How Long Does Skin Tighten After Weight Loss

The aftermath of weight loss is often expected and welcomed: higher energy levels, smaller pants, and a more than defined body. But there is one unexpected challenge: tightening your skin after losing weight. This unwanted change can be uncomfortable, frustrating, and leave y'all confused almost what to do next.

Here's how to tighten your skin while losing weight, keep information technology tight, and discover out what causes skin to stretch in the start place.

Why does loose pare after weight loss happen?

According to Jordan Jacobs, M.D., an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, loose skin is usually acquired by the post-obit:

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Rapid weight loss

Usually seen in people who undergo bariatric surgery for massive weight loss (more than 100 pounds), virtually seventy per centum of people who undergo the procedure are left with excess pare, some studies notice. "Losing weight rapidly doesn't give our skin acceptable time to gradually contract and this results in loose, hanging pare," says Dr. Jacobs.

So who can await loose pare after weight loss? While it varies, mild weight loss (recall: twenty pounds or less) typically doesn't lead to excess skin, Zuckerman says. Weight loss of 40 to 50 pounds can seem as massive as a weight loss of 100+ pounds.

Gradual weight proceeds

But loose skin post-weight loss is likewise a product of the weight gain itself. "Pare has a finite elasticity, and if pushed beyond the limit of that elasticity upon weight gain, the pare cannot fully contract back down upon subsequent weight loss," explains Joshua Zuckerman, M.D., surgical director at New York Urban center-based Zuckerman Plastic Surgery.

Crumbling skin

Also: It's not just how much weight you lose, only your historic period and skin quality that determines whether or not you'll experience loose skin afterwards weight loss, he says. "Younger patients accept a better chance at avoiding excess skin every bit practice those with inherently high skin elasticity." (Every bit yous historic period, the elastic fibers and collagen molecules that give your skin its firmness lose their strength.)

Men as well tend to practice better in their arms and legs than women do, notes Jeffrey M. Kenkel, G.D., a professor and chair of the Betty and Warren Woodward Chair in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

How can you get rid of loose peel after weight loss?

Co-ordinate to Dr. Jacobs, here are some options for tightening your skin subsequently weight loss:

Surgical removal

"Typically speaking, after bariatric surgery or massive weight loss, plastic surgery is required to remove backlog pare," says Zuckerman. "These plastic surgery procedures are very effective and typically involve cutting away excess pare and lifting or reshaping the remaining tissue."

Liposuction

On top of surgical excision, options include liposuction (which uses a suction technique to remove fat, and, for patients with balmy skin (and fatty) excess, not-invasive procedures ordinarily in the form of ultrasound or radiofrequency procedures that heat up the skin and cause contraction by triggering collagen production, explains Jacobs. Yous might have micro-needling with radio frequency free energy done, for instance, which makes thousands of tiny punctures in your peel and delivers radiofrequency energy during treatment, explains Zuckerman.

Torso contouring

Patients can likewise plough to contouring procedures such equally BodyTite and FaceTite (which can be used in conjunction with liposuction) to remove fat and tighten pare, but for all but mild cases of backlog skin, these treatments may not fully accost the problem, he notes.

Slower weight loss

While it'south non always an option (especially for those who have bariatric surgery done), gradual weight loss seems to be the best though for preventing loose pare in the first place, notes Jacobs.

Exercise

Building muscle—by manner of a solid do regimen with strength preparation work—is ever a practiced thought. Plus, information technology tin make your pare look tauter, says Holly Wyatt, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Colorado.

In short, surgical excision (though information technology comes with a longer recovery) remains the gold standard, says Jacobs (and produces "profound" effects) and the results from the more minimally-invasive treatments are what you would await: subtle, he says.

Can loose skin after weight loss become abroad on its own?

Not really, docs say—though retrieve, how much excess skin y'all're left with and how well your peel responds to weight loss in the get-go place depends on everything from historic period and genetics to how much weight yous lost and your peel quality. And so, depending on your circumstance, you might exist able to look some changes.

"Patients who may see comeback in their loose skin are those who practice non take stretch marks and younger patients who withal have reasonable skin quality despite weight gain," says Kenkel. "The quality of the skin is the key to comeback."

Jacobs as well suggests that if you've lost weight gradually to give your skin a full year to contract once you've reached your goal weight. "Afterward this fourth dimension, you are not going to see whatsoever more noticeable tightening."

Then, if you accept loose skin yous're concerned about—or if you take loose skin afterwards bariatric surgery—exercise your homework and get in touch with a plastic surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery to learn about your options, suggests Jacobs. "At that place are a lot of physicians that characterization themselves as 'plastic surgeons' and, as long as they have a valid medical license, they can legally perform whatever process," he says. "But the American Board of Plastic Surgery denotes the proper training."

What is the all-time home remedy to tighten your skin?

Likewise the non-invasive and minimally-invasive options out there that are somewhat effective, (but, once again, ordinarily just for those with mild cases) in that location'due south no magic pare tightening foam or exercise that's going to tighten loose skin later weight loss on its own. That'south what makes backlog pare a hard problem for those with more than moderate cases, says Zuckerman.

Rubbing cocoa butter on your pare might audio like a expert idea, but while many topical products claim to tighten skin, doctors are skeptical. "In that location are no efficacious topical products or OTC remedies for excess skin," says Zuckerman. Jacobs adds that any product you lot're going to buy for this issue ordinarily will accept subtle results at best.

The best home remedy, then? "Taking care of your skin," says Jacobs. "This includes sun protection, avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in sugar and saturated fats."