skin deep

one of the most common discussions post-weight loss surgery is skin. while skin's ability to "bounce back" largely depends on age and skin elasticity, there are two commonly accepted truths: it's better if you exercise to at least tone what's there, and that if you lose more than 100 lbs, you're going to need the skin removed, or at least you'll want it removed in procedures commonly known in the WLS community as "plastics."

some people with large amounts of loose skin get infections and have health-related issues because of it, though sadly not very many, otherwise maybe insurance would be a better bet for coverage. since my insurance didn't even cover my gastric bypass (but of course they'll cover cancer, diabetes, heart disease and everything else that comes from obesity, but i digress...) i doubt they'll cover what actually IS more cosmetic (i'm sorry, but gastric bypass surgery is NOT cosmetic. okay i'm digressing again).

because i feel comfortable with you, my readers, i'll share what my arms look like right now. it's not pretty and you can even see the volume and looseness through thin shirts and sweaters when i move my arm quickly.

 

but the way i try to see it is that it's better than if there was fat filling the skin. my two biggest problem areas with skin are really my arms and my stomach, very common places. the procedures that would probably be done (once i'm totally done losing weight, have maintained the loss for at least a year and won the lottery) are an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), a mastopexy (breast lift), and a brachipoplasty (arm lift).

in the picture, i can actually see the contour of a thinner arm on top, which is encouraging, like you could just lop off that whole bottom section and my arm would be great. no amount of toning at the gym (where this picture was taken) will fix what's on the bottom, but that's a worry for a later time.