Excess skin after losing weight?

[Seifer]

I have an under active thyroid, so it has been very difficult to lose any sort of weight, and I easily pack it all on again. I was diagnosed with it when I was 14, I'm currently 21, going on 22 in October.

 

Anyways, before I started training, I was 5'9, 265 lbs, through a lot of work and kicking myself in the ass to stay motivated, I got down to 195 lbs. The hardest part is the excess skin and the incredible amount of stretch marks I have everywhere on my biceps/stomach/shoulders/arm pits. Now, I know the stretch marks will never go away, but is there anything I can do about the excess skin without having to go through surgery? I feel worse now than I did when I was heavier, but I guess it's all cosmetic now.

 

I did gain some things, like I don't wake up with chest pains anymore, and I breathe a lot easier, but I can't help but feel really down. Some people go through their transformations and look a lot better.

 

Also, if there is anyone like me, how do you deal with it? stretch marks/excess skin.

[zinzen]

Exess skin with eventually remodel itself just like the rest of the body, but unfortunatly this could take a long long time.

There are no quick fixes here, I am sorry.

Surgery is all the quick fix you will get, congrats on loosing enough fat to have the loose skin though

[gfxlonghorn]

When I started getting stretch marks(for the opposite reason), I looked up stuff to get rid of it, and people recommend coco butter and just products that normally combat the pregnancy stretch marks . However, I used for a couple of months, and saw no difference really, They eventually become less noticeable, and I know skin tightens up some, but I think the most proactive thing, other than surgery, would be trying to fill your skin out with muscle.

[SeaweedWater]

I went from 250 to 178 in the past 5 years. My stretchmarks have gotten significantly less noticeable in the past yr or two, I have extra skin where my gut used to be, on the insides of my legs and the undersides of my arms, the skin has went nowhere in the past 5 yrs since I started losing the weight, it seems like the only solution is filling it in with muscle.

[Katabatic]

fill your skin out with muscle.

[vegnchick]

Hey- I was told that as you are losing weight you should be putting on muscle at the same time. So then you won't have the loose skin. Those stretch marks are hard to get rid of. After a while they fade from red-ish to silvery-white. Some health food markets sell oils that will help to fade them. There is one called pregnant belly oil by a company called Motherlove. I think the stuff would be great for anyone to use- not just pregnant women.

[beforewisdom]

I lost about 48 pounds last year. While I was doing that I read a lot of online weight loss support groups. I talked with a number of people who lost truly massive amounts of weight ( over 100 lbs ) and who maintained that loss for years. They were a fountain of information.

 

In regards to lose skin it helps to lose weight slowly, no more than 1 - 2 pounds a week and to exercise while you are reducing. Young people have a better chance of recovering their skin as do people who do resistance training.

 

However, given a HUGE amount of weight lost you are likely not to get perfection without surgery.