saggy skin on thighs

endgame

Member
I have really saggy skin on my inner thighs and underarms after losing 3 stone and it is depressing.
I am guessing its because I'm in my mid fifties and have been dieting all my life and no elasticity now in my skin.
I had dreamt that this might be the year I would finally wear a swimsuit on the beach but while I look a lot thinner,the saggy thighs are gross.No other word for it.To all you young sw people------keep going now.Don't end up a yo-yo dieter in your 50s with this same problem.
Has anyone had any success in tightening saggy thighs without surgery?
 
Awww!! Please don't think like that! I bet you look fab 3stone lighter! Focus on the Positive not the negative.. Look at your face/hair/teeth.. whatever you like about yourself and admire it! Nothing wrong with a bit of vainity... If we focus on the Negative we will get no where in life... As for the bikini ! GO FOR IT... No one is focusing on your "Saggy Bits" You have lost 3stone.. you should be proud of yourself! And if you want to do something about it I bet theres some exercising that you can do especially for those areas =)
 
Over the past few years I have discovered that muscle toning exercises (light weight lifting) combined with regular cardio exercise helps enormously. The new muscle helps lift the skin again and it appears more toned.

Another very useful discovery was an article (an American writer on one of these fitness sites) who explained that skin is a living tissue and will 'heal itself' if the weight loss is maintained for long term. It CAN reduce again and it will. He also explained that quite often it is still fat that we can feel and that has to go through healthy eating and the skin will follow. I remember reading a part that made so much sense at the time but can't guarantee I'll convey it as well...but he said something like...skin is only paper thin, all the other tissue we can feel is often layers of fat that will go eventually through healthy eating andexercise.

I must say that I believe this to be true now as I have seen major improvements in my own body through the right exercises (nothing too fancy) but I did get a personal trainer for a few weeks to show me what to do! The bingo wings vanished! and the saggy skin is helped an awful lot by good quality moisturiser (I like Palmer's )Cocoa Butter. This is only if I am at my correct weight though and it isn't actually stubborn fat that I am trying to moisturise away!!!

I wish you all the best. I don't think for a second that it's a lost cause, and I don't think surgery is the answer either.

I plan to lose my last stone by the summer and wear a bikin for the first time in my life.

Exercise.
Exfoliate.
Moisturise.
Drink lots of water.
Love the skin you're in!!!

Zola
 
Hi again!!! I was just looking through some older entries on this site and found a copy of the article I was talking about!!!! Here goes :flirt2:

1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Just look at what women go through during pregnancy. Skin has the ability to expand and contract to a remarkable degree.

2. Elasticity of skin tends to decrease with age. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.

3. How much your skin will return to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal.

4. How long you carry extra weight has a lot to do with how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.

5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent.

6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to "snap back."

7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re certain it's fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).

8. There are exceptions to all of the above; i.e, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.

9. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. None are likely to work – at least not permanently and measurably – and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. Don't waste your money.

10. If you’re considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery may be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.

11. Give your skin time. Your skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.

12. Know your body fat percentage before even THINKING about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't complian about loose skin, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”
Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so) Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat, and women low teens).
Except in extreme cases, you are unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up and literally start to “cling” to your abdominal muscles once your body fat goes from “average” to "excellent." Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.
So... the key to getting tighter skin is to lose more body fat, (and build more muscle), up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the “good” to “great” category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of loose skin remaining.
However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost. __________________
 
Thanks Chubby-Chels and Zola for your positivity.
The information you have posted Zola is very interesting and seems realistic.Thanks for going to all that effort.
I am going to concentrate on reducing my body fat further,starting to do some weights and eating more protein to try and build muscle and see what happens this year.It is still great to have lost weight and I will try and improve the "sags" while getting a better perspective on the "bigger "picture :)
 
You should be very proud of yourself :):) xxx
 
Thanks Zola, for the very interesting info!
 
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