Most of us go through the beginning part of our lives in a state of bliss about our skin. Maybe only with the occasional worry about weight gain or weight loss, and the intermittent moderating of calories according to seasons or holidays to maintain our tight youthful skin.
Then years later the unexpected happens, you go on an ultra-healthy fitness or lifestyle transformation or work hard to get back the pre-baby body after childbirth, as you celebrate your weight loss accomplishments you realize success is bittersweet. Your body is fitter, but the skin just does not bounce back to its normally plus, tight form.
You then find yourself wondering, can you naturally tighten skin after weight loss or pregnancy?
Yes, you can absolutely tighten skin laxity after weight loss or pregnancy. Key skin beneficial nutrients that were previously stored in the fat cells, can be lost as they are utilized from nutrient stores by a growing baby or from intense calorie restriction. By combining a nutrient-dense diet and supplementation, with light to moderate exercise, massage, and other skin circulation-enhancing treatments the benefits of those nutrients can be utilized efficiently to optimize skin and tissue tightening and repair.
Depending on your age, health status, and the amount of weight that had been lost previously, results may not go back to taut, but you can achieve visible improvements with dedication and consistency. Dramatic weight loss may require body contouring treatments or surgical procedures to fully eliminate the excess loose skin.
So now you may be wondering if it is possible to naturally tighten skin, what are currently some of the best methods that work, and how long do I need to wait to actually begin to see results?
We have investigated and tested some of the current best methods for tightening loose or sagging skin after weight loss or pregnancy.
Whether it is the belly, butt, breasts, inner thighs, chin, neck, arms, legs, or even hands, there is a degree of tightening you can accomplish by following one or several options listed below. Some methods are better for certain parts of the body, while others can give a full body boost to your collagen skin rebuilding and supportive needs.
You can tighten loose skin with exercise, it can especially be effective when targeting sagging skin on arms, thighs, and butt. For the stomach and waist area, you may want to also incorporate massage, tools, or products to achieve satisfactory results.
Regular exercise can help tone muscles and build underlying strength. You can do several exercises to tighten your skin even if you don't have access to a gym. Make sure you have a good balance of cardio to weight training exercises for subdermal structural benefits, enhanced circulation, and healthy immune response which is involved in tissue repair.
If you do not have a lot of time for strength training, some of the best exercises you can achieve visible results with only 15 minutes a day are plank, side-to-side crunches, squats, and lunges.
Adding electrostimulation, EMS-assisted training to your routine is very popular for faster skin firming and smoothing results than just basic exercise alone.
Some great tips are, to stay hydrated when working out, utilize resistance bands for specific areas of concern, and try to mix cardio with weightlifting or HIIT (High-Intensity Training) to have faster visible results. Do not overdo these exercises as too much exertion without enough time for rest and repair increases the stress hormone cortisol and can lead to poor sleep and insufficient night-time recovery.
Massage can help you get rid of the excess loose skin after weight loss or pregnancy. It is beneficial in directing nutrient-rich blood flow to the muscles and underlying skin structures, helping to plump and firm thinned lax skin.
The best massage for loose skin is lymphatic drainage massage. This can be done at home using hands or a body massage tool such as a roller, or gua sha to stimulate circulation, toxin drainage, and repair of skin.
There are also some basic ingredients you might already have at home that you can use for massage to help in tightening loose skin, such as aloe vera, vitamin e oil, and coconut oil.
Dry brushing is an inexpensive and easy massage to help reverse some of the sag and bring back firmness and glow to dull deflated skin and curves. This is especially great to use in areas of thinned dull looking skin on the abdomen and limbs where exercise alone has a hard time reaching.
Gentle sweeps of a large natural bristle brush across the skin help to attract blood flow to the outermost layers of the skin. This helps to increase localized circulation, giving a tingling and warming sensation which leads to the improvement of collagen and elasticity. This influx of nutrient-rich blood to the skin assists its natural ability to contract after weight loss or from aging-related atrophy.
Other types of massage for loose skin are: Mechanical lymphatic massage such as Endermologie, Velashape, and other tightening tools such as Radio Frequency (RF) are commonly found with a trip to a local spa.
If you’ve tried other treatments for loose skin but did not achieve the desired results, give massage a try. It is easy to get started and it works well when added to a healthy diet and exercise program.
Incorporating massage oils and firming creams into your regimen can help tighten your skin. Using target-specific products for different body areas such as sagging breasts can be helpful to boost skin collagen and dermal fat nutrition such as contained in breast and butt tightening and firming creams. These products can help to strengthen the supportive underlying dermal structure and renutriate skin so it regains its natural tightness and plump.
Sagging skin can often be accompanied by cellulite in the upper arms, butt, and thigh areas. Recent evidence has shown this is related to weakened fat cell structures. It can be targeted topically using circulation-enhancing topical products with actives to help repair and relieve the look of dull, dimpled, loose skin.
It is relatively easy to incorporate infrared or red light therapy to help tighten loose skin. At-home devices and light panels can be found online, while many spas offer red light or infrared treatments in their menu options. Most at-home devices and medispa-level red light panels typically use wavelengths between 660nm and 850nm, which have proven to affect skin health and improve collagen production for firmer glowing skin. 940nm deep infrared is sometimes included in at-home devices or used separately in infrared light saunas for circulation-stimulating results that can penetrate deep tissues and bones.
The full body use of these lights helps with circulation and healthy immune response which is beneficial in repair and tightening. It should be done initially 2x a week for the first month and then can be reduced to 1x a week to boost the natural tightening effect.
Results are best seen when combined with cold therapy or cryotherapy for a "pump" like effect on tissues. Side effects if used too often can be loss of minerals so make sure to replenish with a good vitamin and mineral supplement or antioxidant and mineral-dense foods when using this method.
Taking a cold shower, ice bath, or cryotherapy helps to shrink blood vessels, by reducing inflammation and swelling. Cold therapy helps to reduce the look of skin cellulite by reducing inflammation and swelling through accelerated removal of waste products in tissues. increase the number of white blood cells in the body. Cold showers are great for improving cardiovascular health and tightening loose skin.
Full-body cryotherapy is a great way to tighten skin. It was developed in Japan with athletes needing to drop weight quickly without the risk of developing flabby skin. The tightening anti-aging effect from the cooled nitrogen chambers helps to increase collagen, aiding in dermal regenerative capacity, to increase skin elasticity and glow.
What we put in our bodies is the foundation of what can be a resource, or limitation on how much tightening we can expect to see when trying to firm and tone up sagging skin.
You can tighten loose skin with a diet rich in protein, collagen, omega-3, antioxidants, and minerals. Ideally, you should choose minimally processed natural forms of these foods as possible for the best results.
Keifer, yogurt, organic milk, cottage cheese, organic soy products, beans, wild-caught fish, and organic lean meats are great sources of protein to aid in skin tightening and repair.
Natural forms of collagen-packed foods such as fish and bone marrow are ideal natural sources of bioavailable collagen and omega 3 great for firming up loose skin.
Cruciferous and green leafy vegetables contain antioxidants and minerals crucial for the maintenance and recovery of skin. The more you can get into your diet, the better!
Boosting your existing diet with vitamins and supplements such as collagen, hyaluronic acid, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and Vitamin A and trace minerals such as silica copper zinc and magnesium can help assist in tightening loose skin.
You should look for collagen and hyaluronic acid from whole food sources, and quality brands, as dosage and effectiveness in studies can vary wildly in test results as compared to the ingredients and dosage advertised.
If you are healthy you can expect to see some gradual tightening over the course of months to over a year. It is best to wait during the initial time to see how much repair can be done naturally before considering more invasive options. Also, you do not want to take quick drastic steps before assessing how healthy your skin repair quality is first before inflicting more damage, as any clinical treatment will add more stress and repair requirements from the body. If your tightening is initially slow and not progressing well it is best to incorporate the tips mentioned above to boost circulation and internal nutrition before considering any possible additional steps.
The length of time it takes your skin to tighten after weight loss depends on how old you are and how quickly you lost the weight. If you are youthful and healthy, you can see some tightening within 6 months. If your epidermis is damaged, it will take longer for it to repair itself, and can even stall without full repair if the healing factors are insufficient.
By combining natural and non-invasive ways to assist in tightening loose skin, the speed and ability of your skin to tighten can be enhanced so go ahead and try them all! Remember diet and exercise are the primary factors for success.
Your skin is a barometer of your health. It is the last organ to receive nourishment from the body, but the first organ to show signs of malfunction or deficiencies coming from within. Following the aforementioned tips, combining the ones most suitable for your needs will show the most dramatic improvement than only waiting for the skin to firm up on its own. Clear goals, planning, and routine will be your best assets in achieving natural skin tightening and firming following rapid weight loss, pregnancy, or aging stressors. Not only will your skin health improve but also your internal health as well, so you can have that tight firm glow from within!
