I've been watching the Biggest Loser, both the American one and the Australian one and I have noticed how 'tight' the contestants' skin looks... especially their upper arms. O know they work like hell in the gym and that they spend most of the day working out and getting physio etc... but why don't they have sagging bat wings like me?

I'm thinking the belly area is tight due to good underwear but the arms...?

Any ideas?

When I watched that show, because I'm such a critical b*tch, I noticed that all the men had on some sort of binder under their shirt. You could see the little "roll" above the binder under their arms and around their back. As for the arms, and thighs for the females, I think it's all related to the intense training they do, but even some of the ladies had on Spanx under their skin-tight skirts, I could see the lines on their upper thighs and around their mid-section from the spanx. One lady had on a super short skirt, and her thighs were just as jiggly and flabby as mine. Of course, the camera angle was horrible as she walked down the stairs and across the stage so I could see all the skin that wasn't concealed with some sort of binder. I quit watching the show a couple of seasons ago so I haven't watched it recently.

OMG, I totally remember Callanetics -- wow, blast from the past! I just ordered the book and DVDs, so I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the tip!!

You have to let us know how the DVDs are, the reviews on Amazon didn't seem that 'great'!

I am not sleeved yet( I just recieved my insurance approval) but I will share what I am doin pre op and post op to help with that. Currently I am doing a circuit weight training regiment. this way my heart rate stay high so I burn fat, but by doing weight training I am conditioning my muscles and toning. I also am wearing compression sleeves to help with bat winds and shorts to for my thights and tummy. The compression wear keeps the skin from jarring around during exercise. the force of the exercise works with gravity and seperates the skin from the muscle when we loose fat, thus producing saggy skin. So with the combo of weight training and compression wear I should be ok. I got this trick from a couple of women who spoke at one of the pre op groups. They were each beyond 50 yrs old and lost more than 150lbs and neither have any loose skin. It was absolutely amazing to see.

I am not sleeved yet( I just recieved my insurance approval) but I will share what I am doin pre op and post op to help with that. Currently I am doing a circuit weight training regiment. this way my heart rate stay high so I burn fat, but by doing weight training I am conditioning my muscles and toning. I also am wearing compression sleeves to help with bat winds and shorts to for my thights and tummy. The compression wear keeps the skin from jarring around during exercise. the force of the exercise works with gravity and seperates the skin from the muscle when we loose fat, thus producing saggy skin. So with the combo of weight training and compression wear I should be ok. I got this trick from a couple of women who spoke at one of the pre op groups. They were each beyond 50 yrs old and lost more than 150lbs and neither have any loose skin. It was absolutely amazing to see.

Thank you for the reply.... very interesting I must say and something that I will defo look into! As, I am sure many others will now...

Streched skin will not ever shrink back into position. It's like the elastic that has been worm out in an old pair of under wear, when its gone its gone.

Now, you can fill the bagging parts with bigger muscles and reduce the look of the sagging skin ,but it will never return to it's old look... Have you ever seen an old body builder in their 70's? They have the same bagging/sagging issues. They stretch their skin with their muscle then when they get older and stop working out the muscle start to shrink and the skin saggs..

When I was in high school I played high level Football and worked out feircely 5 days a week! My biceps were 20" around and I could bench press over 400lbs for 5 reps and a set of 3.... I squated over 500lbs and my thighs were 28" around and I only weighed 200lbs... I had stretch marks on my biceps and my thighs from the muscle streching the skin. I still have the strech marks today and much worse from all the fat....

I went from 200 lbs of pure muscle with 5% body fat to 470lbs and 70-80% body fat in 25 years.....

Thanks for the info on this book. I just went online for my library and placed a hold on it. I plan on checking it out for a few weeks before buying it.... or making copies of the pages of the excercises I want to do. Thanks a bunch! Def want to try to combat the loose skin as much as possible early on.