You might be one of those who have achieved their long-desired goal of losing weight and has hit a much awaited number on the weight machine. Cheers for that! But apparently, your struggle has not ended and now you have another challenge of sagging skin after weight loss. Now to face this challenge, let’s see how to tighten skin after weight loss naturally!
It’s really admirable if you have searched for ‘natural ways’ to give the sagging pouch a bag to fit, instead of entering the world of highly expensive and complicated procedures of surgeries and cuts. That shows you are quite patient and full of persistence.
Read how losing weight affects your face.
So, let us check your patience and before jumping straight into the treatments, why not understand the causes of getting loose skin after weight loss;
Table of Content
Factors Causing Flabby Skin After Losing Weight
The largest organ of our body (skin) has its innermost layers made up of proteins. And among these proteins, the strength, firmness and tightening departments are regulated by our two knights namely, Collagen and Elastin.
Collagen makes 80% of our skin and endows the skin with strength and firmness, while elastin as the name suggests concerns itself with giving elasticity and tightness to the skin.
The sagging of skin is mainly due to reduced production of these two proteins, which can be the result of the following reasons;
Rapid Shedding Of Pounds
The impatience! As Janette Oke says, “Impatience can cause even wise people to do foolish things.” It’s not bad to be obsessed about your goal but impatience can be destructive. Similarly, rapid weight loss by following extreme methods, excessive dieting, or the use of supplements can cause the destruction of collagen and elastin.
During weight gain, your skin expands to accommodate your increasing growth but rapid fat loss results in little to no time for your skin to adjust to the changes.
Excessive Burning Of Fat
Loose skin also goes proportional to the number of fats you have lost. The higher the amount of weight loss, the more will be sagging skin in the after-effects.
Genetics
Recent studies have found that genes also play role in deciding the response of skin to changes in your body. According to MDedge, a recent study of 530 women of 44-70 years has proved that a gene of MC1R influences the sagging of facial skin.
Lifestyle
Your lifestyle including poor diet, little to no physical activity or exercise along with massive use of alcohol and smoking can not only result in sagging of skin but can also hinder the reverse process of it.
Chemicals like nicotine destroy collagen and reduce its production of it. It also prevents nutrients to penetrate the skin.
Aging
As we all hate to age, but as a matter of fact, we cannot live young forever. Higher numbers are going to display on your birthday cakes and when they do, we are going to face some changes in our bodies, especially in the skin wrinkles and sagging.
Studies have shown that collagen production is relatively higher in young ones, thus older people have more chances of getting loose skin after weight loss along with a reduced chance of getting it back to normal.
Are you in your 40s and struggling to lose extra weight? Here are the effective strategies to lose weight after 40 in a healthy way.
Sun Exposure
UV rays in sun also affect collagen and elastin production thus causing a decrease in the firmness of the skin.
How To Tighten Skin After Weight Loss? Natural Ways
If you are still reading then I think you are patient enough to go natural ways instead of risky surgeries, so let’s just dive straight into knowing how to get rid of loose skin after weight loss;
Looking for a quick fix? Try wearing a Faja to hide loose skin.
Bend Your Efforts In Resistance Exercises
Yes, you are already done doing tough physical workouts and training but I think if you were honest enough with your goal then you might have developed the habit of workouts. So, why not continue this habit?
After losing weight, your skin starts becoming flabby due to the empty space left by fat burning, which was the unwanted partner of your skin previously. Now, to fill up this empty space it is recommended to build some muscles by doing resistance training, a healthy way to tighten your skin!
Stay Hydrated
Adding a significant amount of water to your daily routine is one of the best options to heal your loose skin. Water endows the skin with elasticity and firmness. So, take some water, and make your skin tighter!
Take Collagen
As we have seen that the whole problem of loose skin revolves around reduced collagen so why not take it simply? Taking collagen hydrolysate can help you tighten your skin. It is available in powder form and can be easily purchased. Or you can try some other skin-tightening supplements that may help you make your skin firm.
Nutrient Rich Diet
Adding certain nutrients to your diet can do wonders for tightening the skin. Taking a protein-rich food especially with amino acid lysine and proline can increase collagen production. Similarly, food containing vitamin C also aids in producing collagen and protecting your skin from harmful sun rays.
Omega-3 fatty acids are also included in the list when taking the firmness of the skin into consideration.
Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle
Apart from tightening skin, adopting a healthy lifestyle can give you a couple of other benefits too including healthy bones, and the cardiovascular and digestive systems.
Take proper sleep, adequate water, and avoid alcohol and smoking.
How To Avoid Loose Skin When Losing Weight?
Extra skin stomach or loose skin around any body part can cause extreme discomfort and irritation. It can also result in infections and fatigue. So later instead of saying, ”it is no use crying over spilled milk,” it is better to take proper measures during the journey of weight loss, like;
Take It Gradually And Naturally
Taking your weight loss journey gradually in a natural way can be really healthy and effective. It will give your body time to adjust to your body changes.
Furthermore, taking it naturally by eating a healthy diet full of vitamins, minerals, fibers and other nutrients, along with exercise routines, is a better way to achieve the fat loss goal. Excessive dieting results in weakness, fatigue and then loose skin after weight loss.
Final Thoughts
Due to excessive and rapid weight loss, there is a higher possibility of getting loose skin after hitting your goal of weight loss. However, there are a couple of natural treatments to undo the process. But the possibility of getting your skin tightened varies according to the age, genetics, food quality and lifestyle a person adopts.
Eating a healthy diet, along with resistance training can tighten skin but not only it is a gradual process but also in the case of massive sagging of skin, surgical and other medical options are the only choice.
Different tightening creams can also be an option but in most cases, collagen molecules are not small enough to penetrate into the skin.
Frequently Asked Questions: (FAQs)
Will I have loose skin if I loose weight?
It depends upon the amount of weight loss and the time your body has carried the fat bag along with the period of time you have taken to shed your pounds. All of these numbers goes proportional to the possibility and amount of loose skin.
Does loose skin go away?
Yes, loose skin does go away by taking collagen-producing nutrients rich diet, resistance training, less and protected sun exposure and reduced intake of alcohol and nicotine. However, there are also other medical and surgical treatments like body contouring and radio frequency treatments.
How to tighten skin on legs after weight loss?
You can tighten the skin on your legs by doing a couple of resistance training exercises that would involve your muscles’ inner thighs as squats, lunges and fitness ball squeezes. A couple of belly exercises along with a healthy lifestyle can also tighten loose skin on the belly after weight loss.
How much weight loss causes loose skin?
Excessive weight loss like 40 to 50 pounds especially in a short period of time can cause flabby skin after weight loss.
How to tighten neck skin after weight loss?
Loose skin on the face and neck after weight loss requires similar treatment as the rest of the body. However, it is recommended to add some facial exercises to your workout hours.
