Hey Divas, our good friend Author Caroline Jhingory recently wrote to us to talk about loose skin.  We featured the story of her 150 pound weight loss back in July and she received a lot of questions from Black Women Losing Weight members about sagging skin post-weight loss.  She shared the info below and photo for more info:
“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 bothered 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.
I’m a little 50/50 on whether I would have plastic surgery again.  Maybe on my thighs. I’m a little hesitant 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 surgery unless I splashed ice cold water on my “vajayjay” with a water bottle and shocked it to pee. The doctor said this was normal and that it happens to some women after C-sections, so go figure.”
Check out Caroline on Instagram.
Terri says
I am new to this website and have seen the many stories that have inspired me to lose weight. I reached my max weight last year when I weighed in at 287 lbs. I could feel the weight in every orphus of my body. I was diagnosed with inflamatory arthritis and COPD which is another diagnosis for obese which is what I translated to. Well anyway, the doctors were making a lot of money off of me and I am still seeing my credit score decline from all the medical bills accrued from my weight. At some point I was tired of taking the medications and the doctor planning to use me as a research rat with some new medications. So I took my life back. I started working out 30 minutes a day ,this turned into 60 minutes and less eating. My two biggest weaknesses is carbs (italian bread or Panera bread and pastries of sorts, ice cream). But I did my best and right now I am at 250 which I can seem to get below. For this reason is because I have not dedicated myself like I did before but I am about to start back up again because winter does well for me with working out on my treadmill. I also plan to limit my intake of sweets (homemade rice crispy treats and double fudge chocolate brownie ice cream). So I will like to continue to keep people posted on my success and I feel this is a good place to start. I like to see women meet their challenge. I do not think the surgeries are for me but any weight that a person loses is a great success.
Elaine says
I was 281 pounds,I’ve lost 50 POUNDS with 50/60 to go it’s a golden yet rough & HAPPY journey…I’ve been on my journey since March 2015,I weigh in every 3 months with my doctor,my last weigh in was Nov 23rd….and I’m 54 yrs old…..the first things I stopped was…NO Soda,No Fruit Drinks or Fruit Tea,No all mighty Kool Aid,and I stopped eating meat,so just fish and very little of that,Water Water,Water and warm tea is all I drink now,only 100 percent whole wheat bread now,I walk and work out at home, yes my skin is sagging a lot,God bless you on your journey