The FastDay Forum

I wonder how much the sagginess on us oldies is due to having been overweight to various degrees, and how much is just mileage. Does anyone have a 60-plus friend who has always been slim to compare with? One of my friends has never been overweight but her waist is nearly 6" bigger than mine.

I wonder how much the sagginess on us oldies is due to having been overweight to various degrees, and how much is just mileage. Does anyone have a 60-plus friend who has always been slim to compare with? One of my friends has never been overweight but her waist is nearly 6" bigger than mine.

My mother in law has only ever been as big as 8 stone at 5' and that's quite a recent high. She was usually 6.5 -7.5 stone. She was 70 recently and she has loose skin on her arms at least. I don't know about elsewhere as she tends to keep herself fairly well covered. She does exercise routines and lots of moisturising, but age takes it's toll I guess.

The parts of my body protected from the sun look decades younger than the rest of me. The Victorians knew their stuff when they protected themselves from the sun. My arms are dry and wrinkled old lady arms. My face's wrinkles have wrinkles. But from the neck down my skin still looks like it always did.

But having participated in online diet boards for years and seeing quite a few pictures, I don't actually believe exercise can improve seriously saggy skin. All it can do is plump up the muscle beneath the skin, but that only goes so far. More people than you think get plastic surgery after massive weight loss.

@manderley My husband was the same way. Very supportive and when my boobs got to where they were size 42 extra long, he said it was entirely up to me. After a year of research I decided the worst outcomes would be better than hauling that weight around anymore and had the surgery for my 60th birthday.

My husband's present to me was to wait on me hand and foot for the month it took for me to recover, as it is a pretty intense surgery. It was wonderful. No one has ever nutured me like that. He even cooked me fancy dinners, which he has never done before or after, though he takes me out to eat a lot now. My stingy health insurance even paid for it, they were that big!

I found a wonderful woman surgeon, and the result turned out far better than I had hoped. I ended up looking normal for the first time since I was 16. (I had enormous boobs even when I weighed less than 115 lbs). I could buy ordinary shirts. My bras no longer looked like a structual part of a very large and ugly engineering project. I cannot express how happy it made and still makes me. Six years later they have held up really well.

And my husband who has stuck with me through fat and thin and some fairly major chronic health problems adores my new, stylish boobs. I just wish I had done it when I was 39 after my last child, and had not waited so long.

But for me it was the sheer misery of hauling around those huge things. And the bras deforming my shoulders and ribs. I still have indentations from all those years. So it wasn't how I looked, but how I felt. I know people who have had the tummy tucks after major weight loss who feel the same way. But that is a much more painful surgery with an even longer recovery. It's worth waiting to see how your body recovers and if you can maintain the weight loss before considering it. And check out the plastic surgery discussion boards to get an idea what is really involved. The surgeons lie like crazy about how fast you will heal, and some of them do frighteningly bad work.

Carting around our big boobs certainly does cause us grief for me back and rib pain, bras do get ugly - over shoulder boulder holders. Yet it is a big step. Glad it worked for you Peebles

I was worried about this deflated balloon look in the beginning of this fasting process, but a lot of it has already smoothed out, not all. I'm trying to go high nutrition, keep hydrated, etc. One of the things I've tried is Nivea Firming Cream, which is new to me, only been using it for a couple of weeks. Even if it doesn't go deep enough to do much in terms of really firming, my skin feels good.

@peebles I am so glad it worked fine for you...
If I believe a "bra size converter" I am a 36E UK size. We all have big boobs in my family. Even if I don't like them, right now, I don't know if I will go that way for a selfish reason. You know me, I will be frank so be prepared........ They have a great sensitivity (a really really great sensitivity, if you know what I mean....) and I don't want to lose that. Plus, I am used to deal with them and, wearing a corset on a regular basis, my back is much better now. So..... Wel'll see...

@manderley,

That 36E is much, much smaller than where I started from, which would be a UK 40F. For each inch of band number you go up, the cup size drops a letter for the same amount of boob. I have a very wide rib cage which is why my band was (and still is) so wide. After my surgery I was a UK 40C. I was wearing the 42s because I couldn't find a 40 with a big enough cup in local stores.

The way it works in the U.S. for the insurer to cover the surgery, the surgeon has to take off something a certain number of grams of tissue--not including skin. They actually weigh it on a scale in the operating room, which must be charming. I can't remember the exact amount, but it was something like 500 g or 2 lbs per side. I have a long history of severe back problems including two ruptured discs bad enough that my stingy insurer wanted me to have surgery (which thank goodness, I did NOT have. The outcome of that particular surgery can be horrible.)

To tell the truth, I would have been even happier if the surgeon had removed a bunch more tissue. That is the single biggest complaint people have about the surgery, that they are left too large. Supposedly what is left is "in proportion" but that's because I am, as they say, built like a brick church. Short and squatty. I don't want to be in proportion. I want to be able to jump up and down and have nothing move!

The catalyzing moment for me was when I was reading one of those tragic articles about a woman with breast cancer who was lamenting how she had had to have both breasts removed, and all I could think was "Why is that such a tragedy? I would be thrilled if I got cancer and could have mine removed!" A moment or so later I realized just how crazy that was and decided it was time to act.

I guess I am used to my boobs, even if I have some severe back problems from time to time (2 discs that "come and go") for more than 20 years. I don't want scars, I have enough of them on my knee (35 stitches) and both ankles and was fairly traumatized by that. Plus, I nearly died last time I went on the operation table, so..........

Now, I guess that, to be able to have some pleasure with them (even big Os) help me to "accept" them just as they are. I don't "love" them but I couldn't see myself with small boobs. I wouldn't be me. I mean, I am an hourglass woman, I have boobs and hips, even now, and I don't see myself with only hips. And damn, when I wear my corset, so every day, I have a fantastic cleavage and, even if at first I really felt self conscious, now I love how men look at me with envy

@manderley, I agree. I was accepted onto NHS waiting list for a reduction back in 2002. However I chickened out. At that time I was a 36JJ. The surgeon said he'd take me down to a C cup. That terrified me as I was 11 the last time I was a C and I didn't want to go that small. Even a D - DD cup and I would've gone ahead. But it was such a huge reduction that I couldn't face it. I do regret it sometimes. I hate not being able to buy bras locally. I hate not getting a bra for under £30. I hate the neck and back ache and the dips in my shoulders from the weight of the straps. I hate having to stuff them into an over the shoulder boulder holder. I am 30HH now. But I'd love them smaller. I reckon if they removed the spare skin so that the tissue filled the skin, they'd be better.

@barbarita i know several women in their sixties whose weight has always stayed pretty stable..they have always been quite slim,or if they have ever gained weight,its only been a little ,and it's happened only once or twice, and they have lost it again sensibly.
They might be as wrinkly as me facially,and they are a little wrinkly body wise too..but their bodies aren't as bashed as mine,which has suffered so many ups and downs,thru years of periods of starving and overeating..leading to me having worse bagging and sagging than they have
@peebles thanks for telling us a little about surgery..if i came into some money,i wd deffo consider it and think it money well spent if it gave me a sense of wellbeing..smaller boobs wd deffo be more comfy.thanks for yr advice..i will keep it in mind just in case i get that elusive lottery win X

I'm 53 and have lost 4 stone in just over a year. Initially my 'turkey neck' bothered me a little but I'm happy to report that it seems to have pretty much disappeared recently. At a 45 degree angle my arms resemble those of a much older lady and when I catch sight of my tummy it immediately conjures up images of wrinkly elephants. I am quietly confident however that my arms and tummy will catch up, just as my neck has, in the future. If they don't then what the heck, I'm having so much fun ordering and wearing size 12 clothes!

I think I will be in line for surgery once I am at target weight. A loss of 140lbs is something that will need careful consideration. Especially as my first 42lbs hasn't seen any reduction in my boob size 44E. Maybe a touch as I'm just a tad more comfortable in my bras than I used to be.
Lots of excess skin can be unhealthy with soreness, rubbing mold infections, thrush etc in the creases under the boobs and 'apron'. So far thankfully my apron is shrinking with me. Even with all the gynae scarring I have under there.

Concerning my face and neck, I am lucky, as everything went smoothly, no turtle neck, just the wrinkles around my eyes that show a little more than before but no big deal

Good news, my love handles and tummy are slowly shrinking. My hips are not as wide as before. I guess it's a mixture of diet, exercises (I made up one in particular which seems to do wonders for the lower body) and massages. I massage my body a lot with olive oil, coconut oil and a moisturiser that smells like a baby (love love love that smell) and really thinks it helped so far. It's difficult to explain but it helps me "connect" with it and I am a firm believer that I need to reconcile with it and learn to love it and take care of it to have the best results in the long haul.

I'm a daily coconut user here as well.

I have a very dry and thin skin. I have no idea how it's call in English but let's say that you can see my veins and blood vessels and, when I am cold, my skins turns a light purple Alternate coconut oil and olive oil just after the shower (when I am still wet) is the best way I found to really take care of it, and it's quite cheap so it's even better !