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6 Ways To Decrease Loose Skin Naturally After Losing Weight

Loose skin occurs from rapid weight loss, weight gain, and more. Learn how to minimize loose skin and find the best natural remedies and medical treatments.

Alexander Singh
June 6, 2022

While extensive weight loss is a truly commendable feat, it’s common for people to deal with loose skin after the fact. This usually happens when you lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time through daily exercise or a strict diet. While all the effort helps you achieve your desired weight goals, it doesn’t give your skin enough time to shrink according to your new body. 

Loose skin also appears because when you make an effort to lose weight, your fat cells start shrinking at a rapid pace and the skin’s ability to tighten itself slows down during this process. Hence, people opt for surgery to get rid of this loose skin from different parts of their bodies. Let us dig deeper to see the causes of loose skin and how you can get rid of it. 

What Causes Loose Skin

When a person carries excess weight with their body for a much longer period of time, their skin expands to accommodate the excess weight. Over time, your body adjusts according to how much your skin expands.

So, when a person loses weight immediately through extensive diet and exercise, their weight decreases, but the remains as expanded. This leads to the elasticity of your skin, which is commonly known as loose skin. 

What Impacts Skin Elasticity?

The biggest reason for skin elasticity is losing elastin. Elastin is a protein that is responsible for the skin’s ability to stretch itself and then snap back. Skin elasticity is a natural process, but it varies from person to person. More common causes are:

  • Aging factor
  • Weight distribution in the body
  • Smoking habits
  • Environment
  • Less water intake
  • Loss of nutrition
  • Sleep routine
  • Skin care routine
  • Genetics

Common Concerns 

Loose skin can be a cause of concern as it leads to great physical discomfort. Your loose, sagging skin will touch your firm parts of the body, making you uncomfortable and irritable. It can cause friction and irritation to your skin. 

On the other hand, it can also greatly affect your self-esteem. As you might feel at your lowest when even after exercising so much and having so much of that tasteless diet food, you still have to deal with loose, sagging skin, making you feel old and lethargic. 

Tips to Improve your Skin Naturally

Although there are numerous procedures and surgeries you can opt for to improve your skin, it’s always better to go the natural way first. As natural methods are harmless, they don’t cause any side effects and retain their results for a much longer period of time. 

By just following a healthy diet plan and changing some of your habits, you can definitely fix your loose skin naturally without going under the knife for surgeries. 

Some of the most effective tips to improve your skin naturally are:

  1. Lose Weight Slowly

For starters, you should lose weight slowly instead of rapidly and extensively. This will give your body time to adjust to the changes it’s experiencing. Losing weight slowly will allow your cells time to contract so they go back to their original shape. 

This gives your body more time to adjust and adapt to the change in mass, preventing the development of saggy and loose skin. 

  1. Exercise

Exercise to gain weight this time. You can opt for special kinds of exercises that help you gain muscle in areas you want to bulk up. You can opt for such exercises to gain mass and muscles in areas affected by loose and saggy skin. Exercise can help you put on muscle mass, and it can also stimulate your cells, which helps tighten the skin.

  1. Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated helps your organs work properly. A normal person should have at least 8 glasses of water every day, but if you have loose skin, you should drink double that amount. Remember: water serves as medicine for many problems. Drink plenty of water and juice to help your skin heal.

Staying hydrated is crucial to improving your skin’s elasticity, which can help your skin shrink according to your new mass. Additionally, proper hydration gives you glowing skin, a lighter skin tone, fewer signs of aging like wrinkles, minimal acne, and tightens the skin to reduce sagging. Bottom line: take plenty of fluids so your skin can shrink back into place. 

  1. Take a Collagen Supplement

Collagen is a protein with a similar texture to gelatin. It is responsible for helping the skin heal, and connecting tissues to each other, which can result in the natural loosening and tightening that skin goes through. Take a high-quality collagen supplement on a daily basis to help improve your skin condition. Collagen can work wonders for your skin in magical ways. 

You take collagen through taking collagen supplements, medicines, and natural sources. Natural sources of collagen include chicken, eggs, beef, beans, and dairy products – any food that is rich in protein. 

  1. Consume protein and Omega 3s

Omega-3s are nutrients that protect your skin from sun damage. It heals the acne and dryness in your skin, and protein and Omega3 offer natural healing benefits for skin and hair. Apart from supplements, many legumes are rich in protein and omega 3, so practice plenty of variation in your diet. 

If you’re looking for ideas, some sources of protein and Omega-3s include walnuts, flaxseeds, soybeans, fish, eggs, dairy products, and vegetables like spinach and Brussel sprouts. 

  1. Consider Firming Creams and Lotions

Use firming creams. There are plenty of firming creams you use to make your loose skin firm again. Depending on your skin type, you can choose the best firming cream for your skin. With age, our bodies and skin lose collagen and elastin, which are responsible for skin tightening and shaping.

Firming creams and lotions can address the natural reduction of collagen and elastin in our skin. They play a vital role in tightening loose skin and preventing any further sagging. 

Medical Options

Of course, when you run out of natural options, you can rely on medical procedures to get rid of excess skin. These procedures are helpful when you want to get results in less time. Medical options are a quick and easy way to fix your loose skin. 

You can treat your saggy skin through procedures like liposuction, body contouring, and surgical removal. Opting for these surgeries in combination with medication will help you get a toned body and well-sculpted by getting rid of the excess loose skin. 

Body Contouring 

Body contouring is a process in which your body is contoured via surgical procedures to by giving it a balanced, toned, and slimmer look. Body contouring comprises both kinds, surgical and nonsurgical procedures, but most often, it refers to nonsurgical procedures. 

This category involves various ways to contour your body. Some common ones include: 

  • Cryopolysis. It is a process in which extremely low temperatures are used to eliminate fat cells from your loose skin.
  • Laser lipolysis. This process uses laser treatment to destroy fat cells. 
  • Radiofrequency lipolysis. It uses ultrasound and radioactive waves to get rid of loose, saggy skin. 
  • Injection lipolysis. deoxycholic acid is infused into your body through injections to target cells and then kill them

Surgical Removal

Surgical procedures can be very scary for people who are afraid of going under the knife, but this process yields the fastest results in minimal time.

A number of people are opting for plastic/ cosmetic surgeries these days because of their ability to provide instant results that give the desired look. These surgeries can tuck in excess skin or even remove excess skin from the body in some cases. Surgical removal procedures include tummy tucks, arm lifts, and panniculectomy. 

Liposuction

Liposuction is a process by which stubborn fat is sucked out of the body and skin through hollow tubes and suction devices. This procedure is quite effective and also provides permanent results.

However, if you do not take care of your diet and health, you might gain weight even after a procedure like liposuction. So, eating fewer processed foods and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can allow you to retain your slimmer body.

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