EXTRA SKIN

[kimalexrn]

HELLO, ITS ME, KIM. IM STILL NEW TO MF. I GOT ALONG WAY TO GO. I STARTED AT 250 AND WANT TO BE 170 OR SO. I'M WORRIED ABOUT HAVING EXTRA FLAB. CAN ANY OF YOU "BIG LOSER'S" TELL ME WHAT AND IF YOU DID ABOUT EXTRA SKIN SAGGING.

KIM

[dlr2424]

Kim...........I wouldn't give it a thought...... .......it might not happen......and if it does.... .....I'd worry about it then..........besides.......being thinner and a little saggy..........is far better than being big and flabby....................some of us (including me) have a tendacy of worrying about things that may never come to be....... .....wasted energy for sure............so I would say the only thing I would focus on this moment is your goal....... .....keep shakin.... ....and you'll be fine....... .....
donna....dlr2424

[Walks262]

Kim,

First, get rid of the excess weight and hopefully the excess skin will take care of itself. There have been some discussions on this topic in the forum. Here is one -- it includes comments from Nancy who lost 135 pounds:

http://www.makemethinner.com/forum/diet-1980.html

You will see in that thread the suggestion to use the search feature and put in "loose and skin" or put in "sag."

Good luck! Medifast is wonderful; keep using it to get you to your goal!

[Unca_Tim]

Here's another one:

http://www.makemethinner.com/forum/diet-420.html

[Diet Diva]

Good Morning,

Great question/concern as it hits home for a lot of us. I can share my experience with you, and hope it helps. I started out @ a whopping 310 lbs. a couple of years ago. (I'm a small 34 yr. old woman and this was a grossly out of control weight for me.) I did traditional diet and exercise to get down to 238-- a 72 lb. loss and then started Medifast. I have since lost 66 more pounds for a total loss of 138 lbs. and I still have 67 to go for a total of 205 lb. loss. I can tell you, after this current 138 lb. loss I don't have any loose, saggy or baggy skin. This was something that I was very concerned about at first, but it seems like my body just knows what to do and everything seems to cinch right back in to place. I knew that if anyone would suffer from loose skin, it would be me since I was so extremely heavy on a tiny frame. Luckily it hasn't been an issue. Now please understand I am not an expert, just another fellow dieter sharing my own anectdotal notes.

I have also done quite a bit of research on this issue since I knew it would hit home for me. There seems to be a school of thought that you might not hear from the plastic surgery front, quite understandably, but the idea is that in many cases, our bodies can adapt to even extreme wieght loss. The idea is that it may take some time, but our skin is the largest organ in our body, and as an organ it strives to work efficiently. Excess skin would not be efficient, so if someone were to "theoretically" get down to a low enough % of body fat, the body would adapt and the skin would eventually look normal--though it may take time, perhaps several months. The theory is that any hanging or loose skin is actually still covering a layer of fat--and to get rid of that skin, you need to reduce body fat. I just saw a show where a plastic surgeon was doing liposuction and tucks and such on a patient. The surgeon actually admitted that the procedures would not be necessary if the patient had dieted down to a lower % body fat, but surgery offered a "quicker solution." Hmmmm...really got me to thinking. I guess I'm willing to take the slow route, and see if my body can truly heal itself, and have my largest organ do it's efficient work...we'll see.

One fabulous thing is that Medifast will ensure that you don't lose any muscle, which I believe does contribute to the saggy baggy elephant syndrome...so good news for Medifast users, we're on the right track!

So...up until now things are just fine. I will let you know the final results in another 60 pounds or so. Hope this helps.

Diet Diva