How to Tighten Loose Skin After Weight Loss

Get-Fit Guy has the scoop on why skin gets loose and how you can tighten loose skin after weight loss. Keep reading and learn how to tighten skin.

If you’ve lost a lot of weight recently, or you’ve been following the tips you’ve read from the Get-Fit Guy, such as Which Workout Burns The Most Fat? or How to Tone and Lose Fat in One Body Part , then you may have noticed that you have a bit of loose skin hanging around. From extra skin under the arms to a hanging pouch around the stomach, loose skin can pose an embarrassing problem, especially if weight loss has been achieved rapidly.

In 2016, skin tightening is still a hot topic. MIT reported that a new material was created to temporarily tighten skin, saying it could be used to “provide cosmetic improvement.”

How to Tighten Loose Skin After Weight Loss

In this article you’ll learn why skin gets lose, how to tighten loose skin after fat loss, and you’ll also find out which creams, medical procedures, nutrition tactics and exercises will successfully tighten loose skin. Here’s how to tighten skin after you’ve been losing weight:
Why Skin Gets Loose After Weight Loss

Since it has to stretch as we move, grow, and–as in the case of weight loss–shrink, skin is an incredibly elastic living organ. Yes, that’s right, skin is not just one big piece of rubber that covers the entire body, but is instead an organ, and just like all the other organs in your body, it is comprised of cells.

Different layers of your skin have different types of cells, and though the skin cells on the outer part of your skin (the epidermis) are constantly being lost and replaced with new cells, the skin cells under the epidermis are a bit more permanent. These layers of the skin, called the dermis and subdermis, are made up of elastic connective tissues, fibers, blood vessels and all sorts of components that can stretch or contract depending on how they’re treated.
What Happens to Your Skin When You Lose Weight?

When you lose weight, and especially when you lose weight very quickly, these elastic components of your skin not only lose the layers of fat that keep them stretched out over your body, but they also don’t have much time for their elasticity to adapt to your new shape.

In addition to weight loss, age, poor nutrition, dehydration, excessive sun exposure, and smoking can all affect the elasticity of the skin and give you that elephant-like appearance you probably don’t want.

How to Tighten Loose Skin After Weight Loss

As you lose fat and your loose skin begins to appear, the first rule is: don’t panic! Because it is a living organ, your skin will slowly return to a shape that fits your new body. But since that process can take up to two years, here are steps you can take to make your skin tighten more quickly:
Tip #1: Don’t Lose Weight Too Quickly

As mentioned, in addition to weight loss, age, poor nutrition, dehydration, excessive sun exposure, and smoking can all affect the elasticity of the skin.

Crash diets and excessive amounts of time spent exercising can rapidly shed both muscle and fat, resulting in a double-whammy on your skin–the supportive underlying muscular structure that holds skin against your body is lost, as is the fat that keeps the skin stretched out.

Quick and dirty tip for not losing weight too quickly: Aim for 1-2 pounds of fat loss per week, and make sure your weight loss program includes weight lifting so that you do not lose lean muscle. Check out more weight lifting and strength training tips here.
Tip #2: Stay Hydrated

Attend to your hydration needs. Water is a crucial component of maintaining skin elasticity. From both food and drink, you should be taking in at least two liters of water each day. A wonderful resource for learning more about proper hydration is this article from Nutrition Diva: How Much Water Should I Drink?
Tip #3: Eat Properly

Two necessary ingredients that keep skin plump and elastic are collagen and elastin. Protein-rich foods such as cottage cheese, milk, legumes, tofu, beans, seeds, nuts, and fish all contain collagen and elastin forming components, as well as oils to help maintain healthy skin.

Quick and dirty protein tip: For optimum absorption, squeeze 100-200 calories of these protein sources in immediately after your workout. For more on what to eat when working out, see my article on what to eat before and after exercising.
Tip #4: Take Care of Your Skin

Nourish and care for your skin. Daily exfoliation can help to remove dead skin cells and increase skin circulation. A hot bath with sea salts and minerals can improve skin tone. Skin tightening creams with herbal formulas and ingredients such as aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, yeast extract, soy protein, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A can help to hydrate and increase collagen and elastin formation in skin.

Stay away from harsh detergents, such a sulfates in soaps, shampoos and dishwashing liquids, limit your sun exposure and stay away from tanning booths, and limit your exposure to hot and chlorinated water—all of these things will decrease skin elasticity.

See also: How to Use Cold Weather to Lose Weight

Quick and dirty tip: If you swim for fitness, use soap and shampoos that are specially designed to remove chlorine.
When to Consider Surgery for Loose Skin

Skin can only be stretched so far before it loses some of its ability to snap back. If you’ve had a 9-month pregnancy, then you’ll be able to tighten your loose skin. But if you’ve carried a hundred or more extra pounds for many years, you may be a candidate for plastic surgery to tighten and lift loose skin. This fix should only be used in extreme cases, and I should warn you: my clients who have undergone this operation have actually gained more fat afterwards while they were rehabilitating from surgery!
Bottom Line

As mentioned earlier, elasticity of your skin will naturally decrease with age. Though you can address issues such as not losing weight too quickly, staying properly hydrated, eating the right foods, and caring for your skin, you simply have no control over your age! Quick and dirty tip: Rather than letting age stress you out, you should focus on the things over which you have control—like exercising and eating right—and you’ll find that you always look good.

Whether you have a kangaroo pouch, an orangutan chin, or elephant legs, you can use the tips in this article to tighten loose skin or prevent loose skin in the first place.

Man Drinking Water image from Shutterstock

 

Why Skin Doesn’t Just Snap Back

Some people are more susceptible to excess skin. “Your skin’s ability to contract and bounce back after losing weight depends on various factors such as the quality of your skin tone at baseline (determined by the strength of your collagen and elastin fibers), age, genetics, the amount of weight gained and lost, sun exposure, and lifestyle factors such as smoking,” Kim says.

Quick, drastic weight loss shocks your system in such a way that your skin’s elasticity doesn’t have enough time to adapt to your new shape. Click to the next page to read about the side effects of loose skin.

What Causes Excess Skin 

Major weight loss transformations are a testimony an individual’s determination, resolve, and discipline. But in some cases, that transformation is marked by loose excess skin.

“Our skin is a living organ, and it adapts to weight gain by expanding or stretching,” says Christine Choi Kim, MD, a medical and cosmetic dermatologist based in Santa Monica, CA. “It has a limited ability to tighten once that weight is lost, and this depends on a number of factors.”

When it comes to the extra flab around your stomach, the accumulation of fat stretches your skin tight—like a fully- or over-inflated balloon—so when you melt away fat, your skin isn’t able to snap back to where it used to be, according to the Mayo Clinic. Over time, the elasticity of your skin weakens and stretches your abdominal muscles and connective tissue (also known as the inner girdle) which are largely responsible for how tight and toned your abdomen is. Click to the next page to find out skin doesn’t just snap back.

 

You Lost the Weight. What About That Extra Skin?

When you work to lose a bunch of weight, you dream of a tighter, toned body. You don’t picture extra, loose skin. But that’s a real possibility, and one that can cause health problems and a poor self-image.

“It’s frustrating to patients who have put all this hard work and commitment into their weight loss journey and new bodies to be left with extra skin that doesn’t reflect that effort,” says Jason B. Lichten, MD, a plastic surgeon in Columbus, OH. “Often, they feel that their extra skin hangs on them the same way their old clothes from before their weight loss would, only they can’t take it off.”

It’s not just about your looks though. It can cause rashes, infections, and back pain. Plus it can stop you from being as active as you want.

Why Skin Doesn’t Snap Back

The elasticity of your skin depends on how long you were obese. It doesn’t matter if you dropped pounds quickly or slowly. The longer it was stretched out, the less likely it is to bounce back.

“It’s like a balloon,” says Marie Jhin, MD, a dermatologist in San Francisco. “When you first blow up a balloon, it’s really small and tight.” You have to stretch it first, she says. But when it’s deflated, it doesn’t return to its original shape.

A lot of it has to do with age and genetics, too, she says. “Everyone starts to lose [elastic tissue] as they get older.”

Bothers and Burdens

Saggy skin can not only be an embarrassment, it can lead to rashes and yeast infections in the folds.

“Perspiration gets trapped, and you can get a rash,” Jhin says. “I recommend powder or cornstarch. It will help absorb [the moisture].” Some people, she says, even put a little fabric underneath.

While compression garments can help, loose skin can also make getting in shape tricky. “Imagine strapping 30 to 40 pounds to the front of you,” says Jennifer Capla, MD, a plastic surgeon in New York City. “It changes your center of gravity. It’s harder to move.”

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