Exercise and loose skin problems. What do you do? (cross post)

I have a lot of loose skin and it is most noticeable to myself when trying to workout. High cardio workouts to be precise; lots of jumping, etc. I am not in the position to afford plastics any time soon so I need something that will help me live with it. My problem area is my butt and thighs. My butt being the worst of the two. Basically I am looking for pants or something that may help hold all my junk steady. If such a thing exists.

Shape wear ..... You can go for Spanx or thrie sister-product called Assets, available at Target.

Any type of tight tights .... Maybe with sweats over them if you are self-conscious ... Should help

A friend of mine lost 180 lbs after WLS and she doesn't have any significant loose skin, although there was minimal sag at her cesarean scar and top of thighs. She found a personal trainer who started working with her pre-op to help minimize her loose skin. He targeted specific areas that he knew could be problematic once the weight started coming off. I don't know if it really worked, or if she just has miracle skin but either way I'm planning to hire the same guy. He had other WLS clients who had similar results so while I'm not holding my breath, I am hopeful.

I've been told that if you wait until after the weight loss then there's really no snapping back but I don't know if that's true or not. My sister has a lot of loose skin and she swears by Spanx,

Exercise does NOT affect skin elasticity and anyone who claims that it does is a charlatan just trying to get your money.

Any skin that is stretched beyond it's capacity to stretch and is torn (stretch marks) will NOT snap back, and if you have grown additional skin to cover your additional surface area, you cannot "un-grow" it. The rest of it depends on your age, how much extra weight you have been carrying, how long you have been obese, your age (younger skin is always more elastic), and your genetics (some people simply have more elastic skin).

Lora

I'm confused, nobody claimed any such thing. My friend asked a trainer to focus on those areas so he did. Her result, and the result of his other WLS clients was that they had very minimal loose skin afterward.

You're correct, skin does not "ungrow" but certain exercise will cause toning and create muscle. I've witnessed it firsthand and plenty of the people on this site have experienced it themselves.

Some loose skin is inevitable, but the difference between losing with toning exercises, and without is drastic. 

You said "She found a personal trainer who started working with her pre-op to help minimize her loose skin. He targeted specific areas that he knew could be problematic once the weight started coming off".

That sure sounded like the trainer or you were claiming that he could minimize the excess skin!

You also just said in this reply that your friend and the other people who went to this trainer had minimal loose skin.  So you are the one made that claim/connection.

Exercise can tone the muscles under the skin, but it cannot do anything to help skin get its elasticity back, so it is completely false to say that the difference in excess skin with toning and without is "drastic". That is nonsense.

Either the claim that everyone who used this trainer had no excess skin is false or it is mere coincidence and they would have had little excess skin even without the toning exercises.

If you have lots of stretch mark ladden skin you better get prepared mentally for how disgusting its going to look hanging from your body.  Tone all you want but save every penny for a good plastic surgeon.  Sadly I know this from personal experience.

Because of the jigling i did not do lots of jumping running around when i lost the weight. For any other exercises I used good fitting light compresion garmet (and layered 2 bras if needed) underneath my loose fitting exercise clothes. Bike shorts, light compression tank...easy to clean and comfortable. 

Under Armour's compression gear works really well.  Right now, I have the most excess skin at my inner thighs, and I wouldn't dream of exercising without my compression shorts.  They fit really tight, and keep everything together.  It also keeps my skin from rubbing together.  I also use a compression shirt to keep my belly from moving around too much.

But basically every store has their own brand of workout gear (Walmart, Target, etc.).  You can get good compression stuff from there without paying the brand name prices.

Thank you all! I heard good things about Old Navy so I will see what they have in the form of compression pants. I have also heard a lot about under Armour so that will be something for me to look into as well.

I wear tight pants when working out so the butt jiggle is obvious to more than just myself, but I have no plans of wearing clothes I don't like just so others don't have to see my jiggle. I worked hard to cause all of that jiggle. Though I would like less of it just for my own peace of mind.