Years ago, I knew someone who had gastric bypass. She started at 400+ and said her personal goal was around 130 lbs. When I knew her, she was already down to around 180 lbs and still trying hard to get lower, but her surgeon told her she had between 30-35 lbs of loose skin to be removed.

So my question is--when we're considering our goal weight, are we to consider that possible excess skin weight? Now, I get that we won't really know how much excess skin we'll have until we get way closer to goal (I'm no where near that), but say I wish to get down to 160 lbs someday, would it be more reasonable for me to shoot for 180? I guess it goes more to those smaller framed people who aim for and reach 130s....so with skin removal they could be down to 110? Or maybe them being that small is because they have hardly any excess skin?

Hope this makes some kind of sense...lol

I set a goal without taking excess skin into consideration. My understanding is that not only is there a wide variance on how much loose skin patients will have, people often overestimate how much that skin weighs.

Although my goal is 190 (my lowest adult weight), I'd love to be at 165. I already have a lot of loose skin so I know that I'll need plastic surgery to have the kind of body I've always wanted. I figure I will lost these last 20-30 pounds then have a consultation. If they remove 10 pounds of skin, great. Otherwise, I'm going to be happy whatever "extra" weight I lose through the process.

So I guess the short answer is, no, I'm not counting the excess skin to be removed into my weight loss goal.

I lost 70kgs a decade ago with diet and exercise. I had a tummy tuck and excess skin really doesn't weigh all that much.

I lost 154 pounds a decade ago through diet and exercise. I had a tummy tuck then and excess skin doesn't generally weigh that much.

Thank you, kczar and *Dean*, I appreciate the responses!