Looooose skin

[GregInOkla]

Hi, Just found this forum and love it! I have a question to anyone who has had a similar problem. I have been on the Atkins diet for the past 12 months and have lost 236 pounds. Started out at 452 and am now down to 216. I stand 6'1" and have a large frame. The weight charts say I should be about 195. Everyone tells me I shouldn't lose anymore...they say I am starting to look too lean. Most people guess my weight to be around 170 now and are suprised when I tell them I weigh 216. I have lots of loose skin and I remember reading or hearing somewhere that this extra skin could weigh 30-40 lbs on someone my size. Does anyone have any info on this? One more question... When I look in a mirror, I don't look any different to myself as when I was at 452, but when I see a current photo of myself , I am shocked by how thin and lean I look! Has this happened to anyone else who has lost a massive amount? Is this a normal thing? Thank you for any advice you can give. Greg

[Ruth]

Hi GregInOkla

Welcome to the board, we're glad you found us. Sorry, can't help with the loose skin, I'm hoping Wa'il, our wonderful web master will jump in 'cause he has lost more that 200 lbs, he has been there, done that.

Your weight loss in just 1 year is absolutely astounding. :clap: I'm hoping you'll share your story with us in the Bootcamp, Success Stories forum. You are so close to goal, it must feel marvelous.

Looking forward to what you have to share,

Ruth :wave:

[Holly]

Hi there:

Congratulations on your tremendous loss.

Skin is actually an organ and does have weight, I am sure that there is someone on this forum that will know that answer.

What you are talking about when you say you feel larger than your size is something that I have difficulties with also. I always had the image in my brain that I was larger than I was and when I look back on pictures I realize that I was pretty svelte when I was younger. Having an accurate body image is important and I am assuming that you just need to ease into it before it catches up to your actual body size. Some eating disorders are based on not having an accurate body image (anorexic people can believe that they are much larger and have much more fat, regardless of what the mirror says).

My suggestion is to get pictures taken; put them up where you can see them, see yourself in the mirror as much as possible; just get used to the way your body looks now. It is as big an adjustment as losing the weight, in my humble opinion.

Friends arent used to seeing you all buff, and it might take them a bit of time too. I have heard that friends and family can start saying that one looks unhealthy after losing weight, but really it is just different.

Major life changes like a large weight loss take time and kindness... give yourself lots of both

Holly

[Ka3n]

If you have surgery to remove the skin, please consider donating it to a burn hospital. They are always needing human skin for transplants. I've heard that some hospitals do a number of the surgerys for free for those who can't afford it.

[Karen]

I think the body image thing takes a while to get into focus.

We've been used to being large for so long that we have to learn how to live as thinner people. It can be kind of spooky at times when you realize that other people perceptions of you have changed because you are no longer a fat person. I'm still getting used to my own image. Sometimes I'm proud and sometimes I'm scared.

You must be thrilled at the same time by what you've accomplished. Stick around and tell us what maintenance is like and share some of you "war" stories and thoughts! :D

Karen

[GregInOkla]

Thank you all for the kind words and advice. Holly, I like your suggestion about putting up pictures...I stuck one on my bathroom mirror today. Greg

[tamarian]

Hi Greg,

Welcome aboard, and congrats on the weight loss. Skin elasticity depends on genetics and age, people react differently. I had a lot of loose skin that actually dangled at one point from my belly. A year later it improved quite a bit, but was still quite obvious, not to mention streach marks all over.

I know the feeling when you think you still need to lose more, while others say enough. Looking in the mirror is quite different than looking at a picture. Why not have someone photograph you from various angles and distance, while you're clothed. I stress clothed because if you like what see you clothed, you're done losing weight. Now if you don't like what you see naked, this means you've lost some muscle along with the fat, and you just need to rebuild them with weight training.

Wa'il

[MocaGirl]

Weight Training is about the ONLY method I know to firm up loose skin. I just started lifting free weights and I see a difference allready.

I have a problem with Stretch marks and loose skin below the Belly.


Good Luck and congrats on your achievement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:cheer:


Jessica

[golemShed]

Oh, man. It is so great to hear that you were able to lose so much! It gives me a bunch of extra motivation just reading what you've posted here!

I seem to be somewhere in the neighborhood of where you were at the start, and it seems that we have nearly the same goal weight. I changed mine to show how close i am to being able to use a normal hospital scale. Then i set myself a reasonable goal of 220. I have thoughts of being really fit someday, though, so who knows.

Just reading what you've been able to do makes me want to go out and walk right now! Thanks, and please let us know if you post more information on your amazing, totally impressive feat!

I am totally impressed!

bill

[texas-newf]

Greg, Congrats !! :thup: You are awesome !! I am also a large guy at 6'4" and currently at 430. I just started the low carb WOL last week and I feel great !! Lots of energy, etc. I would appreciate any tips you can give me about what foods, quantities, etc. you ate and what else you did to loose that much soooo fast !!

Also, have you considered posting your before and after pics on a board somewhere. That's what really got me motivated and I made a decision to stick with this!! Especially since I am feeling such a feeling of well being all the time during the last 8 days.

Anyways, good luck with the loose skin, I also have read that Wieght Training was the most effective way to tighen it up. Of course... I would love to have your problem right now instead of being as overwieght as I am... Hey, but Im gonna get there and be a success story too ! !
:daze:

Later,

Craig

[GregInOkla]

Craig and Bill, Thank you for your comments. If I can do this, anyone can. Low fat diets never worked for me, but this way of eating does. Down to 205 now and sloooowly working my way down to my original goal of 200. Only 5 more lbs. to go !!! Do
you have any suggestions of a site to post before and after pics? I just received a digital camera and have lots of "after" photos. I have some video of myself at my heaviest (452) taken right before I started. I will try to get a decent digital photo off the video on the TV screen.
I took Hollys advice and started having people take photos of me from different angles. It worked...I no longer feel like a "fat person", and I know I never will be again. When I started this diet, I had just retired early (medical reasons) from a job I had worked for 15 years. Its so awesome now to run into former workmates and they don't recognize me at all. I'll walk up to them in a store, or where ever, and just start talking to them, and they look at me kinda funny. I look familiar to them, but they just can't place me until I tell them who I am ...and these are people I worked beside for 15 years! It always blows them away, and its alot of fun for me.
Craig, have you ever read Dr. Adkins book? I read his book cover to cover before I started, and pretty much followed his advice to the letter. Never cheated once...in fact, of all those I know personally on the diet, most have not read the entire book and do not do the diet correctly. You gotta read the book and do what it says. Good luck,it will work for you if you stick with it!

[texas-newf]

Greg,

Here is a link for posting your Pictures. It's a "Protein Power"
site but.. there's not that much difference between Adkins and PP.

http://www.pppics.com/pppics/index.html

I have read the "Protein Power" book by Michael and Mary Eades.
I am following it to the letter. No cheating..well, once this week... getting rid of those last toaster waffles..

I will check out the Adkins book also..

Good luck on those last 5 lbs you lucky guy !! I'll bet it's fun to
kid around with your old work buddies - I would have lots of fun
with that one for sure !! :p

Take care, and I look forward to seeing your pics up on the site.

Craig

[Victoria]

Wow! It's good to see all the guys in this thread. I have a brother in law that asked for the book for Christmas that I had used, to get me started: "How I Gave Up My LowFat Diet and Lost 40 Pounds!" by Dana Carpender. He has heard how the low carb thing has been working for me and has wanted to try it for himself. One thing with having gained so much weight---when you figure out how to shed it, people want to know HOW you did it. I am not done by any means, but just the fact that it is working has made them look into it. So maybe after Christmas I will send him this way to the forum to get support from you guys. I know I enjoy the support from the ladies throughout the forum. But it's nice to know there are men in here, to help each other as well. :daze: Victoria

[texas-newf]

Hey everyone, I have good news.. I was excited and shocked yesterday morning when I stepped on the scale and found that I had lost 14lbs in 12 days on this plan !! Just keeping my carbs down, and protein to where it should be seems tro be working great !! I have tons of energy and it motivated me to start swimming in my gym.. Im not even self-consious about my big gut anymore !! Cause I know it's not gonna be there for long if I incorporate weight training & swimming into my routine.

Anyways, just wanted to share that I wne from 437 down to 423 !
I know it's just a start, but Im glad anyways...

Craig

[zellie]

Craig, put the high carb stuff down the garbage disposal, I wish I had done that right before I started Atkins. That's one of my lessons learnt.

I read somewhere (don't recall), Vitamin C, Copper, Vitamin E, alpha lipoic acid, help regenerate skin. Perhaps somebody knowledgeable can tell us more and the dosages.
Perhaps they will help with the stretch marks?

I've read of skin "resizing" and shrinking with time, like a year, with exercise. I think a lot depends on age and genetics, too.

zellie

[Zanthor]

The human skin is an amazing organ which can weigh around 7lbs on an "average" sized person.

I don't recall where I read that, but I've read a LOT and sometimes thinks stick in my melon ;). So assuming the average sized person they are talking about is somewhere in the high 100's I'd say it's quite possible to have a some extra weight tied up in skin after you've been up there in weight...

I'm new to this, in fact I'm just about to biol water to make some poached eggs (This is because they are harder to screw up, I suck at flipping eggs!) for breakfast... and reading these posts like this are really REALLY helping my motivation!

Started out at 452 and am now down to 216. I stand 6'1" and have a large frame.
Dear god man! You must feel great about yourself, I saw the part about the picture, and I think the mirror can be warped by the mind easier, but when you seperate it into a photo it's much easier to realize the truth! I know in a year I gained 50lbs and while my pants got tighter I couldn't see the difference in the mirror, thou in photos I certainly can tell.

Everyone tells me I shouldn't lose anymore...they say I am starting to look too lean.
I think this would be a natural response from many people. They are thinking relatively, you have cut your weight by 50% in a single year, to many they probably see you and think "Oh my god! Thats not possible, he needs to stop dieting or he's going to be sick!" Even if they don't think it on purpose, deep down it will effect their thinking just a little! You must admit you have some AMAZING results here!

Again, I thank everyone here for posting, it's hard to share about this sort of thing, and reading other folk's success is really revving up my drive to go at this and make it work!

[zellie]

Hi Zanthor,

Loved your message and welcome! If you are new, you will learn. No question is a silly question. I had to learn a completely new WOL :) I had to learn to cook all over again, and I HATE cooking!!! I was a junk food/take out queen. :D

I also think people are "jealous" of success stories, so they encourage you to "Have a cookie". They want you to break down and see you fail.

I am 10 lbs from goal, but I have more "dragons to slay" (cigarettes, more exercise, reach goal, and maintain for the rest of my life), before this journey is over. :)

zellie

[GregInOkla]

Just found the answer to my original question about the loose skin and possible surgery. Unfortunately, I have developed a fairly large inguinal hernia. Went to see the surgeon who will do my hernia repair. When asked about my loose skin, he said it would definately require surgery to remove such a large amount...no way was excercise gonna tighten up that much skin! Never had any surgery before and NOT looking forward to the hernia surgery (this friday,12/21). At least maybe I'll lose the last 5 lbs. afterwards since I won't be allowed to eat the day of the surgery and probably won't feel much like eating for a few days.
Keep up the good work guys...I know you can do it. Just keep in mind that this diet DOES work. I never dreamed it would ever happen for me, but it has. Don't do this for anyone else, do it for yourself. When others try to persuade you to cheat, even a little bit, just say "no". When first starting this way of eating, I told my family and friends that I was going to be selfish about it and ignore their attempts (intentional or otherwise) to sabotage my weight loss. They still insist, however, on offering me cake, cookies, ice cream, etc..... LOL. One of these days they're gonna figure out this is a lifetime WOE for me!

[zellie]

Good Luck with your surgery, Greg

[texas-newf]

Greg,
Good luck with the surgery. Thanks for the motivation and I'll be keeping a good thought for ya when you have your surgery.

Take care,
Craig

[PJ in Miam]

Wow, I'm really impressed at your weight loss. Congratulations, you rock!- be proud.

It is so inspiring to hear of success and see pictures of before and after. I've spent the last four days reading internet stuff about low-carbing, like 10 hours a day (my brain is frying :)) and I can't get enough of that. I'm in Oklahoma also, and am just starting out with about the same amount to lose as you already did, so I'm encouraged by your success.

It's also cool to hear it from a man, because I notice that in general, the low-carb sites and links seem to have a great deal more women than men, and while weight loss is weight loss, I think each gender has its own cultural needs for bonding with similar others.

I have known a number of people who have done low-carb diets, and in every single case, if they truly did it properly they lost tons of weight as desired (given they didn't have some major undiagnosed health issue).

And if they didn't follow it properly, they didn't lose weight (usually they did initially, then ceased). Most of those blamed the diet and would tell everybody they did everything right and it just didn't work for them... but really the issues is that they just wanted to be in denial and avoid counting carbs in all sorts of things, no matter how specific Dr. Atkins was about that.... the programming of our culture overwhelmed them and they started rationalizing that hey, vegetables and salads are good for you, so as long as they're eating things good for them.

Those which succeeded ALL seem to say, "Just do it. Read the whole book and follow the instructions properly." That reminds me of a saying, "Success is a matter of luck. Ask any failure." (Of course, winners will say they were successful because they worked for it!) It is inspiring to me that there is such a down-to-earth "follow the instructions and it will work" concept to all this.

Now, about the loose skin. I worry about this, as I'm female and it's an even bigger deal for women I think (maybe that is just my bias). I have asked many people about this and searched archives all over the web for comments on this.

Here is what I've gathered, for whatever it's worth:

Supplementary Selenium is said to be very good for skin. Too much can be bad.

All forms of antioxidents which fight free radicals are said to be good.

Oxygen in the form of lots of water is said to be critical, as is oxygen in the form of better or specialized breathing (see "Oxycise!").

Actual Vitamin E oil on the skin is said to be good.

Body building is said to be good.

All of the above combined together over a period of time is said to be great. I have read some people saying they lost large amounts and the skin DID shrink down decently over time but it really took time.

I don't know. I'd love it if you'd put the ideas into practice and let us know, so by the time I get to serious weight loss I'll have some great advice about it. :)

My own very subjective response is that I would try all these things for a period of time before surgery on the skin (I assumed the surgery you mentioned was for the health/injury problem not the skin). I really hate the idea of surgery if not necessary. Skin isn't dead stuff, it's a multi-layer very alive organ filled with nerve endings and chopping sections of it off is hopefully a very last resort.

When I was pregnant (and heavier than I am now), I had extremely high blood pressure, and I was so IMMENSELY bloated that literally I was like a tube. I didn't have fat ankles, I didn't have any ankles period, I had the figure of a penguin. My upper arms were simply massive beyond belief. After I had the baby, my blood pressure dropped to normal literally in a period of hours, and the docs gave me a massive diuretic to get rid of all the fluid. To say my skin hung was an understatement. When I put out an arm, you could see the bone at the top, and then this huge sack of skin like six inches long, and then the fat was down at the bottom like some sand in a bag... many inches of skin just swinging, it was so horrible, I looked at it and I cried. The doctor told me it would not go more than partly away. But it did over a couple years, without me doing anything to that end. I think maybe (checking out my arms here) the skin is not as pulled-tight as it might have been otherwise, but it did shrink. I've known friends who were very overweight AND got pregnant, then had the baby AND lost weight, leaving them with a helluva lot of swinging skin in the gut area; over 2-3 years it shrank, and again probably not as 'tight' as it might have been otherwise, but they didn't need surgery.

The stretch marks -- ah, my body is a road map. Probably not a whole helluva lot we can do about that. :(

Regards,
PJ

[GregInOkla]

PJ, I agree with you about not wanting any needless surgery. I will wait at least a year to see what happens before I consider any cosmetic surgery, and even then I doubt I would do it. By the way my hernia repair surgery went great. Its been 10 days now and no more pain or discomfort. Happy New Year to all !! Greg

[Victoria]

Greg,
Glad to hear your surgery went well...I'm sure you are relieved that is over.

About the loose skin...I hope you are right PJ. I don't think I'd ever have the courage to do surgery, so I hope it shrinks up as I lose. I don't care to be perfect (don't ever plan to wear a bikini), but it would be nice if my belly didn't hang down. :rolleyes:

I know exercise will help a great deal. I'm still trying to get motivated enough to do it. I would like to start walking. That's what I would like to do, but everyday I find one more day goes by where I haven't done it. I know as I get smaller, the exercise gets easier. But I want to get to where I am doing it regularly. I know it makes me feel much better, and it is so good for you health-wise.

Have a wonderful New Year! Victoria

[LC_Dave]

Good to see the Surgery went well!

Congratulations on the Weight Loss Greg!

You are definately an inspiration to me!

LC_Dave :thup:

[DWRolfe]

Wow, I'm going to have to check out your journal. I suspect you're going to be my LC inspiration!

When I first started this WOE, I did so thinking it would be a way to drop 50 pounds or so while I thought about what I would do to get all the wieght off. It honestly didn't occur to me that I could lose all the weight I want by eating this way.

After reading success stories from people who have lost 150 lbs or more, I see that it is possible. Maybe I don't need to have my stomach stapled or go on a supervised liquid diet as some have suggested. I'd much rather lose weight this way.

Thanks for the inspiration. I hope you're feeling great!

Donald

:wave: