ARB0001's Journal, 26 Nov 16

Excellent point. Sadly I'm in the same boat and wondering what the ideas are.  

It depends on a few things ..age being one of them and losing weight too fast ..as we age our skin loses it's elasticity so it won't shrink back like it did when we were younger ..because of that.. losing weight too quick can be a negative as our skin can't shrink back quick enough to keep up with the speedy weight loss... But even young people can suffer from it ...depending on how big they were when over weight ... It can take over a year for it to shrink back depending on much there is ...it also may never ...creams don't work ..surgery does ...if you can't get rid of it that is  

Once the skin is stretched out (stretch marks), there is no recovery, really. Ask moms of twins or triplets. Some younger ones can snap back to some extent, but as we age, collagen production diminishes. I'm seeing wrinkles where there used to be bulges. And, frankly, I'm ok with that. It just looks a little...weird. 

Sad to say, the last time I lost a huge amount 9d weight, my skin did not go back and I became extremely depressed and gained the weight back and then some. This time I came into this knowing that the skin will be there but it is so much better than fat rolls. Both for my health and others who see me.  

If you've dropped an extreme amount of weight there is no way to avoid the loose skin. The only way to fix it is to go under the knife. Loose skin is just a given with extreme weight loss. It's also a given with aging too. I have managed to have minimal loose skin after losing weight. No cream or lotion is going to fix it.  

Ok that's pretty much what I expected. Thanks all for the comments. I didn't want to be missing a trick if there was one - but I'm on the same page as you all.  

I have loose skin from losing weight and getting older and due to a thyroid problem that went undiagnosed for a couple of years I also have very crepey skin on my arms, it's been suggested that I try bio oil for it, I'll let you know if it helps at all 😘 

Well what an interesting topic today X The only skin cream I use is hand cream. I would never buy any type of type anti - cream as I think they are a big fat rip off! I would consider surgery if I thought I had a problem with excess skin. ( My younger sister has had several face lifts.. but she looks rather odd now. Very strange ) Personally. I've never had stretch marks and my skin under my arms is pinging back into place. But I'm not sure what will happen to Tum Tum when I lose more weight? Watch this space buddies??? Let you know in another 365days ... if I'm lucky .🕛🕧🕜  

I did buy some bio oil once, it was on a sale near Christmas time, that was when there were just a few body areas that had the 'streaky in summer' effect - where the stretched skin stays pale - of course I didn't really use it often enough to judge if it was of any use. I doubt I could afford to apply it now to everywhere that might need some help :-) I don't think I'd go for surgery mostly because I can't afford the recovery time, secondly because I can't afford the operation either :-) finally if it ever got that far (beyond the other two excluders) I think I'd be plain too scared. weirdly enough although I've got more areas on my 'has issues' list than ever before, my arms are better than ever. Its an area where the sagging has helped, I used to be very bulgy at the top of my arm, it spoilt the line of jumpers and slim sleeved outfits, but now that bulge has gone midway down my arm or even as far as the elbow, I look so much better in many standard fit tops coats and jumpers. I think I'm fitting my trousers better for similar reasons :-) 

I lost weight very slowly, but still got left with some saggy skin. Then stayed about the same weight for 6-7 months, and everything tightened up. Of course being over 60 there are still some slightly saggy bits, but I'm not going to worry about that too much. They are not in places that people have to see 😁 I do remember reading somewhere that if you have a lot of weight to lose, it's best to do it in stages, and let your body have time to adjust. I do believe that it's harder to maintain the new lower weight then to lose it. One of my big realisations has been that there will be no 'stopping dieting' for me, ever. I'm always going to need to watch my weight and control my eating. That being the case, there's no hurry to lose weight, as I can't ever go back to the old ways, I'll always have to eat less than I want to, and I'm quite happy to do that, as I now have a better quality of life in other ways. 

this is something I've been trying to decide - I said for a few days that I was going to stop losing weight until new year but as anyone can see I've been incredibly bad at lifting up the calories, like just by about 200 cals on some days, others no real rise at all. I'm thinking I might have to go up to 1500 or even 1600 cals but that is going to be difficult because at the moment the foods I eat all work to keep me satisfied, and I know that if I begin to increase calories I'll have to include food types or quantities that will mess with that balance.. ooooo I do wish we could have evolved beyond this in-out thin-fat body system by now, if I learn that in 2000 years we do I'm going to come back and eat a lot of cake :-) 

I think it's a potentially dangerous tactic. I'm very aware that there's a sensible, adult me that wants to be slim and healthy, and a greedy, and actually rather naughty child me, that just wants to break all the rules eat all the cake etc. I went on holiday for a month in May, and was really scared about what effect that was going to have, so I started kind of training myself for the holiday during the six weeks before it, by not recording food, but still trying to eat sensibly, and weighing occasionally. It kind of worked, too. I did put on a little on holiday, but not a lot. It did take a lot of effort to get myself to get back into losing again. From June to September I was just going up and down a few pounds the whole time. In the end I got annoyed with myself and then managed to get back in control properly. So it was tricky, but I think I did learn a lot, and it was good to have a stint at maintaining. It makes me feel more confident that I'll be able to do it in future. And, it was interesting to find that my body changed over the summer, even though my weight didn't!