First post! Yeaaaaah!

[catecholamine]

I was waiting for this forum to pop up. There was one for lightweights, but what about the opposite?
I have a BMI of 62 and I am worried about the excess skin I will have after the weight loss.
Worried I won't lose as fast as I should.
Worried about a lot of things.

I'm just thankful I don't have to fly for surgery or I'd either be all up in the next seat's personal space or have to buy two seats!

 

[brooklyngirl]

I feel you girl! After losing 140 pounds, I'm still heavier than a lot of others at their starting weight. I started at a bmi of 64 and at 5 months I'm at a 44. I definitely experience the stair stepping thing- sometimes no loss for a couple weeks (or even a gain before my period) and then a rapid drop for a while. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I'm totally worried about the skin as well, hell, I have a ton already! I would've sooner gone sleeveless at my heaviest than I would now!

 

[Happy DSr]

I only started at 56 BMI, so lightweight to you. But I can report that having lost 200 pounds, I am quite OK with my skin. I do have the luxury at my age to keep most of it covered, and I am so cold in the summer that I prefer 3/4 or long sleeve

 

[Paula]

Loose skin...it's probably going to likely happen. Skin has elasticity, but I think we heavyweights just stretched ours too far for it to bounce back. I honestly look like a Shar Pei dog and a weather balloon (and a melted candle) met on a hot summer night and gave birth to little Shar Pei balloon melty candle offspring 9 months later, but I'll gladly take this any day of the week and twice on Sunday to be where I'm at in my life right now.

Get that life of yours back. All things are possible as far as plastic surgery goes

Please please please don't expect or worry about losing weight fast. Let your DS do it's thing in its time and I promise you it's going to take you on one hell of a ride. We didn't gain it overnight and even though the DS is a miracle, it can't take it off overnight either. But it will happen 99.999% of the time

 

[Taterweight]

Joining in!

Just had my last pre-op, well part 1 of 2 for the psych eval. Have to wait for insurance to authorize part 2 even though I'm SELF-PAY! But I digress. I will be traveling for surgery and have been freaking out over it - so thanks for bringing up the topic, Catecholamine! I've resigned myself to flying first class. Painful in the wallet but might as well eliminate more stress trying to conform to tiny seats with healing wounds! Loose skin I will gladly deal with!

 

[catecholamine]

Loose skin...it's probably going to likely happen. Skin has elasticity, but I think we heavyweights just stretched ours too far for it to bounce back. I honestly look like a Shar Pei dog and a weather balloon (and a melted candle) met on a hot summer night and gave birth to little Shar Pei balloon melty candle offspring 9 months later, but I'll gladly take this any day of the week and twice on Sunday to be where I'm at in my life right now.

Get that life of yours back. All things are possible as far as plastic surgery goes

Hah. Yeah, I expect loads of loose skin, especially because I've been obese most of my life. I'm hoping I'll get lots of rashes and such to get my insurance to pay for plastics I already have issues with, uh, one particular roll and rashes/yeast infections. Not vaginal yeast infections, only under one roll and under my arms. I have to put deodorant on twice a day, powder mah rolls, lol, and just generally be very hygienic or I have issues. Being SSMO has so many bad things that come with it that people never think about.

 

[kster]

I have it everywhere.. esepcially after starting at 356 loosing 125 lbs.. gaining 33/34 with pregnancy.. rapidly loosing 25lbs and then some, but even though I am self conscious about it I try to remind myself that the loose skin looks much better than having that extra 100+ lbs on my body. I still have 70-80 lbs I'd am bound and determined to loose, but until I get there and maintain I just remind myself that the current version of myself is much better than the old version. I try not to focus on the plastic surgery aspect of it. I told myself in the beginning that I wouldn't even consider it until I have maintained for over a year and a half. I do not have any issues as far as rashes or anything like that and I am very HAPPY I don't. Now since having a child and seeing what that also does to my body even if I do get to goal I may not consider plastics until I'm done having babies.

Guess what I'm trying to say is... loose skin is NOT the end of the world. Look at it as something to show for your hard work...... if nothing else you can use your arm flap to smack someone in the face if they tick you off!! lol

 

[JJ The Jet Plane]

My starting BMI was 84. I am now a 33 left over skin is just part of the process and to be expected. I would say to keep moving and exercise then if you are able to have plastics you will have the best results possible. Even with all the workouts in the world we cannot undo what has been done. We can make it better and live a healthier life. Which was my goal in the beginning, choosing HEALTH.

 

[smokinstella]

Another heavyweight chiming in. My highest was 482, my bmi was something like a 76 or 77 can't remember. The loose skin can be crazy on us. I just had over 20lbs removed from my arms and tummy. When you have that much extra that can be removed it makes for lots of discomfort just doing normal stuff. When I had my wls I didn't care if anything happened to the skin. Yet the more weight I lost the more rashes I would get. I could get stuff cleared up only for it to come back again. I then knew I needed reconstruction to at least get rid of some of the rash issues. We loose our weight to improve our health and getting some of the skin removed is part of that processes for some of us as well due to the issues brought on by the skin.

 

[Elizabeth N.]

I started around 63 and my excess skin was not nearly as horrible as I thought it could be. I guess it was rather widely distributed . When I had my hernia repair/tummy tuck, I was surprised that the removed skin only weighed in the vicinity of three pounds--though that was off my body and therefore without blood and other fluids counted in.

That experience was so difficult that I'm not terribly likely to ever consider another reconstructive procedure, even if I were to win the lottery and be able to afford it.

 

[Cello]

High BMI: 61
Low: 31.8
Current: 39.5

Skin happens. Really no way to avoid it with our higher BMIs. And 'Loose' is the equivalent to, I dunno, 'Curvy?' as a euphemism for I-didn't-know-humans-could-actually-look-like-that skin. Just roll with it as best you can. I think actually living with it is easier for a lot of us than it sounds pre-op. I've had some removed (pani-t/t) and may have some more down the road. It's a big decision though. As I understand it, the more surface area, the more potential for problems. Health and vitality are the big prizes here. If we keep our eyes on those, the rest really does work itself out.