Fears of looking old after weightloss

[DareMightyThings 9]

Hi everyone, this is my very first time posting after reading so many of your posts. I am currently at the very beginning process of getting weightloss surgery and its the worst knowing that i have 6 months to go. I am 24 years old and I have been overweight since i could tie my shoes. Ive always been in the 250lb- 280lb range. But, recently after the birth of my 3rd baby i currently weight 316lbs. My body has been through it. But im still fairly young so i dont know how my skin will look once i (hopefully) reach my goal weight of 135lb- 140lb. Ive heard horror stories of people who have lost massive amounts of weight ( i need to lose about 170 ) and looking OLD as a result. Mainly their face loses all volume and those unsightly smile lines become super intense. My question to everyone is: if you already had the surgery and lost all the weight, does your face still look full and youthful or do you think weightloss has aged you?

[Creekimp13 5,838]

At 24, you have the advantage of having some spring left in the connective tissue in your skin. You're already gorgeous! You won't have issues:)

I had surgery at 46...and I'd been fat for so long, that my memories of me being thin....were me in my 20's.

Somehow, I had this weird idea that I'd look like that again. "I want to look like I used to look"...but I was remembering a very young woman, you know? Somewhere in there....20 years or so happened...and it was shocking to notice that.

So yes, I do look older. But I think part of that is just I AM older.

I do not enjoy the little turkey neck wrinkles under my chin. They annoy me a little. Being almost 50 annoys me in general. LOL. I feel younger!

But I LOVE being able to run again:) I LOVE being healthy. I LOVE how I look...a few wrinkles here and there be damned.

No regrets. Not even for a microsecond.

[BigSue 1,322]

I’ve lost 175 pounds and my face definitely looks different, but I think much better. I was a little concerned about looking older because I have seen some info saying that massive weight loss makes you look older, but honestly, that was among the least of my concerns. I think I lucked out in the chin department — I had big-time double-chin at my highest weight, and I can see some slight sagging now, but not nearly as bad as I feared. And I am almost 40, so it was probably going to happen soon, anyway.

It is weird to me to see my face in the mirror because I feel like I don’t look like myself. My face used to be so big and round, and now it is so angular because my jawline is so prominent. And when I smile, I have dimples that I didn’t used to have. It’s hard to say if that makes me look older, or just different. I’ve always had dark circles under my eyes (even as a kid), and they’ve gotten worse since surgery, but that might be temporary. I don’t have a ton of sagging skin or wrinkles on my face, though (my body is a different story...).

[catwoman7 10,922]

to be honest, most of us are so happy not being fat anymore that we're really not that concerned about looking older. I'm not. Yes, I look older (but I'm also in my 60's), but I'd much rather look older than weigh over 300 lbs again. Huge no-brainer. And as Creepimp said, you're young enough that you may still have some elasticity left in your skin. I wouldn't worry about it. Once you get to where you want to go, you can always get a facelift IF you even "need" one (and you might not)

[DareMightyThings 9]

Wow that is all amazing input from you guys. I know for a fact that i would rather be at a healthy weight and look older than to be unhealthy and suffer from obesity related ilnesses. I guess i just needed to have it all put into perspective and yes if i really need it i can choose to get a filler and BOOM gone

[Recidivist 1,141]

48 minutes ago, DareMightyThings said:

I know for a fact that i would rather be at a healthy weight and look older than to be unhealthy and suffer from obesity related ilnesses.

Dare, you are spot on with the above comment! I definitely look older thanks to my floppy neck, but I'll take that any day over being obese and unhealthy. And there is always plastic surgery to minimize the effects of loose skin (although I'm not interested in that myself.) I was 59 when I had surgery and had decades of obesity behind me.

I want to mention that I lost 90 pounds in my late 20s with Optifast (aka "the Oprah Diet") and had no saggy skin--everything bounced back and I looked fantastic. I'm sure that was due to my age and the fact that I had not been obese for very long. Needless to say, I gained back all that weight, and then some.

[Arabesque 6,565]

Honestly when you first lose your weight, you may look drained or drawn. But, once you’re into maintenance, your weight stabilises, you’re eating more & eating some good multi/whole grains, that drawn look disappears. I also think after a few months in maintenance your remaining fat seems to rearrange itself. I know that sounds strange but I swear it happened to me.

And at 24, your skin is full of its natural elasticity unlike we over 50s whose skin elasticity is much depleted. ☹️

Just think when you lose the weight you’ll be able to see the real shape of your face, your jaw line, your cheekbones. Even my eyes look better & bigger cause my eyelids aren’t as heavy & droopy anymore. I was even told the other day I had lovely cheekbones & I was like cheekbones? What? Who me?

But if it does bother you there are things you can do. I added liquid collagen & liquid silica to my drinking yoghurt several times a week while losing. I don’t know if it helped but it didn’t hurt. The are non surgical treatments like radio frequency which stimulate collagen growth. Or you could try fillers, etc. They’re all short term but ...

Good luck with your surgery.

[blackcatsandbaddecisions 844]

So I am 39 years old, I’m down almost 110 from high weight, and I still have 66 lbs to go to hit goal which is in a healthy BMI range. Almost 4 months post op. At this point I don’t have much in the way of loose skin and I’ve not noticed my face looking “older” than it did prior to weight loss. It looks a lot more angular, but that’s to be expected. I had forehead wrinkles prior to weight loss- and I say “had” because 20 units of Botox every 4 months or so have taken care of these before and after surgery.

Overall, make sure you wear sunscreen every day, moisturize, and take care of your skin. If wrinkles appear anyway after surgery and they bother you, get filler or Botox.