I realize there's prolly no 'polite' way to ask this, so I'll just flat-out ask it.

For those out there who have lost a large amount of weight on LCE (50 lbs. or more), will you chime in & tell me how many of you have ended up with loose, hanging skin as a result? And how many have had surgery to get rid of that excess skin?

I lost 32 lbs. on Atkins back in 2001/02 & have kept it off. I've turned a lot of friends on to it, but most were too brainwashed by the mainstream Diet Dictocrats who insist that eating a high protein/high sat fat diet will cause your heart to seize up. They lost a few lbs, got happy, then got scared by some news report & went back to Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig or some other expensive 'plan'. And they're STILL fat.

But one guy I know who was impressed with my weightloss switched to LCE, stuck to it & has lost 40+ lbs. in the last several mos. I'll call him 'Hank'. Except now, he's talking about not staying with it because his cholesterol is 206, his doctor wants to put him on Lipitor (which I strongly advise against), & he's terrified of ending up with that huge apron of skin hanging from his abdomen if he continues losing weight! He can't afford cosmetic surgery & his insurance won't cover it. (Yet they cover gastric bypass surgery for weightloss -- Go figure!)

I also told Hank to eliminate corn, soy & canola oils from his diet, use KERRYGOLD butter (from grassfed cows) for the high CLA content, cook with butter, oilve oil or coconut oil & to stay away from anything containing hydrogenated oils. He says he gets on a treadmill "when I have time". He travels a lot for work, so I don't think he's excercising more than once or twice a week. But he looks & feels a lot better than he did before changing to LCE.

My cholsterol was 206 when I got bloodwork done last summer. Luckily, it was only for an insurance physical, so there was no doctor there trying to push pills on me. If you read the literature from a decade ago, 'normal' levels were 120-240mg/dl -- which is the group that 85% of Amercans fall into. But in the last few years, the range for 'normal' has been reduced to 140-199mg/dl -- which conveniently makes 85% of Americans candidates for cholesterol-reducing drugs. Fast-forward to 2004 & Lipitor is the #1 Rx drug in America! Best of all, my HDL was 82 (anything over 80 is strongly assoicated with a DECREASED risk of coronary heart disease) & my HDL-to-cholesterol ratio was 2.5 (anything under 3.5 is considered highly protective AGAINSt CHD). Since reading THE CHOLESTEROL MYTHS, I know better than to buy into the hype & worry about choelsterol levels over 200. But Hank's doctor has him convinced he's going to drop dead from a heat attack at 34! He's still 100 lbs. overweight -- which I would think his doctor would consider to be more of an issue than his cholesterol levels. The doctor was glad about his weight loss so far, but warned him that his diet was causing his cholesterol to rise. (I think he said it was 198 before he started LCE - 8 pts. isn't a big increase, IMO).

I told Hank about this site but I dunno if he's been here yet. I also said I'd take an informal survey among the folks who have met their goal weights & ask how many had problems with loose skin after losing the excess pounds. Any comments anyone wants to offer would be greatly appreciated.

- RC

AT 50 years old I lost 40 pounds. My skin eventually shrunk some--- but, don't expect overnight miracles. I'm sure the more stretched it is, the harder the problem would be. All in all, I would rather have loose skin than fat.

As for your Lipitor comments, I've taken it for years -- before, during, and in LC maintenance. Heart disease runs in my family. I think I'll trust my doctor's opinion on this one and take the pill. I'd much rather eat LC (which the doctor does not argue) and take Lipitor than ever go back to low-fat!!! FWIW, my cholesterol is lower now than it was prior to LC.

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Judy
Goal = <135, Current status = RIGHT ON TARGET!
Never give up. Never never never never give up -- Winston Churchill

No problems with lose skin at 134 from 207 unless you counted the little wrinkle above my c section scar.

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~ 9 year veteran low carber still working on getting it right!

~size 10 working on a bit of regain to get back in my 6's!

~I left the 18's back in the year 2000 and vow never too see them ever again!!!

I've read that it can take up to a year for the skin to finish "shrinking" up. But, most older folks (hand raised) probably won't get back to tight skin.

More exercise is reputed to help with loose skin, but I suspect part of that is because you build up more muscle tissue, which helps fill the skin a little more.

I read on another site that it may be possible to offset ~some~ of the cost of the skin reduction surgery by selling the skin for use as skin grafts. Not at all sure how that would work.

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

I thought skin grafts have to come from your own skin or your body will reject them...? And maybe there's a difference between men vs. women in terms of who ends up with loose skin & who doesn't.

I've watched dozens of people on those plastic surgery shows -- some had extreme weightloss from gastric byp**** (Whazzup up with the system bleeping out bypass? It didn't do that in my previous post earlier today...?) others from dieting & some didn't indicate how they lost the weight. I can never figure out -- & the doctors never explain -- who will lose weight & end up with loose skin & who won't. Does the amount you're losing make the difference, or is it how old you are? I figure there must be some way to predict if it will happen or not -- but I haven't been able to find any kind of checklist anywhere to give to Hank.

As for Lipitor, I've read at least a dozen articles about it causing muscle pain, muscle damage (& the heart is a muscle!) & memory problems. My mom immediately developed pain in her arm when she started taking it & but finally had the good sense get off of it. (She's fine now.) The reports of pain have been well-documented:

"The industry insists that only 2-3% of patients get muscle aches and cramps but in one study, Golomb found that 98% of patients taking Lipitor and 1/3 of the patients taking Mevachor (a lower-dose statin) suffered from muscle problems. A message board devoted to Lipitor at forum.ditonline.com contains more than 800 posts, many detailing severe side effects. The Lipitor board at www.rxlist.com contains more than 2,600 posts." (This is from the Weston A Price article linked below.)

My beef is that if an herbal supplement was generating those kinds of complaints, it would be banned, just as they banned ephedra -- even though most of the people who were harmed by ephedra took too much or had health problems that ephedra was contraindicated for. (And the contraindications WERE listed on the label.) I used ephedra for more than a year for allergies/sinus problems with no bad results -- & it as much cheaper than Claritin or other Rx allergy meds. I still have a bottle in the cabinet. But I stopped taking it -- better safe than sorry.

Yet when it comes to cholesterol drugs, people keep taking them without a 2nd thought because "my doctor prescribed it". Yet there's no scientific proof that cholesterol levels & heart attacks are linked! Most people on Lipitor have never read a single scientific study about cholesterol -- they don't even read the fine print on the insert, which clearly states "LIPITOR has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks." (When I showed that to my mom, she finally started listening.) So millions of people are spending billions of dollars on a drug that isn't even documented to do what they're taking it for! While the drug company execs get richer by the day.

Here are a couple of links for more info on cholesterol & stantin drugs:

http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/statin.html

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

- RC

The skin business is a function of age, genetics and rapidity of weight loss. One won't know for a year or so after reaching goal how much the skin will "shrink."

As for the cholesterol issue, I've consistently run in the neighborhood of 200 -220, but with a risk ratio that went from +5 to 2.3 (and my triglycerides cut in half) over the years since I adopted this way of eating, none of my dr's have ever suggested cholesterol lowering drugs.

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I have some sagging skin under the area of my naval, but I do believe most of that has to do with the fact that I have had five pregnancies, and not with the 150+ pounds I have lost. I deal very well with the sagging skin and prefer seeing that, rather than the tonnage I had at 352 pounds.

As for the Lipitor, my Doctor prescribed it at the lowest dosage about two years ago. When Crestor came out, he prescribed that in place of the Lipitor and I have been taking it each day. I fought against taking the Lipitor after the initial 4 months, and stopped taking it altogether. My bloodwork showed elevated cholesteral after stopping it, so I started taking it again. I have done much research regarding what I consume, including prescription drugs and supplements. As for me, I trust my doctor's advice with the Crestor, and I will continue to take it as prescribed.

My two cents...

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April

The face of a child can say a lot -- especially the mouth part of the face.

My Blog

My BF's family has many members on Lipitor. Before he went on it, his total cholesterol was 329...clearly not a number that was going to be controllable with any diet changes. His mom and youngest brother also take it...strong genetic link to high cholesterol. His is now around 160...a much better number!

As for the skin thing, I am only 20 pounds down, so I have not faced this yet...but I am hoping that my age will work in my favor! I am 28...but I have been overweight for a good long time, so the skin is used to being bigger than it will have to be! I am going to plan to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize as I continue to shrink. I do know a woman who had gastric bypass who is going to have some surgery to have her extra skin removed. She once told me her doctor estimates that she has 15-20 POUNDS of extra skin that he could remove. Removal of that will put her right at her goal weight.

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I have lost over 150 pounds. I don't feel like my skin is too saggy considering. I think that swimming helps with skin and muscle tone. My worst spot is under my chin, but that could have happened anyway. My stomach is still in layers, but I still have quite a bit of weight to lose.

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Ilse

380 (Highest)/318(9-11-08)/230.2(current)/154
5'6"
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible"
Walt Disney

It's interesting to me the kind of roadblocks we choose to put in front of ourselves. What are the health risks of extra skin compared to extra fat? Can't think of any. Does 10 pounds of extra skin really look that much worse than 100 pounds of extra fat? I think not--and extra skin is certainly more disguisable.

Your friend just may not be ready to make a true commitment, and until he is......

Anyway, it looks like the naughty word filter is back on again, LOL!

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BC
LC Since 1998
Highest Weight 172
Current 104-108

I'm with Judy. I'd rather take Lipitor than have high cholesterol or stop this way of eating. I've done my research. I suppose that it depends on what you are looking for. At 60, I'm not looking for forty more years of life. I'm looking for more years of looking good and feeling as good as I do on this woe; which is better than I have for the past forty years of my life!

As for the extra skin: I have extra skin after 40 lbs. Especially in my face. Now you can see the wrinkles that the fat was hiding. So what?? I earned each and every one of these wrinkles! I'm proud to be 60. And I'm proud to look as good as I do!

Peace, Peg
1/1/03
205/170/155
5'8"

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The threat of having to take Lipitor by my doctor was one of the reasons I started this diet in the first place. I lost 105 lbs and my cholesterol went form 315 to 150. That was 5 years ago, and it has remained steady since on this WOE.
As far as the loose skin goes, my speedo days are over so it doesn't bother me.

Im with Brenda on this one. I am 49...yep there is extra skin on my stomach. So what ??? I look and feel better than I did 15 yrs ago. I 'll live with the skin.

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Deborah
started 3/02
171/137/137
5'9"

i have found that walking (at a good clip .. for 30 minutes) at nite seems to FINALLY have me getting a little bit of toning in the stomach and waist ... pretty nice... tightens up the legs and the butt too... yeah... i am definitely in on the WALKING deal...

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