2021 Skin Reduction Log

Intro

In October 2021, I achieved <8% body fat according to a Dexascan. At this point, it became clear that the excess mass on my belly and butt was skin, not fat. Excess skin cannot really be eliminated via diet and exercise so on 11/29/2021, I bit the bullet and had skin reduction surgery to get rid of it. There are many reasons I did this, ranging from aesthetics, to motivating others, to symbolically closing this “physical transformation” I started in 2016 (as a subset of a “personal transformation”).

Lots of my friends are asking how it's going, so I wanted to log everything here for easy access.

Planned Schedule

• Week 1: Don’t expect to work, drains installed, lots of pain
• Week 2: Back to work, minor pain
• Week 4: Allowed to do light cardio / upper body lifting
• Week 8: Allowed to do heavy lifting
• Week 9: 80% of swelling gone

Actual Log

• 11/29: I go in for surgery at 165lbs at 8 am, come out at noon 2 lbs lighter because of skin removed. Percocet every 4 hours. Not much pain in a static position, but I need help to go from lying down to sitting or sitting to standing. I have 2 drains to collect and dump fluid
• 11/30: Discharged at 10 am. With drains installed. The most comfortable position is sitting in my high-end work chair at the house. I end up getting bored and work 3p — 5 pm.

• 11/31: Back to a normal work schedule. Taking Percocet every 3–4 hours.
• 12/1: Don’t need help going from sitting to standing
• 12/2: Skipping Percocet here and there
• 12/3: Only using Percocet at night
• 12/4: Swelling peaks at 180 lbs, which is normal.
• For context, here’s a couple days before the procedure:

• Here’s peak swelling day:

• 12/5: Drains come out — now I can shower without help!

• 12/6: Don’t need help going to laying down to sitting anymore, down to 177 lbs
• 12/7: Only using Tylenol for pain
• 12/9: Down to 175 lbs
• 12/10: 174 lbs, seriously am craving exercise. Doc gave me permission to ease into cardio.
• 12/11: Wow! Since 8/19/2016 (when I turned 39), I’ve worked out almost daily. Until my surgery on 11/29/21, I never skipped more than 1 day. I didn’t work out between that day and yesterday. Today, I finally did 40 min of light cardio. I feel SO MUCH better. Exercise truly is a mood enhancing drug. I’m so used to it being my baseline, I had forgotten what it felt like to not workout daily. It’s good to be back at it, even if it’s only partially.
• 12/14: 2-week checkin went well. A little irritation on the skin from the compresssive wrap so I’m not wearing that anymore. BIG NEWS: I’m officially allowed to do weightlifting for the upper body and machine-based lower body. Light weight. excited. Game on.

• 12/23 lifted hard yesterday (x3), lost a lot of strength but it’s coming back

• 1/1 Ok, enough unlimited calories. Back to logging in MyFitnessPal at maintenance level. Curious to see what Dexa will say on Wednesday. Back to lifting heavy (with machines)

• 1/15 feels good to be lifting heavily in the gym again.

• 1/30?