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I have often been asked how I feel about having loose skin after weight loss. To be completely honest, it is not something I am particularly bothered about.
I would rather be slimmer and healthier and have a bit of loose skin in certain areas of my body. I haven’t lost what could be classed as an excessive amount of weight, so my loose skin is very little.
Loose skin can be rectified if it causes too much bother or causes any discomfort. So it shouldn’t ever put you off improving your health by loosing weight if you need to or feel you want to.
Loose Skin After Weight Loss
Managing to lose weight if you need to at any stage of your life is something to be proud of. Having loose skin should never sway you away from losing your excess weight, especially if it is for health reasons. The health impact of being overweight is likely to be far greater than the effects of loose skin. You will likely already have stretch marks from where you gained weight, so having slightly looser skin shouldn’t be an issue either.
There are different levels of loose skin which depend on how much weight you have lost. The more weight you lose, the more excess skin you are likely to have.
The longer you have been overweight or obese, the less chance that your skin will bounce back after weight loss.
Everyone carries their weight differently.
We are all different shapes and our bodies store the excess fat in different areas, so it is hard to compare your body to someone else who has lost weight.
About Our Skin
The largest organ in our body is our skin. It is what protects us from the environment.
It is made up of collagen, proteins and elastin. Collagen is the key component here, as this makes up 80% of the structure of our skin.
During weight gain, our skin will grow with our bodies to make more space to accommodate the gain.
Once the skin has been stretched the elastin and collagen fibres become damaged. This is what also causes stretch marks on the skin.
There are medical treatments to tighten loose skin as well as natural ways to tighten loose skin if you feel you want to.
Lifestyle choices affect your skin
There are other attributing factors such as genetics. The family gene you carry will also determine how well your skin will repair itself. However, once it has stretched it is never possible to go back to the exact same as the fibres will be damaged. But a general indication of how well your skin will repair would be to see how your birth mother’s stomach recovered after pregnancy.
Someone who smokes or who has smoked will have reduced collagen production already. Therefore they are more likely to suffer from loose skin after weight loss.
Excessive sun exposure is another lifestyle factor which affects collagen production in our bodies. If you have prematurely aged your skin through the sun or the use of sun beds, it is likely that you are going to have lower collagen production.
