I am just starting the process of surgery meeting with surgeon 8/28 one of my concerns is excess skin I already have wings so if I lose weight Ivan only imagine how bad they will be. I'm very concerned that I may need plastic surgery and really want to avoid that as much as possible just wondering if anyone had any luck with working out alone to keep the skin from hanging. Need to drop about 70-80lbs

I am not sure, I think it may depend on how much weight you loose, how quickly you loose it and how long you were over weight. From my experience, yes I was overweight before surgery, however; I did not have sagging extra skin when I reached my lowest weight. (My highest weight was just over 220 and lowest stable,weight was 132-140). I attribute not having any extra skin with the fact that I was a very active athletic teenager and young adult....and began to workout very soon after the surgery.

So I believe it may differ upon the subject.

i as told by my plastic surgeon that exercise WILL help with two factors:

1. you have a good amount of callogen in your skin which provides the elasticity (this is a genetic thing, can't alter it)

2. you haven't been too big for too long.

exercising will stimulate the good callogen stores to retract and pull back. makes sense. good luck!

As the others stated, way too many variables to know for sure. I think it has helped with my lack of loose skin, but I dropped less than a 100 pounds from my highest weight, so a relatively low BMI (38-39) to other sleevers helps too. I do a lot of core work which may not help my waist size get really small (since I've built up abs and obliques to help fill in where the fat was on my belly), but it has helped me a lot with loose skin and I have virtually none of it. If I was a 45-50 BMI-er before, I would probably have loose skin regardless of my workouts.....it's pretty much impossible to add as much muscle mass as one can with fat tissue.

Exercise will definitely help, but it's no guarantee that all of your skin will bounce back. Resistance training can help "fill in" the skin with muscle where the fat used to be. But there are so many other factors. Stay well hydrated, moisturize daily, and just give it time. It is hard for the skin to keep up with the weight loss, but having some excess skin when you reach your goal weight, doesn't mean you will ALWAYS have it. It just might take some time for it to catch up.

thought this was a very interesting article.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-get-rid-of-loose-skin-after-weight-loss/

I like to think of it like a balloon. If I take a never blown up balloon and blow it up then let all the air out of it it'll never be that once really tight balloon. It'll shrink but it won't be tight like it was in the beginning.

thought this was a very interesting article. http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-get-rid-of-loose-skin-after-weight-loss/

That was a very enlightening article. It made me realize that I don't necessarily have excess skin in my stomach and arms, it's actually saggy fat. Lol. But either way I want it gone.

I guess what always troubled me was that the people on the show Extreme Makeover Weight Loss edition were working out heavy for 4 hours a day and they still needed plastic surgery at the end.

I guess what always troubled me was that the people on the show Extreme Makeover Weight Loss edition were working out heavy for 4 hours a day and they still needed plastic surgery at the end.

One of the key factors those people are missing is time. As I said in a previous post, it can take time for the skin to catch up to the weight loss. That's not to say that all of their skin would have shrunk had they given it more time, but it may have improved somewhat.

I don't want to sound like a hypocrite here though. Full disclosure: I lost 90 pounds back in 2010/2011 "on my own" and had an extended tummy tuck and breast lift afterward. And that was after having maintained my weight for almost a year. So clearly my skin didn't tighten back up to the point where I was happy with it.

I do wish that I knew back then what I know now about steps I could have taken to reduce the loose skin issue WHILE losing weight. Once I am sleeved on September 1, I intend to be religious about hydration, moisturization, supplementation, and resistance training. Hopefully by doing that, I can reduce the likelihood of needing to have any revision to my tummy tuck or any additional skin removal surgery down the road.

I guess what always troubled me was that the people on the show Extreme Makeover Weight Loss edition were working out heavy for 4 hours a day and they still needed plastic surgery at the end.

i have never seen this show. but i do know that nothing, not a single thing you see on TV is real. no matter what it is, its edited and spun to have a certain affect on the viewers. so i would disregard it. your life is your reality. TV shows are fantasy.

excess skin

@@Angie413

exercise is always great

can only help the lose skin situation - but no guarantee on how much it helps

age has a lot to do with hanging skin, or not as much skin

you look like a cute yougun from your pic

that should help make your skin "tighten" up a bit more after you've lost your desired weight

i always wonder why people have plastics so shortly after weight loss, not giving skin chance to firm up

even at my age (i'm 60, please don't tell anyone ) "some" of my skin did firm up over a period of about 2 months or so

but IMO i would rather have some lose skin, than be "heavy"

good luck with jumping through "the hoops" prior to WLS

kathy

Edited August 7, 201411 yr by proudgrammy

I think a lot has to do with your ago too?

My skin due to age, genetics, weight gain, weight loss and pregnancies had totally stretched to the point where it was not going to "bounce" back.

http://www.bariatricpal.com/gallery/member/116222-sweet-pee/

Some of us need a little more help with our skin after weigh loss, which for me was not time, but skin removal.

I have excess skin on my stomach but still have pronounced abs. It is my reminder of what I was and I embrace that.

Extreme weight loss participants are VSG patients as well.

Extreme weight loss participants are VSG patients as well.

Huh?

I like to think of it like a balloon. If I take a never blown up balloon and blow it up then let all the air out of it it'll never be that once really tight balloon. It'll shrink but it won't be tight like it was in the beginning.

"Angie"

Like "KarenMartin" said.....the balloon reference....that's probably the best I've heard / read it. Great analogy! So my own personal goal has been to replace the air (fat cells) in the balloon with rocks (muscle), but I'll be honest and say it's probably more like semi-soft clay than rocks. I've been working core off and on for almost three years since my sleeve....mostly on with the exception of a few months back in the winter and early spring while nursing a slight back injury. It's slow progress and pretty hard work in the gym, but with deadlifts, power cleans, planks, captain's chairs and weighted crunches, I've managed to build up SOME muscle to fill in that balloon, though very slowly. At least enough to keep my skin fairly tight (see mildly inappropriate picture attached). But it does help demonstrate what I'm trying to explain, especially with my obliques...still working on the abs part. I did notice that when I took a few months off from my core work, my tummy got a little soft. Not flabby or loose, but the step right before flabby or loose. I know I could have a smaller waist if I didn't keep muscle around my core and mid-section, but it would come at the expense of some less tight skin or even some flab. So I'll keep my 34"-35" waist size the way it is, than drop to maybe a 32" by losing some muscle and getting softer in the mid-section. But it's all about one's goals, preference or what is the most important to the individual.