Letting It All Hang Out On Loose Skin Debate

My blog post about continuing to deal with loose skin following my 190-pound low-carb weight loss has certainly lit a fire in many of you who have shared your heart about this subject in e-mails to me today. I appreciate the well wishes and messages of support for me as I contemplate having the skin removal surgery.

Many of the naysayers have made their point already, so let's see some reaction from others from my e-mail box today:

Dear Jimmy,

I've been reading and listening to your podcasts for a little while now, and the first thing that I wanted to say is, "Thanks!" It's so refreshing to hear some inspirational, educational, and edifying conversation about eating low-carb.

My main reason for writing is the issue of your loose skin, and particularly that rather rude email that you received about how everything would basically be cured if you just lost more weight. I've seen with my own eyes that weight-loss is not a cure-all for loose skin, no matter how skinny a person gets.

A few years ago, my mama had a gastric bypass. She became terribly ill, to the point where it was nearly fatal. She lost so much weight that she began to look downright skeletal, and her skin began breaking down to feed her body. My poor mama erupted in rashes all over, as her body was starving to death. It's hard to get much skinnier that she was, while still being alive.

Thankfully, my mama was able to get enough emergency treatment that she recovered...mostly. It's ironic that she began feeling depressed about not losing weight, and is now struggling to keep enough weight on to LIVE. Through all of that though, even getting down to such a dramatically unhealthy weight- she still has loose skin. While the skin on her legs was able to pull tight, she is still left with a lot of loose skin on her belly.

Truly, there is just so far that the elastic nature of skin will go before it looses it's ability to spring back. Some people have more elastin in their skin, and maybe that is why some people have more "luck" with loose skin than other people do.

Still, there isn't much that a person can do about this, and that is why I just felt compelled to write. Please don't let it get to you too much when folks focus so much on the remaining 20 lbs like it is a magic cure-all, instead of simply being supportive of the great things you have done in taking care of your body.

You HAVE done a great good for yourself, and in encouraging other people. Please try to always remember that- whether dressed in a suit, or with your shirt off. *grins*

Nah, people don't bother me when they share their opinions. I politely nod my head, thank them for sharing, and then move on with my life as I have already planned. That's not to say I can't be swayed, but I'm pretty firm in most of my beliefs and getting this loose skin issue resolved is one of them.

Here's another one addressing the obese question:

Jimmy,

You published an e-mail you got from a doctor's wife, who said that according to your BMI you are still obese, and in danger of terrible disease due to that.

While I agree that being overweight can contribute to many diseases, and is the cause of many diseases, I'm convinced that those of us who are living a low carb lifestyle, even though we have much weight to lose, are less likely to get those dire diseases and complications (i.e. diabetes and heart disease) because we are eating healthful foods, we have eliminated the junk that causes the health problems.

Doesn't it make more sense that it's the food we are currently eating that affects our health much more than the fat on our body? I'm not saying that being overweight is good; I'm just thinking that we don't need to be so afraid of these diseases as long as we stick to our way of eating, regardless of what we weigh at the moment.

The 300-pound man who is eating good quality protein, fresh vegetables, drinking lots of water is surely much healthier than his counterpart who weighs the same, but is eating fast food every day, skipping breakfast, drinking sugary sodas instead of water, etc.

Even though you have more to lose, you've taken control of your diet, you eat wholesome foods, you've gotten rid of the junk in your diet - so, you are bound to be much healthier than the person who is at his perfect weight eating doughnuts and Big Macs, wouldn't you say?

People are so bad about judging our health based on our weight, rather than looking at the entire picture. They assume that, because we are overweight, we are prediabetic, on the verge of a heart attack, and have clogged arteries, when, in fact, many of us are the healthiest that we have been in years. We've cleared up our acne, have fewer arthritis problems, our nails and hair are healthy, we have more energy! All thanks to our low carb eating habits.

Thanks for you blog. You are providing a great service for many who are new to this lifestyle, and helped those of us who have been committed to it for a long while to stick with it.

EXCELLENT points to ponder in this debate over how obesity is measured. Getting back to the loose skin issue, a reader named Kevin left a comment on my blog stating:

Jimmy, my personal (admittedly unprofessional) take on this is that you need to have the skin removed, and you should stop beating your body up by tring to lose more weight. You know that the extra weight is all that skin, don't make more of a mystery out of it than it is. For whatever reason, the fat under the skin won't come off by dietary means, so don't try to make it.

Meanwhile, your body cannot reach a proper metabolic balance with all that "mass" still hanging around - the body's "metabolic balance guage" is confused by it. That is my intuitive guess. It scares me to hear you talk about pushing your body to more weight loss, when you know that that's not really the problem. Just my humble opinion.

Your thoughts mirror mine exactly, Kevin. I appreciate your concern which is why I'm doing what I can to attain my dream of having it removed. Another reader had a similar sentiment to share with me on this touchy subject of loose skin:

Hey Jimmy!

I have been a low carber for about 8 years and, of course, am lovin' it! During each of my pregnancies, I gained 45 lbs., keeping in mind that I am 5 feet nothing, short waisted and started each pregnancy at about 105 lbs. My first son weighed 11 lbs and subsequently left me with a lot of loose skin.

Even when I lost all my pregnancy weight and got back down to 105 lbs, I still had loose skin. There was no way in this world that my skin would have ever shrunk back, even at my ideal weight. At one point I tried to get down to 95 lbs. and STILL had the loose skin. So no one can tell me that it will shrink back, because it just won't.

It might have gotten a little better, but it was still there. It has bothered me so much over the years that I saved my money and just recently had a tummy tuck. It has been a rough recovery, but I now have a nice flat tummy like before I got pregnant. I am so happy with the results. I would do it over in a heartbeat. Hang in there Jimmy and save your pennies!

I have heard many similar stories from people who have had a tummy tuck to deal with their loose skin. I WILL do it and try to keep at my weight loss attempts, too. All of this discussion would be for naught if I gained the weight back, so staying committed to my weight will insure that I'll be ready when the time comes to have the skin removed at last. I CAN'T WAIT!

THANKS to everyone for letting it all hang out on this loose skin after weight loss debate. Feel free to chime in with your comments by leaving them here at my blog or e-mailing me at livinlowcarbman@charter.net.

1-23-07 UDPATE: Here's an extremely well-written response to the loose skin issue from someone who had gone through it personally.

I was killing some time at work today and I stumbled across your blog. I used to weigh approximately 250 pounds when I was in college. A year after I graduated, I had dropped to 135. It was a hell of an accomplishment, but I had the same exact problem you're facing. Loose skin.

I went to see the doctor about it, and I didn't really get a lot of answers. The simple truth is that the phenomenon of people losing this much weight is relatively new (because the phenomenon of people getting as ungodly fat as a lot of us still do is relatively new too). I got the standard "it may repair itself, it may not" answer that you can find all over the internet, and he suggested weight training as a way of improving my body image.

I bought myself a body fat monitoring scale and decided to get to work. The first weighing showed I was still in the high 20s body fat percentage wise. I have to admit, I was pretty shocked it was still that high, but apparently a lot of my weight loss had come from lean mass.

My workout regimen started with weight lifting -- I thought the quickest and easiest way to fill out the loose skin would be to bulk up. It was actually incredibly difficult to do psychologically. I taught myself that gaining weight was bad, when that was exactly what I had to do to improve my situation.

I started with a ten pound set of dumbells I bought at Walmart, and did a lot of research on the "right" exercises. It was pretty surprising how soon I started noticing results -- it was barely a month later that I had to buy a heavier set.

In the meantime, I had bought my first house (at age 23 -- not bad). The property quickly started appreciating in value, and once I qualified for a home equity loan, I started considering the "body lift" procedure. I had gone in for consultations, gotten a quote, and an assurance that at my young age, I'd look phenomenal after healing from the surgery.

Still, I'm very nervous about surgery of any type. I have a rather extreme phobia of needles, so I made a bargain with myself that I'd first make an all-out attempt to get rid of as much loose skin as possible through exercise, and only after I stopped seeing any kind of measurable result would I consider spending the $10,000 for the surgery.

I took the challenge seriously. I bought and assembled a home gym, got a weight bench, a diverse set of weights, started reading exercise machines and doing research. My weight went back up to 150, but my body fat percentage actually decreased into the low twenties, and eventually the high teens. The loose skin didn't disappear, but it had gotten noticably tighter. Seeing the results were just as addicting as the initial weight loss was.

Just last year, I moved north to Boston. When I got here, I joined a gym and stepped things up. My weight is now up to 160, and my bodyfat has slipped even further down. The thickness of the loose skin has decreased significantly. The most noticable change has been in my arms -- I once had that disgusting "old lady arm flap" problem, but now the skin has tightened there to the point where I can actually see the shape of the muscle underneath. They look phenomenal when I'm working out (which is when your fat starts dissolving into the bloodstream and muscle size is its biggest), which just makes me want to push harder. I'm far stronger than I ever was, which is terrific. And I can actually start seeing the outline of my abdominal muscles, which is incredibly thrilling.

I don't look perfect, but I still have hope. Three years after making that first visit to the plastic surgeon, my skin is still tightening by the day. My goal by the summer is to gain another 10 pounds of mass, finally hit that 10% body fat mark, and to reassess my progress then. I log in over an hour at the gym about five or six times a week.

My eating habits are getting pretty crazy now -- where I once had to limit what I ate, now I have to eat almost as much food as I did when I was fat. I haven't eliminated carbs completely from my diet, but I'm a lot more conscious about how badly some foods will spike my blood sugar levels. Mostly, it's high protein foods -- I can't gain muscle mass unless I have an uncomfortably agressive intake of protein (just one of the things I've learned about myself over the past few years).

I doubt I'll ever be able to completely rid myself of as much excess skin as I want, but I refuse to give up until I've proven to myself that I can't.

Good luck to you on whatever route you choose. I'll let you know how mine turns out.

Eenie meanie miney moe! Which way will I go? Workout like a fiend or go under the knife? Hmmm...

Post-Weight Loss Loose Skin Hanging Around

Two years after losing 180 pounds, my loose skin still haunts me

Speaking of Adro Sarnelli who won "The Biggest Loser Australia" last year, did you see this article about him and the struggle he has had dealing with all the excess, loose skin on his body following his 130-pound weight loss?

I previously blogged about his decision to have an abdominoplasty done, better known as a "tummy tuck." But now he wants to get rid of the rest of his hanging skin at an eye-popping cost of $20,000 plus recovery time off from work.

Here's why Adro decided to do this:

"It was just really disappointing to think that I lost [all that weight] and that I still had the same body that I had when I was fat," he said. "I'm actually left with a whole lot of extra skin which, in my own mind, it sort of leaves me unfinished. I have man boobs and that's something I really hate and would love to get rid of. I also have a really saggy apron area around my tummy."

So with the help of a plastic surgeon and many hours of body sculpting which includes not just a tummy tuck but also a buttock lift, a thigh lift, as well as skin removal from his chest, back, and arms, Adro will soon have a body that will LOOK like that fabulous weight loss success that he was in 2006. Everyone else has seen how good he looks, so now it's time for him to see it for himself.

The payoff was when he got to look at himself in the mirror for the first time after having "heaps" of his loose skin removed for good.

"I actually got to stand up and have a shower so I looked in the mirror and I was actually able to look down," Adro proudly exclaimed.

Now he says he feels "unreal" on the inside and out.

I couldn't be happier for Adro because I know EXACTLY how he feels. I'm right there in the same predicament, too. It's been over two years now since I lost the majority of my 190 pounds and my loose skin problem hasn't gotten any better as everyone claimed it would if you would "just give it some time." In fact, it looks like the problem has gotten even worse! MUCH WORSE!

Many of my new readers who have discovered my blog in the past few weeks have e-mailed me asking about whether I have loose skin and want to know what I am doing to handle it. In fact, here's one of those e-mails:

Dear Jimmy,

I thought I would send you an email regarding weight loss and the dreaded loose skin afterwards. After skin removal surgery, people seem to be very happy with the results. Have you had this surgery? Is loose skin really inevitable when you are very overweight? How do you limit loose skin? Does losing too fast encourage loose skin?

I'd love to know if you have ever written a blog about it. It's very discouraging losing all that weight only to be left with a whole lot of skin and where you have to stay covered up.

Well, as a matter of fact I HAVE blogged about this subject before--SEVERAL times actually. Here are a just a handful of those posts for you to check out:

- "Indiana Reporter Left Hanging After Weight Loss, Too"
- "Dealing With Excess, Loose Skin After Weight Loss"
- "Is There Loose Skin After Atkins Weight Loss?"

So many of you have e-mailed me with your support and well wishes that I can do something about my hanging, loose skin after reading about me blog about it and in the final chapter of my book. You have encouraged me to not get discouraged or ever give up on my dream of getting the skin removal surgery done and I haven't. I KNOW it's gonna happen one of these days.

Let me just say one thing that absolutely needs to be heard loud and clear to anyone who is overweight or obese and is worried about having loose skin afterwards. Don't let this issue stop you from making the best decision of your life to lose weight and get healthy. Sure, the loose skin can be an eyesore, but it's a whole heckuva lot better than the enormous pain of being fat. There's just no comparison!

I really don't know why this issue gets people so worked up about losing weight, but it does. Some of the most popular Google searches people who are desiring weight loss put into the search engine is "loose skin after weight loss" or "how do you firm up excess skin." I'm fascinated that people worry about such things when they should be focused on getting their physical health in order first.

At the same time, if I get one more person sending me this link to check out, then I think I'll have to run in front of an 18-wheeler on the interstate! Just for the record, I don't believe much of what this guy has to say, so don't bother telling me about it okay. With all due respect, I certainly acknowledge that there is a possibility that what I think is loose skin may be excess fat that I need to lose, but I don't care at this point. I just want the skin GONE!

I'm still eating low-carb since this has become my permanent way of life and my body fat percentage has continued to drop down from over half when I used to weigh 410 pounds. I've even made reducing my body fat one of my goals for 2007. Nevertheless, now that I'm 220 pounds, I want to LOOK like I am 220 pounds. The fact is I don't like what I see every single time I look in that mirror.

Wanna see what I'm talking about for yourself? I'll warn you, it's pretty disgusting to look at and you would probably think I was showing you a picture of a fat man's body. But, no, this is me.


Shirtless on the beach looking like THIS? Not a chance!

Can you see what I'm facing here? It's incredibly frustrating because as much as I want to truly celebrate my enormous weight loss success, I can't jump for joy when I still look and feel like I'm obese! I often joke with my wife Christine playfully jiggling my former 62-inch waist that has now shrunk down to a 38-inch waist in front of her like some circus freak show. But I don't feel sexy for her and I so much in my heart want to.

It's not just my stomach, though. Look at what's "hanging" from my inner thighs. EWWWW!


There's so much skin in my thighs that they get rubbed raw

When I asked my doctor to take a look at this loose skin issue in my stomach and inner thighs, he told me quite bluntly (which I appreciated!) that the elasticity is too far gone at this point to firm up and tighten from my very large weight loss. He wrote a letter to my insurance company, but they refused to pay for it. The only remedy at this point is to live with it or get the surgery done at my own expense.

Those are my ONLY choices at this point. For now, I'll just have to learn to live with it and move on with my life (which I have). But if ever there was a dream that you wished would come true for you, that's how I feel about getting this surgery. I'm hopeful it will happen to give me that "closure" Adro was talking about.

As for those questions my reader had about the loose skin issue, here's what I think about each one of them:

Have you had this surgery?

No, but I desperately want to.

Is loose skin really inevitable when you are very overweight?

I don't think it's necessarily inevitable just because you are overweight or obese. But if you are like me and the other yo-yo dieters who have gone up and down expanding and contracting the skin so many times, I do think there is a point of no return where it is impossible to expect the skin to be firm short of surgery.

How do you limit loose skin?

Don't get fat to begin with! LOL! I know, that's probably too late for most people, but it's true. That'll DEFINITELY keep it from happening, though.

Does losing too fast encourage loose skin?

Some people have the thought that losing slower will somehow keep the skin from getting loose. But Kimmer from the Kimkins diet, who had a tummy tuck and bosom lift following her 200-pound low-carb weight loss, said in her interview with me that stretch marks are emergency skin and no matter how fast or slow you lose, the "skin isn't going anywhere" and that "losing slowly is no advantage."

She added, "It's exactly like having a skin tight skirt, adding a 2" panel of fabric and expecting the extra fabric to disappear the next time you wash the skirt. Just ain't happening!" I agree with Kimmer because the skin has nowhere else to go but droop down. :(

So now it's January 2007, three years after I began the most lifechanging experience of my entire life. It's like writing an entire book from start to finish, but then not having it published. You have done all that work and maybe even shared it with those around you. But you won't feel right until it is finished and ready for the public to see.

That's how I feel about my loose skin. I've poured many days, weeks, and months into becoming who am I am today these past few years. I'm very proud of what I have been able to do and appreciate all the compliments and adoration that has been given to me. But it's time to send this book to be published and that means getting the excess skin removed.

It won't be today, probably not tomorrow either. But it will happen.

Is There Loose Skin After Atkins Weight Loss?

I don't know about you, but I am LOVING these new videos about the Atkins diet that my fellow low-carb loser and blogging buddy Kent Altena has been making recently. His video series so far includes an energetic and inspiring music video about his 200-pound weight loss, a how-to tips video on doing the Induction phase of the Atkins diet, and a detailed list of foods you can eat on Atkins Induction. Kent is doing a great service to help others find the success that he has on livin' la vida low-carb.

His latest video is one that hit's close to home for me because I've blogged about it previously here at "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb." And, like Kent states in the video, it is a question that comes up often from people who are curious about somebody who has lost a couple hundred pounds. It's the "loose skin" issue. If you wanna see what mine looks like as of a few months ago, then just CLICK HERE (WARNING: It's pretty gross!).

Someone said that what I think is "loose skin" is actually MORE FAT that I needed to lose although my body fat percentage was measured at 11 percent. It's certainly an intriguing topic in the context of defining what an obese man is and I'm glad to see Kent address it directly.

Here's his video segment:

WHAT ABOUT LOOSE SKIN AFTER ATKINS WEIGHT LOSS?



As you can see from Kent's video, he's comfortable in his own skin--despite it being a bit loose, scrunched up and hanging. It was nice to see someone else dealing with the same thing. More than vanity, I would like to have mine removed to get rid of another 15-20 pounds of weight. I fully intend to lose more weight on my "30-In-30" Low-Carb Weight Loss Challenge, but the "loose skin" won't be going away...EVER! Like I said at the end of my book, it's a future dream of mine to have that tummy tuck surgery done. I NEED it to happen for my own psyche.

In his blog post commentary about his video and in the video itself, Kent said some excellent things about the "loose skin" issue that I could not agree with more.

People who are fearful about losing weight on low-carb don't need to let that stop them from doing it. That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of! Sure, I'd LOVE to keep a 62-inch waist with my belly full of fat rather than having to suffer with squishy, squashy skin and a 38-inch waist. HA! There's no comparison, my friend.

Add to that the health benefits of weighing less which will help you more than you will ever know. The "loose skin" can be looked at as a battle scar (Kent calls it a "badge of honor") of where I have come from and where I NEVER want to go back again.

Interestingly, Kent notes that people who follow a low-fat or low-calorie diet generally have WORSE problems with loose skin because they don't have adequate amounts of fat and protein to keep the skin healthy and the elasticity intact as well as livin' la vida low-carb. Hmmm. Now THERE'S a good reason to low-carb if I ever heard one!

Kent says he is around 11 percent body fat as well, so he may just try to drop into the single digits on his body fat percentage. I'm sure I will as I continue to lose weight towards my goal of 210 pounds. We'll get there and see what happens, but I still hold out GREAT HOPE for that abdominoplasty...someday...someday...

Doesn't all this talk about "loose skin" just make you hungry for something sweet? LOL! Well, even if it doesn't you might want to check out this BONUS VIDEO featuring Kent's world-famous low-carb mock danish recipe from start to finish. If you are looking for a quick snack or dessert idea to add to your low-carb lifestyle, then you won't want to miss this one.

See the step-by-step instructions from Kent about making this:

KENT'S LOW-CARB MOCK DANISH RECIPE



THANKS again for the EXCELLENT videos, Kent! Don't stop now, you're on a roll!

Sent My Success Story To The Maury Povich Show

Since I haven't heard from the producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show about having me on their show to talk about my weight loss (it's probably because of HOW I lost the weight -- low-carb! -- more than anything), I decided to submit my story to another popular television talk show -- The Maury Povich Show.

The following is what I submitted on the Maury web site today:

Hey Maury,

My name is Jimmy Moore and I lost a grand total of 180 pounds in 2004 by following a healthy diet and exercise program. When I started at 410 pounds on January 1, 2004, I never thought I would get down to 230 pounds in just a year. But now I have a problem that I am hoping you can help me with.

As you have seen in the past with previous guests you have had who have also lost a lot of weight, there is an enormous amount of excess skin that hangs from the stomach and inner thighs. My waist size went from 62 down to 40 during my weight loss. I tell people that my skin had to go somewhere!

But, unfortunately, it's still there and is a huge discouragement to me. I just don't feel like the skinny person that other people tell me I am now because all I can see is a big pile of hanging skin looking back at me every single day when I look in the mirror.

I asked my health insurance company about helping me get the abdominoplasty surgery done and they have dismissed it as cosmetic only. I disagree. Having it done will improve my physical appearance by removing what my doctor says is about 15 pounds of loose skin, but it will also help my mental health by allowing me to appreciate my new body.

Maury, can you help fulfill my dream of helping me look like the skinny man that everyone else sees in me? I have kept the weight off for about 4 months and do not plan on gaining it back! Thanks for your consideration of my story for your show. I hope to hear from you soon!

Cross your fingers for me. I really want and need that surgery, which costs about $12,000 by the way! Other than writing my book, this is my biggest dream since losing the weight. I'm confident it will happen. It's only a matter of time.