Since losing weight (thanks to many of the contributers on this site) I have aquired a little bit of turkey neck type skin. I could probably make another person out of it. Or have plastic surgery- but would I end up looking like Joan Collins. Tried the gym and cycling, now have thighs like a Russian shot putters, but the rest of me is still a bit baggy. Any suggestions my friends?

They say that the skin is very elastic, and it will get tighter with time...A lot of time it is loose if you lose too fast. Toning, doing something like yoga may help.

My personal experience was that my skin did not tighten(last time I lost). I did end up having plastic surgery...and will again once I get this weight off again. ( to get rid of the stretch marks more than to tighten loose skin, but it is nice to have a beautiful flat tummy and not have to really work at it!) I like the results...but that is just my humble opinion.

They sell lthose little rubber bands that attach with tape and hide under your hair. I saw them on TV and they said that the stars use them to tighten their neck skin and give them a little mini face lift without surgery.

Maybe that would help. Just a thought.

I can't wait until my tummy skin is lose and I have to tuck it into my undies! Right now I still look pregnant by times and I'm way past that stage of my life.

Hi Cordie,
I think a lot of us know exactly what you're talking about. I'm not sure if it's only low-carbing that creates the "Turkey Neck Syndrome" or any diet that is successful. (I wouldn't know, because even though I've almost continuously been on diets since I was 17 years old, variations of low-carbing are the only diets that have actually ever worked for me.)

In the 70's my friends and I went on a VB6KL diet. That consisted of a low-carb diet, with a teaspoon of apple cider VINEGAR ("V") added to a glass of water and consumed with each meal. We also took a KELP tablet, ("K"), and a vitamin B6 tablet daily. If I remember right, the vinegar, kelp, and B6 were supposed to increase your metabolism to help you lose weight quickly.

But the "L" stood for a "LECITHIN" tablet taken daily, which was supposed to keep the skin from becoming too loose as you lost weight. I didn't get wrinkles while I was on the diet-- but I'm not sure whether it was because of the lecithin-- or simply because I was 20 years old at the time. But it couldn't hurt to try it.

But something that does seem to help me now that I'm nearing the golden age of 50, are lotions containing vitamin E. There is one in particular that I've been very surprised that it works! It is not advertised as a face cream, or wrinkle remover, but-- by George-- everytime I test it by using it on only half my neck-- it really does seem to tighten my loose skin on my neck within just a couple of days! It is "Moisture-Rich Body Lotion" by Bath and Body Works. The bottle says it contains Vitamins E & C, and Aloe Vera, and Grape Seed extract. It's a little pricey-- $9 for 8 oz., but it really seems to work for me!!

(Don't tell anyone though, OK? It seems like whenever I find something that works, and everyone starts using it, the company first raises the price, and then they change the formula so that it doesn't work anymore!)

A masque I've found that I've been quite happy with is from Taut Cosmetics. Evidently the guy who owns the company is the personal make-up artist to Cher and Meg Ryan, among others. From what I understand, years ago he was in charge of make-up on a movie in which he had to make a number of people look like they had severe burns. At the end of filming each day, when the extras would remove the masque he had applied in the morning to make their skin look burned, the people would find that their wrinkles had diminished or disappeared. This happened so consistently that the make-up artist bought the company that made the masque, and now distributes the product only through the internet I think...
Anyway, this product is pricey too, but I have found that it really works for me! I've never had so many people compliment my skin as when I've used this masque! It's a great ego builder!

Anyway, you might want to try it. His website is http://www.tautcosmetics.com.

But this too is just our little secret, right low-carbers? Shhhhh....

Mae West
"The curve is more powerful than the sword." The Other Mae West

Thks you guys. Really helped. And Mae thanks for the time and advice, it was excellent
For you Mae:Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls get to go everywhere

Bwa Ha Ha Ha! I love it Cordie!

Mae West
"Whenever I have to choose between two evils, I always choose the one I've never done before." The Other Mae West

Mae, They say Preparation H does the same thing!

Personally, I like my mayonaise mask.

And I also tried the KLB6 diet. It worked for me too. The lecithin is an emulcifier, and the kelp speeds the metabolism and the B6 is a diuretic, while the vinegar was to be for the potassium. Karen informed me that the vinegar has very little potassium, though.

Carol

Ok, as long as we are sharing well kept secrets, I will tell you how I avoided the loose skin problem while losing 40 pounds, but only my DH knows about it.

I do face exercies,; there I've said it! I have two videotapes by a woman named Judith Olivia, www.facelady.com. When I searched for her web site jus now I discovered that there was an article in Canadian Living magazine on TV about her, at http://www.canadianliving.com/fashi...ee-facelift.asp There was a quicktime video showing a sample of the exercises.

I do these almost every day and even though I am 55 years old, people regularly assume I am in my early forties, to the point of telling me what life was like in the sixties!! Of course I did inherit good skin from my grandmother, who always looked 15 or 20 years younger than she was, but while I was losing that 40 pounds I did notice that the skin on my face was becoming looser. THAT was going to happen over my dead body, so I started these exercises and am very happy with the results.

Having said that, I do intend to check out that mask!

Karla

For some reason, not all of the url for Canadian Living showed up in my post, although it did when I tried to edit the message. I'll try again:

canadianliving.com/fashion/features/free-facelift/free-facelift.asp

Well, apparently you can't post a url that is more than one line, so I had to leave off the http:www. I'll have to find out how to incorporate a link in a post, but this will have to do this time. Sorry.

Karla

Hi Carol,
I've heard that about Preparation H too! They say it stings, but it really works to diminish wrinkles. I'm not into pain though, so I think I'll pass on that one.

But your mayonaise masque does sound very soothing and nice. I may try that soon. It certainly would be a lot cheaper than my lotions and masques!

I used to whip up the white of an egg until it was the consistancy of merangue (sp?), and then leave it on my face until it dried. It took about 20 minutes to dry, but my face was always in perfect condition when I'd wash it off-- no dry spots, no oily spots, and the pores would disappear. I haven't tried that one in a long time though-- I'm not sure if it would work on wrinkles. It was great for my combo oily/dry skin though.

When I was a teenager I heard someone say that mayonaise and olive oil are excellent for making long hair really shiny. You were supposed to lather a little mayo or oil into the ends of your hair, wrap your head in a towel, and sleep on it over night. Then you were supposed to wash it out in the morning. The problem was, I started going overboard on the oil and mayo. After a few times I couldn't get the stuff all the way out of my hair! I ended my quest for shiny hair when someone mentioned that I smelled like a Caesar salad.

Little did I know I should have been *eating* the mayo-- not sleeping on it! My hair would have been much shinier!

Mae West
"Too much of a good thing can be terrific!" The other Mae West

For some reason, not all of the url for Canadian Living showed up in my post, although it did when I tried to edit the message. I'll try again:

http://www.canadianliving.com/fashi...ee-facelift.asp

Karla

Thks Karla
With all this insider knowledge secrets, I'm gonna look so young they're going to ask to see my ID when I buy I drink Yipeee!!! and that has happened since God was a boy!

Well I know that skin is elastic but it won't go back to its tight look when we were thin. Plastic surgery is probably the only way to go. I was 190 lbs with my 2nd pregnancy and i stretched my stomach out really good and probably will need a tummy tuck and breast lift(with breast implants ) But we will see when I get to my goal. If I'm happy then oh well the money will be spent else where! Oh plus you can use creams but your skin stretches from the inside out and putting creams on will just make your skin on the outside soft(believe me I've tried!)

Atkins says in his book that you can tell when someone is on a low fat diet, because they get really wrinkled in the face. I have seen this with friends on WW. He says that the low carb diet doesn't have the same effect because of the fats we eat. I am certainly going to believe this because I am soon to be 58 and I think I look much younger than many people my age. It's kind of like a bad hair day--sometimes you look young and sometimes you look older! (My picture was taken last summer in really good light!)

Carol

Carol, I have a good friend who is a counselor for the Weight Watchers group in my community. She's about the same age as you, but now you mention it, she is *very* wrinkled! She's never smoked, never drank, never hung out in the sun a lot, but she is very wrinkled! I'll bet it's that diet that did that! Of course she's about the same size as an emaciated 4th grade boy. But I never thought about her wrinkles until now... On the other hand, she's never been extremely overweight either. I think she had to lose a whopping eight pounds to reach her goal weight and become a counselor.

I, on the otherhand, never had problems with wrinkles for the ten years I did low-fat. That was because I *gained* 100 pounds! I kept thinking if I followed that diet and walked far enough every day, my fat-o-stat would finally kick in and I'd start losing tons of weight. I tried to walk four hours every day. Truly! What a waste! All that time I lost that I could have spent with my family and friends! And the fat-o-stat never kicked in.

And my skin was in *terrible* condition during those ten years! Breakouts and boils *all* *over* my body. I just chalked it up to getting older and my hormones changing. Since I've been seriously low-carbing though, my skin is in the best condition it's been since I was about ten years old! No more boils. Never a breakout. I look like a different person. I'm still constantly amazed when I hear very intelligent dietitians, doctors, and nutritionists telling people to eat low-fat! One day they'll regret saying that stuff...

Karla, thanks for the web-site of the Face Lady and your testimonial! Your URL worked just fine on my computer, and I tried a couple of the Face Lady's exercises! But especially thanks for your personal experience. A lady I knew on another low-carb newsgroup said that whenever she knew she was going to have her photograph professionally taken, she would start doing facial exercises about two weeks in advance. She had always been quite heavy, but the exercises helped define her jawline, emphasized her cheekbones, and gave a lift to her eyebrows. It makes a lot of sense to me that exercising the muscles under the skin of your face would do the same thing as regular exercise does for your arms and legs.

But then later I heard an infomercial say that exercising your face actually causes more wrinkles! Of course those guys were trying to sell one of those $200 electric shock facial masks. They scared me enough though, that I didn't want to try anything more daring than my Taut masque.

But if you swear by the Face Lady's plan, I'll try it!

Mae West
"I never diet. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond." The Other Mae West