Skin is amazingly forgiving. It suffers abrasions, burns, sun damage and just plain hard living. Luckily, it can repair itself. Skin is incredibly elastic and adapts to cover us when our bodies change in shape and size.
But even good skin has its limits. Extreme weight gain and years of obesity stretches out skin, and once the weight is gone, the once buttery-soft skin is now flapping in the breeze. Imagine a rubber band that you stretch almost to the breaking point. If you let it go quickly, it will return to its normal size. But if you keep it extended for a long time, it loses its elasticity and will stay distended.
The same is true with skin, when it’s continuously overstretched, it can lose its ability to shrink back. However, there are things you can do to minimize the sag and help your skin form around your much smaller physique.
Lose Weight Fast, But Not Too Fast
By dropping pounds extremely fast, your skin is essentially shell-shocked and has no time to adjust to your rapidly shrinking frame. Better to take it off more slowly and follow the recommended 1 to 2 pounds per week. That way you’ll give your skin time to make small incremental adjustments. After all, you didn’t gain the weight overnight, so allow yourself more than a minute to lose it.
Exercise!
From Day One, your weight-loss plan has to include a regular exercise program. If not, you’ll be losing muscle as well as fat, and it’s that lean muscle mass that burns calories and ultimately replaces the fat. So by adding muscle, you’ll provide a strong sculpted base and healthy mold for your skin.
Be Kind to Your Dermis
Since healthy skin is more elastic, be good to your skin. Start by staying properly hydrated. Water is your skin’s natural cleansing system, and it helps to flush toxins and keeps your skin soft and healthy. And stay away from cigarettes. After sun exposure, smoking is the most harmful thing you can do to your skin. Smoking restricts blood flow and increases the production of an enzyme that breaks down the collagen, which is vital to skin’s elasticity.
Nip, Tuck, Actually More Like Slice, Dice
If you still have an abundance of saggy skin, there are surgical alternatives. In fact, clinics specializing in gastric bypass often include “body contouring” surgery as part of the post-bypass protocol. Body contouring, sometimes referred to as a body lift, consists of several surgical procedures and, depending on the patient, includes an arm lift, thigh lift, upper-back lift, liposuction and a belly boost that entails cutting a swath of skin out of the mid-section and waist and then stitching your two halves back together. It also requires the repositioning of the belly button which has been removed with the excision of abdominal skin.
Ouch. Sounds like it’s better—and less painful—to lose weight the old-fashioned way: A healthy diet, plenty exercise and a long-term strategy that’s not about a quick fix. Make a lifestyle change. Your skin will thank you.
Alicia Villarosa is a regular contributor to The Root.