Medifast

Everyone is so different, guess you just have to find what works for you.  People rave about Atkins....I did it from end of 2003-2004 May and lost about 70 pounds....but the bad thing, like you w/Medifast...I got very very ill....ended up in the hospital....and the extreme of the full-fledged Atkins (i didn't even have any fruit the entire time...I really went LOW carb) shut my body down, and my thyroid just shut down completely.  My PCP reminded me last year when I thought....oh I am going to eat cheese and meat and do it all over again--they he'd 'quit' me if I did!  And it didn't work for me when I tried it then...I gained after two weeks!  But alot of people swear by it.....I think the less extreme type of low carb like south beach etc. would be a bit healthier......but one of the most healhy programs that doctors always say is one of the best has always been Weigh****chers....again I tried that many times, I just didn't care for the group meetings...always the same people saying the same things every week :)  I like the one on one much better.....and I dont like to count anything or weigh things....although I know they're changing all the time..but
I had a girlfriend who lost 200 pounds in 2 and a half years.....and while she was losing, she was exercising too....and she didn't have any sagging skin....and she had lost about a hundred about ten years before with protein shakes alone...I think it was Optifast...the same thing Oprah did years back.....she lost it very quickly....and she had alot of sagging skin....she gained it back and more over the years.....but since her WW loss....she's maintained
the 200 pound loss for 6 years now.....I always remember her saying 'slow is better, slow is better' And she never deprived herself of anything....I'm too impatient...but maybe she's the smart one....she's let her body adjust as she went along....and her skin!

I think for many of us....we want it off ASAP (I know I do!) but
it didn't come on in a couple months....so we need to be patient for it coming off.....its sooooo hard though sometimes.....there are times I just think....if I could just get a good 'jump start' and get a quick 25 off....it would help my self esteem and give me hope and see that light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm still seriously considering Gastric (do not want the lap..that much I have decided for sure) and may really go for it in the new year....but in all honesty....I would love to be able to lose this 100 without surgery...but the thing is...to KEEP it off....thats the hard part....and over the years I've never been able to do that...sad to say.

I am sorry, It is absolutely impossible for your friend to have no signs with her skin of ever having been 200lbs overweight.  First, she had to have stretch marks - that's a given.  Did you really see her naked?  Think of a deflated balloon - the more you inflate it and the longer you leave it inflated . . .

Many people can get away with losing up to 100lbs and their skin looks livable.

Amount of excess weight, how long someone has carried the excess weight, genetics are the real factors of how your skin will turn out after weight loss.  It does NOT matter if you lose your weight fast or slowly, with WLS or without (people look healthier when they lose it slower but in the long run if the body is given everything that is needed to be healthy, we all look better with WL).  It is the luck of the draw.

One can build muscle underneath the skin to make skin "appear" to look better.  Skin also takes a full year after weight loss to recover and mold to the place where it will stay.   Surgery is the only way to remove excess skin.  Skin does not shrink - it is what it is after that year of maintaining the weight loss.

Good Luck with your WL,
Leila

Thank you ! "Well one thing I've learned lately is to never say never....or use the word impossible lol....yes I did see her naked....in that we went clothes shopping shortly after she hit a goal weight.....and  she had me come into the dressing room to hold the door etc. with a very noisy sales person.....and I saw everything...she wasn't ashamed...she was proud....she was trying on bathing suits etc. and we talked (and still do) about how amazing her body looked...but it DID take her a couple of years....and it came off in bursts....she'd lose ten...then one pound...then 5 ...then 2...then ten...she always lost something...even if it was only a couple of pounds...I think she only had a couple weeks where she just maintained...but never had any huge plateau....but she was working out along with it...nothing like hours a day...but 30-60 a day and did some weights....hand ones...bands and those little balls....she didn't join a gym until after she reached goal matter of fact.....but she had no sagging at all...if she did, it shaped up as she went along.....she did have a few stretch marks on her hips and tummy. & a couple of the sides of her breasts....but they've faded away she said.....I was floored too....still think she's a freak of nature lol....but she does have some good
skin/genes in her family....her mom looks about 20 years younger than most women her age....and her two sisters look way younger than they are....so I'm sure all of that comes into factor......but I just look at her...and the slow and steady weight loss she had......and not knowing anyone else who lost that amount of weight w/out surgery....and wonder if that is a healthier way to lose it re: skin...but I also am well aware that every body will be different!  And I'm sure she is probably the exception and not the rule...but it IS possible!   The most I lost was close to 100...in not quite a year....and didn't have any sagging skin...the stretch marks I did have on my tummy and breasts ended up fading away.....that was 4 years back..unfortunaely I've gained it all back...my poor skin is probably not going to bouce back so easily this time....I havent' always been heavy either....and certainly not to this extent....I have had a few years in between at a 'normal, healthier' size.