Paul Thorn lost nearly 18 stone (114.3kg) as a result of gastric band surgery. He now weighs 11st 5lb (69.8kg), a weight which he says he always dreamed of being. He now says he is uncomfortable in his own skin. He has got a tonne of excess skin on his legs and stomach and now says he felt better about himself when he was obese.

For people who lose weight so rapidly is the loose skin to be expected?

Losing weight so quickly, yes... the lose skin is to be expected. There a few things which can be done for it though.

The upside is that you can get the excess skin cut off and make yourself a nice leather sofa

LOL!

The moral to that story is simply not to become a fat c*nt in the first place.

The simple answer, BB, yes. Some persons have the biological/genetic ability where there skin (retraction process) will more or less keep up with the rate of tissue loss, and others do not. This can be highly variable.

This can be very person specific, but normally with a extreme rate of fat tissue loss (such in this case), this isn't that uncommon: The rate of fat loss exceeds the rate the skin is able to retract and recover, and in some cases reveal some stretch marks.

I would assume from the information, that the person already had some self image/self acceptance complications before the surgery. One of the issues, that may have happened here, is improper guidance/education from persons close to him (if applicable), in advising him of the pros/cons of high rate of fat tissue loss and problems he could experience, and proper implementation of diet/nutritional values may have helped him.

Dependent on the severity, he may need surgery as it may never retract to a "more normal" appearance.

This is (somewhat) close kin to stretch marks, albeit in reverse.

The skin is not elastic enough or not able to grow as fast as the underlying muscle (or fat) that has accumulated or grown underneath the skin surface.

It then can get stretched forming marks on the skin surface. I think it is logical with "some" persons to get stretch marks when body building due to the disparity in growth, genetics, and skin elasticity, between people in general. Some get them and some do not.

Stretch marks can go away with time with some persons; however, there is a "chance" they may not.

In general, stretch marks are basically the skin stretching and not biologically growing as fast as the underlying tissue, thus stretching in the process.

Lose skin can be sort of the biological opposite, so-to-speak.


Hope this helped you.


Chillen

Haha amazing simply amazing

Hmm don't think anyone would really want to sit on that sofa.

Hell I would, I would think to myself wow you have come a long way, not only have I lost all this weight, I now have some nice furniture

BB
I live this daily. I had the same surgery done and so I know exactly how this man feels. Sometimes..a LOT of times.. I feel the same way.

BigTomW...

I have had just enough to drink tonight I'm gonna respond to your post too..
I don't normally like to give crap to anyone, but in this case... I am.

For someone who once was a "Fat C*nt" as you so eloquently put it...

Do you really ****ing think I wanted to be there to begin with?
Do you think I liked being ridiculed every damn time I turned around?
Do you think I liked knowing acceptance would never be mine for who I am instead of what I looked like?

I made the decision to change for myself and not because some jackass called me a Fat C*nt.

If anything... maybe a little compassion for those less perfect than yourself and throw out some praise for those who have taken on a lifetime change challenge...

Past that... you can bugger off.

With the amount of excessive skin that he must have after losing the amount of weight this man has lost, it isn't surprising that he would feel the way he does. It's very common and I think he should consider the surgery to be one of the last steps in his transformation. It isn't something that is going to be able to be changed without it.

Fats weight loss doesn't give your body time to adjust, and sometimes it wouldn't matter anyway (like in this case).

Having that surgery is sometimes necessary because having the folds of skin can cause other problems.

I think they should have told him before they started this gastric bypass surgery that such rapid weight loss could result in lose skin. He now has to weight 2 years to have this excess skin removed.

@neonlady don't mind BigTomW, he can get a bit carried away.

most insurances, do not cover that surgery. They consider it "plastic surgery" which really is a crock. If it is affecting your health, then they should have to cover it.

It is understandable that they would have to wait and be sure he has stabilized in his weight. The last thing you want to do is remove a lot of skin, and have the person gain weight back.

I had a friend who had GB surgery. She lost a ton of weight, but because the insurance wouldn't cover the excessive skin removal, she gained some of it back. She felt horrible about how she looked with the extra skin, and couldn't afford to pay for the surgery outright herself.

I can too so...... sorry if I torqued a chain.

What gripes me the most about this is the fact that insurance companies see this as "cosmetic". I think they're full of crap. Maybe they need more fiber in their diets

When you have skin folds/flaps/batwings/thuttocks/and more chins than a Chinese phonebook.... who wouldn't want to have it removed??

I see my excess 2 ways:
1. It's a permanent reminder of how far I let myself go before I decided to change.
2. It's a permanent reminder of how far I have come.

One of these days I'm going to get the $$$ to have my the belt lipectomy/abdominoplasty/panniculectomy, brachioplasty (for the arm/batwings) and a boob job so my "girls" don't look like Marty Feldman's eyes (hahaha)..

but for now... i tighten and tone and build muscle and feel my body reshaping under the skin.... and that's cool too :-)

I have to agree, I have seen shows where there were both women and men who had so much excessive skin it was literally causing them health problems.

The last show I saw a woman had this HUGE overhang of skin, it was so much when they removed it (and they couldn't even remove it all) it weighted 40LBS!!! It was making it difficult for her to walk!

That is MEDICAL not plastic surgery!

Good grief, they'll do anything to not have to pay.......