I am yet to be banded but I have this image of my body shrinking (YES!!!)and my excess skin just hanging there(NOO!!) what happens to it does it shrink as well. Also if your able to answer that for me maybe someone can tell me if those first 2 weeks on only fluids, are you STARVING, or does the protein and the whole healing thing keep you satisfied? Thanx so much

The skin... if you don't loose weight too rapidly your body can adjust to the excess skin and "absorb" it. Depending on how much and how fast there is a possibility that one will need plastic surgery to remove the excess skin and fat.

As for the 2 weeks of liquids... it takes a few days (maybe 2-3) and you get over the need to eat or cheat. I promise you (I did my pre-op diet before cancelling my surgery before) it gets easier. I am still alive it doesn't kill you. Hang in there and know it does get easier and it will all be worth it. God luck.

Sad to say you will never end up as tight as if you hadnt gotten fat in the first place. There will be looseness and jiggliness there that being fat has caused.

But there's no certainty that it will require surgery or even be anything anyone else would ever notice. It may be allright.

But lose the weight first, then worry.

I had to have surgery to remove excess from my stomach, legs and soon my arms ... and a boob job lol

As another poster said it depends on how much you have to lose.

It also depends on your age as the elasticity in the skin becomes less as you get older. Having said that i was 15 when i got the band, i still had to have the surgery after waiting a few years to see if it would shrink because i lost such a large amount :-)

Unfortunatly if you lose more then 45kgs chances are you will have excess, it will shrink over the years but it can only shrink so much.

I don't nessesarily believe in the hole " if you lose it slow you wont get excess" i lost weight very slowly and still had a tone!

Bel

It's so funny to me how my tummy is hanging... not funny ha ha, but funny hmm? My "pouch" use to be solid hard, but now it hangs and is spongey soft. I know that I'll need some type of surgery to correct it... Perhaps the pannectomy? I haven't had kids yet and don't want the tightening of a tummy tuck.

Bel.... thanks for saying the slow thing isn't is always true. I know when i lost even 20 or 30 pounds before my boobs just hung farther down... lol... for me I definitely plan on a reduction/lift before anything else.

I have read somewhere that the elasticity of skin is also hereditary. Also your age has something to do with it. I KNOW for a fact I will have excess skin. When I lost 60 punds before on one of my crazy diets(GAINED IT ALL BACK!) PRE banding, when I would lay down I could grab my skin in a pinching movement on my belly. I was reminded of pizza dough. YUK! Now after banding, I relize this is my fate. Yet another reason to not like myself. BUT, I can have it cut off. I choose to go that route when I get there.

I'm hoping I will win the lottery so I can afford massive cosmetic surgery! In the mean time, I can hide skin with clothing and the only person who sees me without clothes is my bf. If he loved me at 330 lbs , I think he will be able to cope with some extra skin. I have come to accept the fact that I will never look good naked. It's just a side effect of neglecting my body all my life. At least we can be healthy!!

Stacie i totally know what you mean, i can't wait for a boob job, sometimes i worry they flop around so much they will choke me in my sleep lol

Chelsey your body after losing weight will be different but im sure you will think your even more beautiful then when you had the weight on, you will be amazed how much confidence you gain!

Bel for so young you are so wise. Thanks for making me laugh, yes I imagined my boobs choking me.. yikes. I have always been large chested (and its not my weight, mom was stacked and really thin...lol) but I am excited at thwm being big and me thinner... It may not ever be a "hot body" but it will me beautiful and make someone else very happy!

I will tell ya, the weight loss more then makes up for the ape tits! Besides its nothing a good surgeon cant fix....i want to marry one to save some money lol

I always think i am my surgeons masterpiece and damn he's a lucky boy for seeing me naked on the table! lol

I am sure you are already a beautiful person and im sure when you have the lost the weight you will be a stunner! Ape tits or no ape tits.

When you think about it we are very similar to apes anyways lol

Take care

Bel

ps. if you have any questions send me a pm and i will help in any way i can

It would be just my luck to live through the lapband surgery, loose 150 pounds, then die during plastic surgery. How depressing would that be!

It really doesn't matter how slowly you lose the weight. That will have minimal impact, if any. I've typed this out too many times to do it again, so I'll be lazy and cut/paste:

Speed of weightloss isn't as much of a factor as people tend to think. Your really heavy hitters here are going to include:

• Genetics, as the natural composition of your skin. Some skin is "stretchier" than others, e.g. the woman who has twins and doesn't get a single strechmark versus the 12 y/o whose hips gets covered with them through puberty. Fairer skin is often seen as less likely to stretch out than darker, and scarring of any type on darker skin is seen as more significant.
  
• Overall health. e.g. smokers tend to have more issues with skin than non-smokers.
  
• Duration and extent to which the skin was stretched out. If you're fat for a week and 12 y/o, your skin's probably going to be ok. If you're fat for a significant period of time, and not very young, you're going to have loose skin. Just like anything else, temporary stretches can usually be absorbed without deformation or injury, but long-term stretches will change the long-term shape.
  
• Your predisposition to stretch marks (genetics, but from a different perspective). If you have stretch marks, you're going to have loose skin. I don't even know that there could be an exception to this. Strech marks come from breakdown, and once the skin is broken down, there's nothing to bring it back. Think of an old sock with old elastic. Once the elastic breaks or loses its ability to stretch, the sock will never be tight again. Same with your skin.
  

I'm just feeling this way today because I am getting ready to turn 50 in May. But really, I am looking forward to the next half of my life.