As a result of my weight loss, I was left with a mass of hanging skin on my belly and underneath my arms that hung like curtains. The fact that my stomach was bigger than my already tiny boobies botherd me the most. People often commented that my belly looked like the stomach of a woman that had 5 kids. Although I have never had children.
I know of others that were successful at losing 100+ pounds and they had no issues with sagging skin. Their skin bounced back. However, for many, myself included, there was no amount of exercise or strength training that would get rid of my post-weight loss flab.
In December 2007, I choose to have an abdominalplasty (tummy tuck) and lipo on my arms to remove the excess skin. I thought that the skin weighed more, but the doctor said it was around a pound and half worth of skin he removed.
Over the last few years, I have reduced additional flab around my belly with more intensive cardiovascular exercise. Much of the research out there says that you need to SWEAT, meaning cardio, to burn fat around the belly. A million crunches and Pilates won’t do it alone. Here is the link to a great article that stresses the importance of cardio in burning belly fat: http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100136732
I’m a little 50/50 on if I would have plastic surgery again. Maybe on my thighs. My hesistancy is because the surgery was the worst…let me say it again …the worst pain of my life. Maybe I am just a sucker. It hurt when I laughed, it hurt when I breathed, it hurt when I walked, it hurt when I ate…and for some reason I couldn’t pee after surgey unless I splashed ice cold water on my vajayjay with a water bottle and shocked it to pee.
The doc said it was normal and happens to some women after C-sections, go figure.
