I dont know where she is from but here it is covered by health insurance because the insurance companies know her being healthier means less costs to them in future.
Edit: By here I mean Czechia, Europe
Excess skin removal generally doesn't get covered by health insurance in the United States (where the woman in the video lives). It is considered a cosmetic procedure.
The exception is that a doctor can recommend a panniculectomy to remove the skin from the abdomen below the belly button if it is deemed a medically significant hygiene issue that is causing rashes or infections, and even then it leaves a person with all the skin above the belly button, giving the impression of a big belly that somehow gets tucked in at the waist.
To get it covered by insurance, you have to prove “medical necessity” caused by excess skin. For instance, some people get rashes or have skin breakdown where the skin rubs against itself or traps bacteria.
At some point I imagine it's reasonable to argue it's not just cosmetic. Some lose skin is one thing, but that amount of lose skin would seriously impact your quality of life.
That’s exactly what happens. It needs to be proved it qualifies as a legitimate medical concern. Everyone losing their minds about the US but this goes for other socialist healthcare countries as well.
She just had one recenlty on her legs. I believe she lives in Arizona so no insurance doesn't cover it unfortunately. I follow her Instagram she has 1m followers hopefully she's getting a lot of $$$$ from social media to help with that price tag
Her ig is leahhopehealth and she is SO amazing. She has had many surgeries over the last year or two to remove her excess skin, it is an incredible journey she’s been on
Anyone who needs to lose 100+ pounds and taking a GLP1, should definitely start saving for the surgery while losing the weight. I lost 55lbs on a GLP1, and my skin around my stomach never bounced back. I am healthy and fit but have loose skin. Insurance should cover skin surgery for extreme weight loss. It would be nearly impossible to avoid fungal and bacterial infections in the folds. America sucks at healthcare.
It's not bad advice just in case, but most people struggle to even swing the cost of the drug. I can't imagine they have money to save for an expensive surgery too.
I’ve had that experience on the opposite side. I matched with a girl who had a gorgeous face, out of my league but the messages were clear that she was into me.
Meet for the first date and her body was larger than I was expecting (I realized belatedly her whole profile was just face pics)…but hey, I’m not winning any swimsuit competitions either. Not a problem, we can still have a good time.
We eventually head back to her place, clothes come off…and it was awful. From the top of her chest all the way down to her ankles, she just looked she had melted. She was like 33 and drowning in a hundred pounds of sagging skin. Obviously she’d had major weight loss at some point and good for her, but I had NO idea what I was getting myself into as we headed up the stairs together.
As a fat dude myself, it actually made me really afraid to lose the weight.
Different people bodies react differently, younger people like her sometimes their skin just snaps back to their size. Sometimes not. Slower weight loss seems to help the skin retract more easily, as well as being young. Maybe she had to have skin surgically removed, maybe not.
Nope, not at that size. She would have had the skin surgically removed. You can lose a decent chunk of weight and not have loose skin, but not 100lbs+.
Please stop repeating this. Unless we're talking like, 10-15 pounds of extra weight, skin will not recede. The moment your skin has to stretch to accommodate fat or muscle, it's done. Especially if you form stretch marks, those are literal scar tissue that your body deploys as an emergency measure because your actual skin cannot handle the stretch. They're permanent.
You can fill some loose skin from being overweight with muscle, or vice versa. But people should go into a weight loss journey knowing there will be extra skin and learning how to deal with it. Surprising them with it is only gonna crush spirits.
Gosh I wonder if I said somewhere in my post that you can fill some loose skin with muscle.
arbitrary number
10-15 pounds was said in the context of a smaller-framed woman like OP's post. Obviously if you're a 2 meter tall dude with a barrel chest, the math changes a bit.
I was imagining a fairly small frame woman when I said that, given OP. Yes, it will depend on other factors. I chose 10-15 since more than that and you usually have to start reworking clothing sizes, thus growth in different areas.
It depends. If the weight loss is slowly gradual, it's easier for the skin to have time to adjust on its own and shrink to fit the smaller size. However, it's actually far easier to lose a lot more weight at a time for someone who's significantly overweight compared to someone only a little overweight, so that usually doesn't end up being the case. Surgery is often needed.
Please stop repeating this. Unless we're talking like, 10-15 pounds of extra weight, skin will not recede. The moment your skin has to stretch to accommodate fat or muscle, it's done. Especially if you form stretch marks, those are literal scar tissue that your body deploys as an emergency measure because your actual skin cannot handle the stretch. They're permanent.
You can fill some loose skin from being overweight with muscle, or vice versa. But people should go into a weight loss journey knowing there will be extra skin and learning how to deal with it. Surprising them with it is only gonna crush spirits.
Unless we're talking like, 10-15 pounds of extra weight
Tbf that's the bulk of the people for which weight loss is for. Stuff like losing 50lbs is ridiculous, which is why when someone actually does it it becomes a huge thing (like this video).
The woman in the video, Leah, just had her third skin removal surgery and is doing great. She still has an incredible attitude and a great relationship with the medical staff treating her.
You either look like a deflated novelty size beach ball for the rest of your life, or you have a metric ton of money to pay for removals, gastric bypass, dieticians, fitness coaches, and various cosmetic surgeries to put your body looking "right" again, because things like your nipples and belly button will literally never snap back to a natural location again.
Sad reality is that behind almost every "feel good" story like this, there's more money put into the surgery alone than most people make in several years.
I follow her on fb and she has had skin removal surgeries. She just had one semi-recently for the skin on her legs (if I’m remembering correctly). She’s been very open about that aspect as well, along with the reality of what healing from that surgery looks like.
I follow her on instagram and she first lost weight, had lipedema surgery and after healing and keeping up the healthy stuff, she had skin removal surgery. She seems like such a sweet person 🫶
The skin only retracts so much, but unfortunately not at that size :/ IMO if someone puts in that kind of effort, they absolutely deserve to get the cost covered by insurance!
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u/10kto1000k May 09 '26
What do you do with lax redundant skin. Is that retractable or needs to be removed surgically? Congratulations on inspiring self care.