|
|
There are lots of myths, misinformation and outright lies floating around the Internet about skin and weight loss. The Big Lie is that if you lose weight ‘the right way’ you won’t have any problems with your skin — that it will shrink to fit your new body. The ‘right way’ is commonly held out to be through healthy eating, exercising and lifting weights, drinking lots of water, using lotions of various types, losing slowly, and taking various supplements and oils. Often whoever is espousing the ‘right way to lose weight’ is selling something: a book, lotion, supplement, or weight loss plan. Or that person is simply misinformed and has never personally lost enough weight to get to the point where excess skin is an issue. In any event, they’re wrong. You can lose weight the right way and have a lot of excess skin.
The most important thing to remember about weight loss and your skin is that no one — not even a doctor— can tell in advance what your skin will look like when your reach your goal weight. Every person’s skin will react differently to weight loss.
However, many people who lose a significant amount of weight are unpleasantly surprised to find that their skin looks worse and worse as the pounds drop off. Fat cells themselves never go away entirely; they empty out but their structure remains behind. As the fat from the cells and inches melt away, there’s less support for the overlying skin and it starts to look deflated — collapsed and wrinkled — like a balloon that was blown up and popped. Since the underlying fat layer to which the skin was attached is now gone, it flops around loosely.
There are some common variables that affect how your skin will react to and look after weight loss:
How old are you? — the younger you are, the more elastic your skin is.
How long were you overweight? — skin that has been stretched for many years is less elastic than skin that was only stretched for a brief time.
What are your skin genetics? — some people are genetically blessed with elastic skin.
Do/did you smoke? — smoking negative affects the skin’s ability to tighten up.
How much weight did you lose and how quickly did you lose it? — the more weight you lose, the more likely it is that you’ll have excess skin. Extremely rapid weight loss (e.g. loss as a result of gastric bypass surgery) can also cause loose skin to occur.
Are/were you a sun worshipper? — sun damages skin.
Were you ever pregnant? — a large pregnancy can permanently damage the underlying fibers of the skin and permanently separate the ab muscles that keep your stomach flat.
Exercise alone won’t make your skin tighten up; however, building muscle as you lose weight and afterwards can help to fill up some of the loose skin.
|