EXCESS SKIN after losing 200 pounds

Hello my name is Kim.
I am (right now) at 228 lbs and have not had surgery yet. My highest weight has been 250, but due to my health I have not been able to have a sustainable exercise routine. My weight was down well bellow 200 lbs before, but I could never keep it off. So, I am turning to Bariatric surgery. I actually have had to gain weight to meet my insurance's "standards" for the appropriate BMI for them to cover my surgery. Doing so has now made me overwhelmingly depressed. I am ashamed of my body and have started to distance myself from everyone. I feel as though I need to hide myself until after my surgery. Then I can come out and show the world who I really am. You see where my body is now is not me... It is like wearing a suite that I just can't find the zipper to get out of... And I NEED OUT!!! Hope to schedule my first appointment with the surgical team this week. God I am so anxious to get this surgery done! I feel like I am trapped in this body and the surgery is my only escape!
As like some of the others on here, the sagging skin for me is "I'll deal with it when the time comes" and will be much happier to get out of this darn "fat suite" that I have been carrying around for WAY too many years. 
I will keep you updated on my progress. Thanks for listening! :) 

Kim :)

I think one of the most important things that any of us can do is to come to the realization that the wrapping isn't nearly as important as what is inside. Time, Gravity, Injuries, illnesses, they all take their toll on our outer image. What matters is whether we can take the inner person, and improve that inner person. This includes improving our health, as well as improving the depths of our character. Just remember that your value is within, and not without. I can show my pictures because I don't worry so much about the outer packaging. What use having a beautiful appearance if you haven't spent time on improving the inner person.

Surgery is a process, and you have to understand that it won't leave you looking perfect.

 I so agree with your statements... Yet, I just can't stand how I look or feel. When I was 164 lbs I was feeling great exercising daily... Went on a cruise with my husband and our Zumba group from the gym... It was great! Yet, here I am unable to live the way I want due to the weight. I do not expect to be perfect by any means. I just hope to be able to get back to my energetic self. Being so immobile due to the weight and my arthritis (RA) I have gained a huge amount. I eat healthy yet, when you are immobile you don't burn enough calories. So this surgery will enable me to consume less and absorb less to then hopefully lose weight. At least enough to start being able to exercise again. That is when I can get back to the real me.
I am just ashamed because I set my standards high for myself. I just can't do my marathons anymore and participate as I used to with my friends. This will be a turning point. I just need this step to help me get there and help prevent further health issues. 
On a medical point I believe my hormones are "out of wack" so to speak, due to the increase in my weight. My highest weight was after my last child... #5. So, I need to do this for them too. I am happily married and don't need to impress anyone. Just need to be happy within myself. Right now, in this body I am not. Yet it will come... :)
Kim

Thank you!!! I have been wondering what to expect it to look like. I have my bypass on wensday. So it's all getting "real" now. I too feel it's better if I can laugh at myself rather than cry alone.

It's worth seeing the impact. Understanding what to expect.

Good luck on Wednesday

OH! Buy the way you look beautiful !!!!! 

So glad you posted the photos. It has been more than a year now since you posted them. Things about the same?

I am prepping for RNY, hopefully in September. Hopefully... crossing fingers for approval.

I have a good friend that is a medical aesthetician and she is working with bypass patients on skin care, prep and what you can do to get your skin in the best shape possible before, during weight loss and honestly prepping for skin removal. 

From what she says, skin is skin and if you have stretched it out, especially if you are over 30 - really... you will have some sagging.

This is what she recommends:

Mega Red Krill Oil supplement (this is for me pre-op) obviously consult with your doc!!
Body Brushing with a Bass Body Brush before every shower.  If you google body brushing you can find the technique online.
Full Body Moisturizing
8-10 glasses of water per day.  If you do not stay hydrated your skin won't be healthy! Hair too.
She says Biotin is good too, but thinks the MegaRed is more important.
Exercise - or course, this is no surprise.

Maybe I will be brave enough to post some photos!!

Thanks Sherrie

I am currently fighting a bit of regain. When I posted this thread last year, I'd just undergone fairly rigorous and involved surgery to remove my ****yx. The enforced immobility ultimately (I believe) caused me to lose some serious muscle mass. I regained 9 pounds by the end of my enforced idleness, and it was a LONG time before I had the mobility I used to enjoy. When I returned to work, I had anticipated being able to work off some of the regain, and also to get my muscles better toned. Walking vigorously up and down my classroom for four and a half hours each day is tiring and for the several years prior I always had a weight loss when returning to teaching in the fall... Alas this did NOT happen at the start of school in the fall of 2011. My class sizes were monstrous (42, 52, and 52) and even when they cut back slightly I still had enormous classes, and there wasn't any room to walk. I was stuck pretty much immobile during my lectures.

I didn't think about it at the time, but as the weight started to creep up, I began to try to figure out what was going on. WHY was I gaining weight? It was hard to figure out. Especially difficult on top of everythign else are two other components. For a long time I was eating a small amount of food. Basically eating disorder levels. 700 calories per day is NOT a maintenance level. I made a concerted effort to stop doing that, and that was GOOD. But then I started to have reactive hypoglycemia, and ultimately when I figured my body out, and what I could eat to keep my blood sugar stabilized, I wasn't WILLING to go back to my prior disordered eating, nor to risk Blood Sugar episodes due to NOT eating. So with a LOT less exercise, and very little dietary recourse to change what I'm eating, and with diminished muscle mass, I regained.

I really have a couple of things I can do... I can accept that my new normal is going to be somewhere around where I'm at now... perhaps a bit more weight. Ultimately if I keep my calories the same there will come a time when my calories used and calories consumed will equalize, and when they do, I won't keep gaining. I may have to accept that too, if my current plans don't work. Currently it's my hope to exercise every day in July starting the 2nd, and I've had 2 days I did it . I ended up with an inflamed gland in my face/jaw yesterday morning when I had planned to begin day three of exercising, and so I didn't exercise yestereday or today. (but I WILL tomorrow, I WILL). My PLAN is to exercise 45 minutes daily in the pool to try to tone my muscles some, improve my metabolism, and perhaps if I'm lucky burn off a bit of fat. I HOPE that if I spend July working out, instead of sitting like a sloth for the month, I will maybe lose up to 5 pounds, and hopefully also replace perhaps 5 pounds of fat for 5 pounds of muscle (don't know how realistic that is). My theory is that if I get 5 more pounds of muscle, eliminate 10 pounds of fat, my metabolism will go up, and it will take more calories to maintain my new ME. Couple that with a return to teaching (yay, my largest class is "only" 36 kids), and a return to a more dynamic teaching style, working my butt quite literally off each day. With improved metabolism, more moving of the body, and no changes to food.... I should be able to drop half a size down to fit in all of my size 10s again.

If I never lose another ounce, but I tone up some and lose a bit of size, I'll be one happy camper. If I don't get there, and have to settle where I am.... I'm okay with that. The ONLY thing I'm not okay with is gaining gaining gaining until I'm morbidly obese again.

Hello, just had my RNY surgery on 10/30/2012, and am already feeling better, have dropped including the 2 weeks pre-op 37 lbs. I believe this site will be encouraging to me and others. Thanks Lithia for sharing im sure thats not your first  nature. Like my daddy always told me , the best form of birth control at my age is nudity. Again thanks, keep sharing.  OWH

200 pounds is indeed a fantastic achievement... good on you for sticking to your guns and keeping up the hard work. I only hope I can lose even just HALF of the weight you've lost. The skin will really be the next hurdle for anyone who loses so much weight but skin tightening procedures are around and after such a huge commitment to the weight loss, a little more investment on your body for a clinical procedure is just an investment into your own HAPPINESS! :-) totally worth it