Oversize Skin

[Liam]

I seem to have stalled on my weight loss :( ,but am still :) with the results to date. I now have a waist again, I'm swimming, excercising regularly and feeling good! The problem is the skin previously containing my old excess has not shrunk in unison with the rest of my body! Does anyone know, short of surgery, how to shrink the outer coating to fit the body beneath?

[LittleAnne]

Liam

Congratulations on your weight loss. Can not help on the excess skin front. With all the exercise you are doing and presumably good nutrition I would have thought that it would right itself in time. Have you lost the weight quickly? If so your body may need to catch up with itself.

You might want to also post this in the main low carb forum to get thoughts from the wider readership.

[Emma 2002]

hi, i was concerned about this myself, my experience has been that it takes a while but your skin will catch up with you eventually, however, stretched skin is streched skin and nothing apart from surgery will get rid of that! Toning (and building) the muscles underneath has definately made a difference to my arms and legs but my stomach is ruined forever - i do have a wonderful son i would not be without so a small price to pay!

i am told that moisturising the skin can help, particularly Body Shop Cocoabutter stick and Clarins do a product called Body Treatment Oil (about £27!!!!!!) - do they work? - it's hard to say, i think they may have helped the redness fade, but that mght have happened anyway.....

Age also makes a huge difference, the younger you are the greater the skins elasticity, and therefore the faster it springs back. Also, colouring - darker skins tend to be more oily, fair skins especially redheads come off worst - as generally we have drier skin and therefore less elastic.

As i say, this is just my opinion from my experience, i have seen photos of people who have lost twice as much as me in half the time and no saggy skin to be seen, the luck of the draw i guess!

you will boing back!!!

Emma 2002

[fiona]

Massaging pure sesame oil is great for moisturising, toning and softening skin. Used daily it will make a difference - albeit to be frank I never had that much stretched skin to start with. I was quite surprised at how "baby-soft" my skin did become with a simple application of sesame oil.

Take care.

[Liam]

Thanks to Little Ann, Emma 2002 and Fiona for your advice. I seem to have a few options to consider:

1. Wait for the skin to shrink.
2. Apply lots of various oils.
3. Blame it on the birth of my son.
4. Eat back into it.
5. Lie about my age.

I'll give 1 & 2 a try and see what happens!

Best wishes