any suggestion how to tig...

any suggestion how to tighten up the lose skin after surgery

Unfortuneatly there is no way other than surgery to tighten the skin back up. I learned the hard way. I am 4 years post op and I have been exercising since my 6 weeks post op date. I was getting so frustrated with the lack of results I was getting. My weight was in check but I looked like a 100 year old women without clothes on. Yuck. I recently had a inner/outer thigh lift and a breast augmentation. Wow! What a difference. I don't feel like I am beating my head against the wall anymore. I continue to exercise and keep on track. I am much happier today. Good luck, and if you decide not to have any cosmetic surgery, keep in mind that it isn't worth beating yourself up over, there isn't anything else that can be done. Tammy

I posted a reply on another forum to this question, and am reposting here: The loose skin thing is mostly inevitable, but somewhat less severe for younger folks and who were on the smaller side of the WLS population. What can be done? You can tackle some of it by trying to put on muscle to fill in some of the loose places, to tighten the skin. A consistent extremely high quality diet and supplementation over extended time seems to help as well. Keeping the skin as supple as possible, and well moisturized aids in recovery, as well. The consistency with exercise and lots of cardio help with recovery as it increases circulation and does somewhat improve elasticity. But even after you do all that, there is still most likely going to be some loose skin that you can't exercise away. But don't discount the possible benefits of exercise to the total loose skin issue. I am pretty tight all over, getting more that way every day, except I do have some redundant skin across my abdomen that all the exercise in the world isn't going to erase, though I have toned and thinned the skin to the point where it looks great in clothes. I can only do so much about building abdominal muscles, ya know? Same with breasts. But my legs, buttocks, arms, and chest had tons of loose skin before I got fit, now they are tight! I had arms as big as my current thighs are, had batwings after major weight loss, and now they are as tight as a drum! In fact, I was complimented on how well-developed I'm becoming by a bodybuilding trainer who, at 67 years old, continues to take titles in the Southeastern US. You can fill out a great deal with building pectoral muscles, and I have seen so much improvement that with what remains I just want some small implants to give them a fuller look, but not breast reduction/lift now, whereas before muscle-building, I was badly in need of a lift. It has also improved what they call over-the-bra hang by filling out my back and lats. Don't discount the importance of building up your backs, guys (and women), for tightening up under your arms and chest. And filling out those hips and thighs with muscle and building more developed abdominal muscles will help toward tightening and toning the abdominal and lower areas, as well (within limits as mentioned above). In fact on the ab front, guys have a greater ability to mitigate the loose skin issue than women, as you can grow some really lovely abdominals/obliques to bring some tightness back to the skin! If you maintain your fitness level, you will see some continued improvement in skin quality well beyond the weight loss period. In fact, being on a calorie deficit diet to lose the weight can adversely affect the quality of the skin in the short-term, but this is improved somewhat after weight loss stops with a shift to a maintenance level diet. I have continued to see improvement in my skin even a year beyond finishing my total weight loss and maintaining. Barring improvement by the above means, the only real option left is plastic surgery. For me, at least, I have been able to improve it to the point where the number of areas that needed it has been improved significantly, even if I can't completely eliminate it. With kindest regards, Donna E. www.teklawgirl.biz

Hi Donna, I am researching wls, and the loose skin issue really worries me. Thanks to your post, it isn't as much of a worry. How long after goal did it take for your skin to start tightening up? What fitness did you focus on to tone/tighten each area, or was it simply following a basic fitness plan that did the job? I appreciate your answer. Thank you! Shannon W. [email protected] (Please use e-mail) Michigan