Question:
my skin is trying to play catch up with my weightloss

it seems i have a patern going with my weightloss. i will lose some then get saggy, then tighten some and then go saggy with more lose. i have heard that there is a certain about of time after you reach goal that your skin really does start to shrink and play catch up with your weightloss. i've already had a tt and inner thigh lift. my arms are only alittle saggy/flabby and i'm thinking of an arm lift. i still have 15 pounds to go before i reach goal. what i would like to know is if you started with big arms and then got to goal did your arms ever catch up to you or are you still saggy? i would like to hear from people who have been at goal for OVER a year or more. thanks.    — franbvan (posted on June 6, 2004)

June 6, 2004
I had big arms and don't have much hanging skin now at 4 years. I do find that when I'm faithfully lifting weights my arms don't have any flab. When I quit it becomes mushy again.
   — ZZ S.

June 6, 2004
Well, I think my arms are BETTER than they were. However, I am STILL extreme flabby and I think my arms make me appear to be so much older than I really am. I do not wear anything sleeveless and am even self conscious in short sleeves. My arms are no longer big, when I hold them down or against my side I appear to be very small armed. However if I hold them out, there is about 2 inches of hang. I have contemplated having them fixed. I guess I feel that I would be just as self conscious with a big scar there and would probably not wear anything sleeveless, still. I don't know. To me it doesn't seem worth it to still feel the same way. I have no functional problems, it would be purely cosmetic. Good luck. Oh, and I have been at goal now for almost 3 years. Shelley
   — Shelley.

June 6, 2004
I've been at goal for almost 2 years now. My arms were big before WLS. They stayed big even after getting down to 125. I had liposuction on my upper arms and it shrank them down tremendously. I then had the excess skin cut off almost a year later.
   — Patty H.

June 7, 2004
I'm two years post-op, and I would describe my arms as only a little saggy or flabby. I lift weights, which I think has helped them tremendously (this was less helpful with the abdomen). If you haven't done any weight lifting before, I'd seriously consider trying it (every other day or so, not every day) for a few months, before having an arm lift to see if you could fill in the skin with a bit of muscle. I hear the scars with an arm lift are sometimes a problem -- on one hand you wanna go sleeveless to celebrate your skinny arms, but on the other I've seen some folks report that the ps scars on the arms are pretty visible. There's a rumor there is a procedure that tucks the extra skin (and resulting scar) in the armpit, but apparently few ps's do that surgery, or few of "us" are good candidates for it.
   — Suzy C.

June 7, 2004
I had a brachioplasty four years ago and I wanted to comment on the "terrible scars" discussion. Not everyone with long arm incisions has terrible scarring. My incisions are pencil-thin and for the first year were completely covered when I used Dermablend. After the first year they had faded out so much that they were virtually invisible. Don't rule out a brachioplasty just because of the scars. How your scars look on other parts of your body, like your stomach, are a good clue as to how your brachioplasty scars will be. Of course, always ask to see before-and-after pictures of procedures your surgeon has done, also. Thast is the other half of the equation. hugs, Ann RNY 9/10/99.....260/125
   — [Deactivated Member]