Stretched Skin After Weight Loss

LegacyUser

Anyone know what the best way 2 get rid of stretched skin after losing weight? I saw a girl on MTV who lost loads of weight but still had sagging skin cuz her skin was stretched so much from when it was filled with fat. She had to get surgery to remove it :shock: Has anyone here had to deal with this or know anything about it? How can you get your skin back to normal after reaching a normal healthy weight with low body fat %.

Mods, pls copy this thread to fitness if poss as would like their opinions 2!

chamlis

If you exercise properly I don't think it's as much of a problem. There are probably even particular regimens to deal with skin tightening etc.
It's all about toning, really. That's what certain types of exercise are designed for.
Obviously, if the person is HUGE then no amount of exercise will do it, even starting exercise would be a problem if they are HUGE.

But the skin thing is diet related. You loose a load of weight without exercise, it's gonna happen.

TerrorFirmer

Unless you were very large to begin with it isn't an issue....exercise will be sufficent. Surgery is genuinely only required in most cases when somebody was excessively large before they dropped weight.

fifib

i think it depends really on the elasticity of your skin. it will be different for different people with different skin types. Some people who aren't particularly huge find that when they lose weight their skin sags as you say, whereas another person who was much heavier might not have this problem when they lose alot of weight. Excercise and toning also play a big part in preventing this as chamlis said above

Black Swan

I would recommend exercise over a long period of time and see what happens. You cannot expect immediate results. You should exercise for health in any case, and this could be a good reason to start?

Giruilla

I think if you go into one of those beauty salons they can sort you out on a programme. I think you can lose excess skin by being power-hosed (prob not right name for it!). Swimming would probaly help a lot too! good luck

Sam Vimes

its only really an issue for people who were massive. i saw a thing on the discovery channel where a 17 year old kid got a gastric bypass and dropped from about 30 stone to normal 17 year old weight. it looked like he was wearing a big bulldog skin coat

nando

Hi,

I'm 5ft4 and used to weigh 130lbs - heavier than I wanted to be but not what I think most people would consider overweight ,and I was reasonably active also.

Two years ago I decided to lose some weight so I did so by changing my diet and doing some more excercise. I lost a stone in weight over a period of 3 months - which I consider to be a reasonable rate of weight loss, so I now weigh 116lbs.

I'm happier with my size but I now have stretch marks. I was quite surprised by this as I was never very overweight, lost only a small amount of weight and did so with excercise and not too rapidly. So, I think a lot has to do with the individual.

I've found rubbing the liquid from Vit E capsules into the stretch marks over time has helped reduce their appearance though. I think lazer treatment may be the only way to get fully rid of them though.

LegacyUser

You are more likely to get stretch marks if you lose or put on weight very quickly.You can also get them from wearing to tight clothes, hormones,growth,certain medications,weight lifting, even your boobs sweeling at that time of the month etc. so alot of people end up with them, they fade well into pasty irish skin and to be honest mine don't bother me at all.The skin has been stretched past breaking point and so I don't think that a laser will ever be able to fix the problem and that beautician thing definatly won't.
Bio-oil is very good to make them smooth and faded if you have them already.
Basting yourself in cocoa butter is a good preventive measure, as is taking a zinc supplement.Our mothers never got stretchmarks despite popping out loads of babies and I'm convinced that this is because they ate more irish grown produce, as irish soil is high in zinc.

daiixi

OP: Some people get excess skin after they lose weight and some people don't. Just because you lose weight slowly and exercise doesn't mean your skin will shrink with you and if it doesn't then the only way to get rid of it is by surgery. Excess skin seems also to afflict people who have yo-yo dieted as the skin has been stretched and shrunk over and over again and the elasticity has gone from it. A lot of women have this problem after having children. A lot of women don't have this problem after having children also.
It's actually an issue being raised a lot nowadays in magazines and on makeover shows on tv.
Bio-oil which can be found in chemists is great on scars and stretch marks as fiul said above.