Question:
When do I know when whats left is skin or weight I still need to lose?

I have looked for anwswers to this but cant seem to find any clear anwswer. I had surgery Feb 18th 2002 and I have lost 165 lbs. Starting weight 362 and current weight 197. I have TONS of skin.. and thats no exaggeration. I can pick it up with my hands and strectch it out, its sooo gross. My doc has never really set a goal weight for me and I go back for my 1 yr checkup in feb. Should I start looking into plastic surgery now? this skin is gross, i have rashes all the time (that I have my pcp document) I have back pain and I am having really bad bladder problems, like the weight of the skin is pushing down on my bladder kinda like when I was pregnant.. anyway should I make an appt with a plastic surgon now? or wait untill I see my bypass surgon? How do I know how much weight to lose? My family keeps saying if I loose much more and have my skin taken off I will be too thin. I am still loosing at a good pace. I dont know what to do. I am 5'9 and according to my height I should weight 140-160 i am about 37 lbs away from the higer number. HELP!!! please and thanks jennifer    — Jennifer W. (posted on January 3, 2003)

January 3, 2003
Don't go see a plastic surgeon until you have quit losing weight and have leveled off, or you could end up where you are now with all the loose skin after plastic surgery.
   — dkinson

January 3, 2003
I don't know if I agree fully with the other poster. I started at 362. I am just an inch shorter than you, and I had a tummy tuck performed at around 197 LBS. I am pear shapped and two different doctors agreed I had lost nearly all of my upper body fat. Now, I still have some left in the bottom half. I didn't have a lot of skin in my abdomen area, but I have a lot of hanging skin on my legs and butt. I know exactly how you feel about pulling the stuff out; YUK!! Anyway, I work out and lift weights, so recently I had a fat percentage performed at the health club I attend, and low and behold at 183LBS, I only have 21.2% body fat done from 47.4% one year ago. I actually fell into the athletic range! I can't believe it. Okay, that leads me to believe I have quite a bit of skin for the plastic surgeon to remove this spring off of my legs and my mighty rear end, hey maybe I will end up looking like J-LO!. I firmly believe I will got from a size 12 pants to a 10 with this surgery. My friend recently had her tummy done and she was in around 178 LBS. and she had 5 LBS. of skin removed. I would strongly recommend seeing a plastic surgeon and let him or her make the call. As you see, I have lost some weight since I had my tummy tuck performed, and it is still as tight as a drum! :0) Good luck!
   — sheron H.

January 3, 2003
Let me preface this by saying that I am nowhere near goal, and haven't even begun to start thinking about plastics yet. My feeling, however, is that you can go see a plastic surgeon now -- I mean, the worst he/she is going to tell you is that you're not ready; but he/she will also be in a far better place then the rest of us schmos to tell you when you WILL be ready. Go for a consult, girl!
   — Tamara K.

January 3, 2003
It's never too early to start interviewing plastic surgeons. You want to make sure you pick the right one. You need to decide on a goal weight too. You should be within 20 pounds of your goal weight before having plastic surgery. However, if you really have a lot of skin, that can weigh more. When I had my tt, they removed about 4 pounds of skin but I started out 100 pounds less then you started out so you may have 10 or 15 pounds of skin to be removed. Make sense?? A good plastic surgeon can look you over and tell you how much is excess skin and how much is fat that you need to lose before having surgery to remove the skin.
   — Patty H.

January 3, 2003
Jennifer, By all means I would start looking for a plastic surgeon. My highest weight was 377. I'm 5'6 and now weigh 221. I am scheduled for reconstructive surgery with hernia repair this month. Some may think that I am too far from goal to have surgery but my panniculus is huge and I can wait no longer. If you feel you are ready then it's time to start looking for a surgeon. You may have to visit a few doctors before you find the right one for you.
   — Pamela B.

January 4, 2003
Jennifer, I am 30 lbs from my goal weight and I made appts with several plastic surgeons in February. My goal is to loose another 10 pounds before my appointments. But, I wanted to start interviewing and start the insurance approval process so that I could have at least a few of the surgeries that I want to have prior to the Summer season. I would rather have some things taken care of now and go back for a "re-tuck" down the road if I needed to. I think that I will feel SO much better about myself when I can have my plastic surgeries done. Best wishes in your process.
   — Heather N.