Major weight loss and loose skin

[Pepsrule]

Hey everyone,

My weight loss journey started in September 2023, when I started on Sema. I was 369 lbs, 5'9", and 47 years old. I had been petrified to go to a gym because I imagined high school, getting picked on, etc.

Fast forward to now, and I am down 109lbs. I've been off the Sema since March when a friend who is a pro-bber offered to help me with the gym. I fought my fears and anxiety and joined the Y. I've been working out 4-5 times a week now since May. Hitting the weights, and I am going up with the weights every week. I love going now and look forward to it. I am glad I am making these changes in my life and I'm hooked.

I've been on TRT, 250mg/week since March 2023. In the last few months I've upped that to 300/week. I am also pushing 4iu of GH/day.

My weight loss on the scale has stalled out at 260. But, I've gone down 2 sizes on my waist, and 1" on my chest, 1" on my biceps...so I am growing. I am also following a bodybuilding diet-6 meals a day, high protein (yesterday I had 193g of protein), 2100 calories/day 40% carbs/25% fats/35% protein.

The problem is loose skin. I feel it happening. What can I do about it? Short of surgery...which is not in the cards right now until I have lost more. I obviously want to avoid surgery if I can. I do have some stretch marks on my belly.

And for the naysayers out there, the sema made it possible for me to feel like I could workout. It motivated me to do more. I am more than thankful to the peptide gods for saving my life.

Thoughts on the loose skin?

 

[UncleBuns]

Congratulations on the transformation! I've been there and it's no easy task. I know the feeling of anxiety about aesthetics. My major weight loss was almost 20 years ago. I still have some loose skin but it seems to have "settled in" over the years. I would look better if I had never been obese but I'm happy with my look now and much healthier. Back then I was as all bent out of shape about it. I just accept the imperfections now.

Loose skin has a lot to do with genetics. Added muscle will fill it out some. Time seems to help. For some people it gets better slowly over years. Getting muscularly bigger is the only non surgical path I'm aware of.

Even if you have loose skin I bet you look WAY better than when you were more overweight. Keep on keeping on. Stay the course. See where your body lands in a couple years. If You are still quite unhappy with the situation then maybe look into surgery.

 

[Pepsrule]

Anything I can do to help it along? peptides? etc...No concerns about pinning.

 

[UncleBuns]

Anything I can do to help it along? peptides? etc...No concerns about pinning.

I'm only knowledgeable on a handful of peptides pertinent to me. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge on the topic will chime in.

 

[songsofpyramids]

Would hgh help with loose skin? I might be making a simplistic comparison to loose skin, but my wrinkles and skin look so much better while I’m on hgh.

Congratulations on such an epic transformation op!

 

[Pepsrule]

Would hgh help with loose skin? I might be making a simplistic comparison to loose skin, but my wrinkles and skin look so much better while I’m on hgh.

Congratulations on such an epic transformation op!

It might be helping, hard to tell. I’ve been using gh for about 6 months now.

 

[AlexDavis43]

Hey everyone,

My weight loss journey started in September 2023, when I started on Sema. I was 369 lbs, 5'9", and 47 years old. I had been petrified to go to a gym because I imagined high school, getting picked on, etc.

Fast forward to now, and I am down 109lbs. I've been off the Sema since March when a friend who is a pro-bber offered to help me with the gym. I fought my fears and anxiety and joined the Y. I've been working out 4-5 times a week now since May. Hitting the weights, and I am going up with the weights every week. I love going now and look forward to it. I am glad I am making these changes in my life and I'm hooked.

I've been on TRT, 250mg/week since March 2023. In the last few months I've upped that to 300/week. I am also pushing 4iu of GH/day.

My weight loss on the scale has stalled out at 260. But, I've gone down 2 sizes on my waist, and 1" on my chest, 1" on my biceps...so I am growing. I am also following a bodybuilding diet-6 meals a day, high protein (yesterday I had 193g of protein), 2100 calories/day 40% carbs/25% fats/35% protein.

The problem is loose skin. I feel it happening. What can I do about it? Short of surgery...which is not in the cards right now until I have lost more. I obviously want to avoid surgery if I can. I do have some stretch marks on my belly.

And for the naysayers out there, the sema made it possible for me to feel like I could workout. It motivated me to do more. I am more than thankful to the peptide gods for saving my life.

Thoughts on the loose skin?

Great work man.

Having the excess skin removed surgically may provide extra motivation or incentive to stay the course. This is a long game.

 

[MadaFacor]

Badass. I have recently read that glutathione can help with skin elasticity and helping it rebound. Also I've read that GHK.cu may help. I lost 85 lb last year and I'm in the same boat. I I've been using glutathione for liver support and overall health for about 2 months and have not seen a noticeable difference. But who knows maybe it'll give you an extra edge. Certainly good for your liver and overall health and longevity. Lot of good research on it. One thing I have noticed, which is strange, is my eyes are much whiter. I suffer from chronic dry eye syndrome and poor sleep quality so they're usually pretty bloodshot. For some reason on glutathione their white as can be.

 

[egruberman]

There's a host of interventions that one can use that increase laxity and collagen synthesis. I've tried many of them and none seem to have made much difference. Best to make peace with it and prepare for the inevitable surgery.

 

[crtx]

surgery brother. save the money for the operation dont worry about gh or peptides.

 

[Toaster]

There isn't anything you can do about the loose skin now.

People have some strange idea that speed of loss causes loose skin. The damage is done with weight gain. Maybe you could make the argument for time spent overweight as well.

Genetics determines how much your skin can stretch and bounce back. If you exceed that you will have loose skin.

If it's not a ton of loose skin you may notice it tighten up some after an extended period of being very lean. Unfortunately places with loose skin tend to hold stubborn fat as well. So having loose skin and stubborn fat deposits will make the skin look worse.

Also don't believe anyone who claims fasting is going to fix excessive loose skin. Surgery is the only thing that can help past the point of minimal loose skin.

 

[egruberman]

There’s an interesting new procedure on the market. Not sure about the trade name but I think it’s called micro-coring. It’s FDA approved for use on the face, but being used off label for other parts of the body. It shows and 8-10% reduction of loose skin in the area to which it’s applied. It requires 3 treatments, but healing time is only a couple weeks.

I’m thinking about trying this instead of abdominoplasty simply because I don’t want to deal with a difficult recovery. Not lifting for a few months would kill me. Unfortunately, it costs about the same and the results are far from guaranteed.

 

[Ghoul]

1. If you're covered by insurance, and you've lost 50lbs+, loose skin that's "troublesome", gets irritated or interferes with hygiene (ie make up a good story) can usually be removed with plastic surgery that'll be covered by your plan.

2. Nothing boosts collagen and elasticity throughout the body like a course of isotretinoin. Increasing numbers of studies n recent years are confirming this effect, something likely missed in the last because only recently have older patients been put on accutane. Low dose off label accutane has become the "ozempic" equivalent of dermatology, providing significant improvement in skin appearance and reversing photoaging.

High end plastic surgeons are putting rhinoplasty patients on accutane so the skin shrinks around their new, smaller post op nose.

https://wjps.ir/article-1-1190-en.pdf

 

[egruberman]

If you're covered by insurance, and you've lost 50lbs+, loose skin that's "troublesome", gets irritated or interferes with hygiene (ie make up a good story) can usually be removed with plastic surgery that'll be covered by your plan.

Oh, hey, I should check this out. I have a pretty generous health insurance plan.

 

[Ghoul]

Oh, hey, I should check this out. I have a pretty generous health insurance plan.

While plastic surgery isn't usually covered by ins, procedures for "functional" issues are. So look up loose skin problems online, and just come up with a story to tell your doc so it's in writing, and then call a plastic surgeon and explain what's going on. Most are experts at getting surgery pre-authorized and will be happy to do it.

 

[AlexDavis43]

https://wjps.ir/article-1-1190-en.pdf

Hey Ghoul, please repost a link to that article (or the title so I can look it up myself). I couldn't get that link to work.

 

[Ghoul]

Hey Ghoul, please repost a link to that article (or the title so I can look it up myself). I couldn't get that link to work.

Here's a different non PDF version brother. There are many others published in the last few years. For decades it was "Avoid accutane for at least 6 months before and 2 years after" nose surgery. Now it's "use low dose accutane for at least 5 months to shrink that thick bulbous nose down before we operate and continue after to avoid the acne that follows from having tape on your nose." Higher patient satisfaction when accutane was used.


TLDR:

"The ability of oral isotretinoin in reduction of nose size, skin thickness and oil, together with aforementioned effects have made it a proper candidate to be used in rhinoplasty in thick skinned patients with sebaceous (oil) over activity."

Oral Isotretinoin Treatment in Rhinoplasty: A Review

The achievement of best outcome in rhinoplasty is very important for both of the patients and plastic surgeons. Since the skin characteristics (e.g. nasal thickness and sebaceous hypertrophy) has clear role on the result, many related interventions have ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Deeinflorida]

Wher

I'm only knowledgeable on a handful of peptides pertinent to me. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge on the topic will chime in.

e are you getting your peptides from? Im
Paying too much for my BPC 157 injections

 

[Ghoul]

Wher

e are you getting your peptides from? Im
Paying too much for my BPC 157 injections

I've been consistently impressed with QSCs peptides. Having used everything from top notch hut absurdly priced Peptide Science to sketchy Chinese vials that went into the trash after the first use, despite their weak customer service, at least QSC posts their lab tests, good or bad, and prices are unbeatable overall.

Running their MT2 right now, it's excellent. Hard to believe it's $7 for a 10mg (measured closer to 13mg) vial.

 

[UncleBuns]

Wher

e are you getting your peptides from? Im
Paying too much for my BPC 157 injections

Depends on what peptide. There are a number of Chinese companies that are producing quality BPC. BPC seems to be not too difficult or expensive for a decent vendor to produce well. On the flip side, there are also Chinese companies putting out garbage BPC.

I buy from sources that I've seen have a good track record for that compound, test their products themselves, and either I plan to test or there is third-party testing available for. There's a decent amount of testing on this site, but I am also part of another group that does a lot of peptide testing.