,to lose a bit before surgery, so the weight loss is a bit more gradual. Are you having your surgery on the NHS? Good luck in your journey

I lost 145lbs (I am horrible with conversions as well), but I do not have any skin folds. I have some wrinkly, saggy skin, but don't really have any true skin folds. I have a little fat roll left on my lower abdomen, but it doesn't hang or anything gross. My skin is rebounding nicely, and each month it improves. I exfoliate weekly, and moisturize every day without fail. I don't use any special creams or lotions. It's whatever my husband has picked up for me from Bath and Bodyworks. I do exfoliate with a homemade sugar scrub. Hydration definitely helps the skin, plus working out to build muscle mass to fill in the skin really helps minimize the sagginess.

Hi Pip

119 kilos is the same as 262 lbs. If you are trying to see the weight loss that has occured with most of the patients on here you can convert by dividing pounds by 2.2 to get kilos or multiplying kilos by 2.2 to get pounds.

Or the rough look but still gives you the gist is to divide by 2 for lbs to Kilo and multiply by 2 to go from kilo to lbs.

Lily