Avoiding loose skin?
daneejela
Posts: 461 Member
Is there a way to prevent loose skin when loosing weight?
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Replies
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Loose skin probably goes with the territory. The younger you are when you take your action the more elastic your skin is likely to be. If you are able to keep your weekly loss to .5 to 1 lb a week your body will probably be better able to adapt at any age, the key is not loosing too fast.2
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Loose skin probably goes with the territory. The younger you are when you take your action the more elastic your skin is likely to be. If you are able to keep your weekly loss to .5 to 1 lb a week your body will probably be better able to adapt at any age, the key is not loosing too fast.
The speed of loss has absolutely nothing to do with it. If it did, no woman who ever had a baby would have a midsection that went back to normal.14 -
He does make a good point...6 weeks after having my son, my belly looked like I'd never been pregnant. I am getting loose skin now, I think maybe it is because of age...and I am loosing slowly...VERY slowly...I hope over time it will be less...4
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Gallowmere1. how many pregnancies have you experienced of your own?
Experienced directly? None, given that I am male. Had some part in? Six. The number that resulted in the woman having irrevocable skin damage? Two, both in the same woman. She just drew a bad straw in the genetic lottery.
The other two women that I bore direct witness to, you can't even tell they've had children. They were fortunate in that area. One of said women actually has three kids, and her skin recovered the exact same every time. vOv4 -
Gallowmere1, Is there a way to avoid loose skin when loosing weight?0
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Have good genetics, or don't be fat to the point where the skin's integrity has been compromised. Otherwise, no.6
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Loose skin probably goes with the territory. The younger you are when you take your action the more elastic your skin is likely to be. If you are able to keep your weekly loss to .5 to 1 lb a week your body will probably be better able to adapt at any age, the key is not loosing too fast.
It's down to genes, age, and how long you were fat. There's no magic that can change it - and if there's a whole lot of it left a couple years after you've reached your goal weight, surgery is the next option to remove it.
Once you've been really fat, particularly for a long time, there is no way to avoid having the extra skin that comes with being extra huge.6 -
The way to avoid permanently loose skin is to not gain weight in the first place or to stay fat once you have gained it.
Short of jumping in a time machine and going back in time to before the weight gain, there is nothing you can do other than lose the weight, sooner rather than later.
Loose skin--whether you have it and how bad it is--is dependent on genetics, how big you were, and how long you were big, and age. It's the result of your skin stretching/expanding and getting damaged as you lost weight. It's not due to losing weight quickly. It is very common for fat loss to outpace the skin's shrinkage rate but that type of loose skin is temporary, not permanent.
Lose the weight and wait a few years to see how much it shrinks/repairs before worrying about actual permanent loose skin.1 -
Curious as to how much/how big you have to start off at in order to have loose skin after weight loss? I'm 36, SW 217/ CW 205/ GW 155. Obviously, I'm considered "obese", but I'm also 5'7 and have always had a thicker/stockier build. I never even considered that loose skin might be an issue!0
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Honestly, there is no real metric. I was 265 with a 43" waist, and am now 169 with a 33.5" waist, and I have a fair amount of it. I knew that I would though, as I had been obese since my preteen years, and have always had a ridiculous amount of stretch marks up my sides.2
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I believe I've heard to give your body one year after the weight loss to allow the skin to shrink back the best it can.3
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Mine still seems to be shrinking (sloooowly) in some areas more than a year after losing 60 pounds (I'm 61).
There's also an issue, I believe, of how thoroughly one loses weight. The weight doesn't politely disappear from one's outer perimeter, with loss proceeding next to inner layers in orderly fashion.
Rather, it can be lost from random areas through the fat mass, leaving some areas with subcutaneous fat dragging down a partly-empty "sack" of skin & keeping it from shrinking much. One has to lose enough fat in an area so that gravity isn't keeping that skin stretched.
Actual loose skin is very thin - small wrinkles, like folds of a medium-weight fabric, maybe denim or corduroy at most.
Any thicker folds/wrinkles, like a 1/2" fold or something, still have fat.They're not going to shrink much.
What can you do to minimize loose skin? I agree genetics and age are the big factors, along with volume of fat lost & how long you had it.
No proof, but exercise (for muscle & circulation), solid nutrition, and hydration can't hurt, and you want those for other reasons anyway, right?
Besides, loose skin beats obesity any day.
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Choose your ancestors wisely.4
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Prevent, no. Be lucky with genetics and the right age, yes.Is there a way to prevent loose skin when loosing weight?
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Honestly, this is like closing the barn door after the horse is out, anyway.
How to prevent loose skin
1. Do not become overweight to begin with
2. Do not become pregnant
3. Choose the correct ancestors
4. Be appropriately young
As far as I'm concerned, loose skin is a small price to pay for the benefits of no longer being significantly overweight. Although I have relatively little of it, I credit (3) and to some extent (4) for this, and no personal action on my part.5 -
Mine still seems to be shrinking (sloooowly) in some areas more than a year after losing 60 pounds (I'm 61).
There's also an issue, I believe, of how thoroughly one loses weight. The weight doesn't politely disappear from one's outer perimeter, with loss proceeding next to inner layers in orderly fashion.
Rather, it can be lost from random areas through the fat mass, leaving some areas with subcutaneous fat dragging down a partly-empty "sack" of skin & keeping it from shrinking much. One has to lose enough fat in an area so that gravity isn't keeping that skin stretched.
Actual loose skin is very thin - small wrinkles, like folds of a medium-weight fabric, maybe denim or corduroy at most.
Any thicker folds/wrinkles, like a 1/2" fold or something, still have fat.They're not going to shrink much.
What can you do to minimize loose skin? I agree genetics and age are the big factors, along with volume of fat lost & how long you had it.
No proof, but exercise (for muscle & circulation), solid nutrition, and hydration can't hurt, and you want those for other reasons anyway, right?
Besides, loose skin beats obesity any day.
^^^ what she said
I've also read that getting your BF very low (skin paper thin with no fat below) can lead to the excess skin being absorbed.2 -
I gained 50 - 60 lbs with all 3 pregnancies.and a slow loss and muscle building prevented loose skin for me...plus mine were all c sections..and was in my 30s..it could be genes also.1
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I've lost 151lbs in 14 months. I'm pushing 50. I have some parts of me with loose skin. I've done what my doctor recommended...exfoliate, a lotion that promises nothing but feels good and is affordable, a biotin supplement and exercise. I'm not thrilled. But I'm ok. I have a friend who just turned 50 and after four years, finally her skin is tightening. Frankly I decided loose skin is better than all the other things, like diabetes, early death, being immobile.5
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