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Weight Loss & Excess Skin

DEALING WITH EXCESS SKIN

During weight loss there's a risk that your skin won't be able to keep up with your shrinking body mass, resulting in excess, 'baggy-looking skin'. This especially true if you were dangerously overweight before embarking on your diet. Here are tips to ensure you get the figure you deserve:

Why won't my skin tighten up?

How much your skin will tighten up following weight loss, depends on many factors such as:

• your age
• for how long and how much the skin was stretched
• how much weight you lost (and to some degree how fast you lost it)
• the amount of elastin in your skin
• genetics

Body composition

To eliminate the droopy appearance of the remnants of excess body fat following weight loss, without resorting to surgical procedures, you must change your body composition, not just lose bodyweight. This means paying particular attention to the ratio of your body fat to lean body mass.

By gaining muscle you can replace some of those lost pounds of body fat and prevent the loss of lean body mass while dieting - this will dramatically improve your appearance. So, if you aren't doing resistance training (machines, free weights, cables, bodyweight) and core training (swiss ball and bodyweight exercises) you should start straightaway!

Other top tips

• Use good nutrition to lose weight gradually, allowing tissue to adapt
• Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated for tissue health
• Exfoliate daily in the shower. The outer layer of your skin is made up of old, dried, dead cells. Your skin is a pretty low-maintenance and takes care of the removal of dead skin cells on its own. However, as you get older this process of natural exfoliation begins to slow down. Exfoliating will help the skins circulation and the balance of skin growth.

Last resort

For some people it may be difficult - if not impossible - to remove skin sagging through normal exercise or dieting. If you are young enough, the loose skin may regain some of it's elasticity in time. If you are older (and overweight for a long time prior to losing weight) the loose skin is likely to remain. This may mean that you should consider other solutions such as surgery, but only as a last resort. The body is incredible at adapting if properly treated, so try the guidelines and you should get the right results.