There are 12 things you should know about loose
skin after very large weight losses:
1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Just look at what women
go through during pregnancy. Skin has the ability to expand
and contract to a remarkable degree.
2. Elasticity of skin tends to decrease with age. Wrinkling
and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging
(genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors
such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and
nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can
fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get
moving and change the things you have control over...
Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't
have control over.
3. How much your skin will return to its former tautness
depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an
extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that
will not return to normal
4. How long you carry extra weight has a lot to do with
how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss:
For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years
carrying 100 excess pounds.
5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how
much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin
can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap
back" one hundred percent.
6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do
with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance.
Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected
to "snap back."
7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with
how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't
allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet another
reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds
at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even
then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re
certain it's fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).
8. There are exceptions to all of the above; i.e, people
who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight
quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100%
to normal.
9. There are many creams advertised as having the ability
to restore the tightness of your skin. None work –
at least not permanently and measurably – and especially
if you have a lot of loose skin. Don't waste your money.
10. If you’re considering surgical skin removal,
consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor
operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon
may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty
money. (Surgery may be recommended in situations where
it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the
ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.
11. Give your skin time. Your skin will get tighter as
your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many
cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least
partially, after a one or two year period where the weight
loss was maintained and exercise continued.
12. Know your body fat percentage before even THINKING
about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having
body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that
by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done
with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers
might not be the best method if you have large folds of
loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing,
DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all
the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would
tell him, "Don't bitch about loose skin, your body
fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”
Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so)
Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely
lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped”
with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single
digit body fat, and women low teens).
Except in extreme cases, you are very unlikely to see someone
with loose skin who has very low body fat. It's quite remarkable
how much your skin can tighten up and literally start to
“cling” to your abdominal muscles once your
body fat goes from “average” to "excellent."
Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton
of loose skin is a rare sight.
So... the key to getting tighter skin is to lose more body
fat, up to the point where your body composition rating
is BETTER than average (in the “good” to “great”
category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach
your long term body fat percentage goal should you give
thought to "excess skin removal." At that point,
admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where
surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount
of loose skin remaining.
However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult
to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just
remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten
up when the rest of the fat is lost.
Need help getting rid of that last bit of body body fat?
Click the link below to find out how to do it the natural
way:
>>
Click here for Tom's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program
About the Author
Tom Venuto is an NSCA-certified personal trainer, certified
strength and conditioning specialist, lifetime natural bodybuilder,
and author of the #1 best-selling e-book "Burn the
Fat, Feed The Muscle" (BFFM). Tom has written over
170 articles and has been featured in IRONMAN Magazine,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine,
Olympian’s News (in Italian), Exercise for Men and
Men’s Exercise. For information on Tom's "Burn
The Fa Feed the Musclet" e-book, click
here.
|
