You've noticed my advice to lose weight SLOWLY, because it's an
adjustment for your body to make. One of those adjustments, is going
to be very visible, and that's your skin.

Skin is attached to your fat, which is directly below it. If that fat
becomes "dimpled", the skin will reflect that dimpling with a "cottage
cheese" type of lumpy appearance.

This is influenced by 1) your genetic which cause the dimpled fat in
the first place, and 2) the amount of fat you have. The more fat, the
more dimpling may occur.

Enter the successful dieter, and we have a new skin factor to consider
- how elastic is your skin? Because a good diet, where you lose 50
lbs. or more, will not only cause you to shrink in overall clothes
sizes; now you skin has to shrink, if it can, right along with you.

The guidelines a

1) the less you have to lose in size to reach your goal weight, the
easier your skin can accommodate that shrinkage, and remain snug.

2) the younger dieter's, will happily have their diminished fat size,
offset by their natural growth, so they're in like a porch climber.
(got it made).

3) the more elasticity in your skin, the better the skin result will
be, after a large and successful diet. Again, youthful dieter's are
favored, here.

4) I suspect, but can NOT confirm, that a slower diet will give a
better result for your skin, because your skin will have time to make
an adjustment to the new smaller you.

That may not be true, at all.

What is undeniably true is that if you take on a large diet, and do it
quickly and thoroughly, you will very likely be left with a large
amount of unwanted/unneeded skin. On your stomach, (of course),
buttocks, and upper thighs (the main culprits), and possibly on the
upper arms, and over the calves of each leg,

It is certainly NOT good to look at!

The only way to get rid of it, is then to have plastic surgery, where
basically the doctor will "take in" your skin, rather like a tailor
might "take in" a bit of extra cloth.

Scars from this can be hidden on the stomach, buttocks, and upper
thighs, rather well. Scars on the upper arm, and lower leg, can not be
hidden as well.

So why would you want / need such surgery? Because at that point,
after a large loss of weight, you have a real hazardous and unsightly
amount of skin left over. (When you lay on your back, and slowly roll
over to either side, you'll see a large mass of skin begin slowly to
build up speed, as it begins "falling" over to your side. yikes!

Your skin looks like a Sharpei dog, with all that wrinkled, extra
skin, but without the fur. No way is it good to look at, and no way is
it even safe to keep all that skin. You will *definitely* want to get
rid of that excess skin. Hopefully, your medical insurer will agree to
cover the cost.

I had some "successful" dieters in other newsgroups, (who had
allegedly lost about 100 lbs.), tell me that this skin problem would
not happen. "Not a chance".

They were wrong, it did, (starting at about 50 lbs. of lost weight),
and it was a real mess by my goal weight of 91 lost pounds.

Nevertheless, the diet is absolutely one of the most worthwhile things
I've ever done. A very smart choice, but this skin problem is
definitely a great reason to never get obese in the first place.