Hey everyone,

My surgery is coming up in September! I just had my egd done on tuesday and they said everything looked good. I'm wondering how much weight you all lost after surgery and at what rate? Also one of my biggest fears is loose skin after the weight loss. Has anyone else struggled with this? I'm 5'7 and about 293 lbs.

you'll most likely have loose skin. But I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say that looking back, we probably shouldn't have wasted a lot of brain cells worrying about the loose skin. Most of us would take the loose skin ANY DAY over being 100 - or 200 - or whatever pounds overweight. The loose skin is a pretty minor issue when you look at the big picture. Plus for most of us, it's pretty easy to hide in clothes. And if it REALLY bothers you, plastic surgery will take care of it. So I know it's hard to believe now, but the loose skin should NOT be your biggest fear. Being 100+ lbs overweight should be.

here I am, after my initial loss of 235 lbs (I've since gained 12 lbs), with tons of loose skin. See it? Doesn't it look awful?

Edited June 4, 20206 yr by catwoman7

45 minutes ago, catwoman7 said:

you'll most likely have loose skin. But I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say that looking back, we probably shouldn't have wasted a lot of brain cells worrying about the loose skin. Most of us would take the loose skin ANY DAY over being 100 - or 200 - or whatever pounds overweight. The loose skin is a pretty minor issue when you look at the big picture. Plus for most of us, it's pretty easy to hide in clothes. And if it REALLY bothers you, plastic surgery will take care of it. So I know it's hard to believe now, but the loose skin should NOT be your biggest fear. Being 100+ lbs overweight should be.

here I am, after my initial loss of 235 lbs (I've since gained 12 lbs), with tons of loose skin. See it? Doesn't it look awful?

You look amazing!!! How long did it take for you to notice the weight loss? I love your sandals btw, I got a pair similar to those a couple days ago

I can't remember how long it took me to notice the weight loss - maybe a couple of months? But others didn't start noticing until four months later. But then, I started off at over 300 lbs - so at that rate, you really have to lose over 50 lbs before people start noticing.

11 minutes ago, catwoman7 said:

I can't remember how long it took me to notice the weight loss - maybe a couple of months? But others didn't start noticing until four months later. But then, I started off at over 300 lbs - so at that rate, you really have to lose over 50 lbs before people start noticing.

Thanks for timeline estimate. I’ve only told a few others about WLS like hairdresser I’ve had for 18 years. She saw me 2 weeks ago, expecting to view seriously new me. Despite my 30+ lb loss I could tell she was searching for something to say other than...”I see no change.”?

She asked “Did you have the surgery??” My reply, “Yes, 3 months ago, down 30lbs but I guess it takes time”. She (rather embarrassed, yet wanting to support) said “Oh yea, it takes time”. I came home so deflated like all this effort and there will be no change??? The kind of feeling that at one time would have turned into self soothing with carbs.

Ahhh, patience.

12 minutes ago, Lily66 said:

Thanks for timeline estimate. I’ve only told a few others about WLS like hairdresser I’ve had for 18 years. She saw me 2 weeks ago, expecting to view seriously new me. Despite my 30+ lb loss I could tell she was searching for something to say other than...”I see no change.”?

She asked “Did you have the surgery??” My reply, “Yes, 3 months ago, down 30lbs but I guess it takes time”. She (rather embarrassed, yet wanting to support) said “Oh yea, it takes time”. I came home so deflated like all this effort and there will be no change??? The kind of feeling that at one time would have turned into self soothing with carbs.

Ahhh, patience.

in some ways I was kind of glad, because I didn't want it widely known that I'd had surgery. I had WLS in June (2015), and people didn't start noticing my weight loss until October. I highly doubt any of them linked that back to the "staycation" I took four months earlier (I told them I was taking a couple of weeks off to work on house projects rather than to have WLS!).

I started with very similar stats, I do have some loose skin, but it’s 2718262282 times better then being fat