SKINIPEDIA - Skin Obesity Problem: Weight Loss, Sagging Skin
Obesity and Skin Problems: Weight Loss and Sagging Skin
How to tighten loose skin after weight loss is the question you might ask after losing a lot of weight.
Loose skin after weight loss and dieting? Don’t fret – the Oxygen magazine answers your burning questions about the post-weight-lose loose skin, including what you can do about it.
Anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight knows that the weight loss itself is only half the battle.
Long after the weight melts away, the extra skin has a way of sticking around......
What causes the skin to sag after a significant weight loss? “There is an inherent elasticity in everyone’s skin, but once you get to a certain size, the elasticity decreases,” explains Jason Spector, M.D., assistant professor of plastic surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The tissue expands and your body literally makes more skin by producing more skin cells. And those annoying stretch marks? “They are the artifacts of the breakdown of the normal architecture of skin,” Spector says. Plan of Action: Keep your skin moisturized with inexpensive lotion and water. What are the biggest factors that determine my skin’s elasticity? “The two biggest factors that determine skin elasticity are age and genetics,” Spector says. And, unfortunately, both are out of our control. How quickly you’ve gained the weight, as well as how quickly you’ve lost it, may also be a factor. Losing weight over a longer period of time may give you more of a fighting chance. However, Spector says, there are no credible studies that show what a person can do to head off the excess skin as they’re losing weight. Plan of Action: Slower weight loss – one to two pounds a week – can help with your skin’s elasticity.
Sagging Skin and Weight Loss Part II