Loose skin! Realistically - Can we work it off?

For some women when they lose their weight they have to deal with loose skin. One of the most common area of concern is the arm. Come on we have all heard the term “bat wings” right?  

Loose skin can be distracting, embarrassing, and honestly irritating, not just mentality wise. It can cause skin infections, rashes and back pain.  

Here are some factors that we should go over first:

• Think of your skin like a balloon. If you fill it up and let it out right away, it will shrink back closer to its original size. Now take a balloon fill it up and let it sit for a couple of days or a week, when you let the air out it is stretched out and not close to the starting size.

 

• How have you taken care of your skin? Think hydration, nutrition, skin care, and sorry but also your genetics. Additionally as we age, we tend to lose some of the elasticity within it.

 

• How fast you lost the weight and even environmental factors can come into play. The other thing to think of, how long have you been holding onto that extra weight? The longer, the harder it is to bounce back.

We all know each person is different therefore their body will have a different response. For some the skin will tighten back, while others may need surgery. When you lose weight slowly you are giving your body a better chance to bounce back by letting it adapt and for the muscle you are building to help fill in space. This is a little bit of the reason why we recommend 1 - 2 pounds a week for weight loss.

Here are some little tidbits:

If you can grab more than a few millimeters of skin then there’s more fat to lose
That doesn’t mean you don’t have excess skin, but until you burn away the majority of the fat it’s covering, the skin on top is not going to tighten–it will continue its sad, droopy existence.

When it comes using body fat percentages to gauge if you should have surgery. Most doctors will advise men to be at or below 10%, women at or below 20%. Now that being said most doctors will want you to maintain that weight for 6 months to a year before looking at doing surgery.

Recommendations:

Build muscle
Consume whole nutritious foods - (Carbs, Protein and Healthy Fats)
Hydrate 
Maybe even consider supplementing with collagen and gelatin, talk with a registered dietitian or doctor before starting.

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