Will I Have Loose Skin After Weight Loss?
Loose skin after weight loss is a concern of many people who are working to take off their extra pounds. Those working to lose a substantial amount of weight could experience loose skin once they reach their target weight, but not everyone will have loose skin. It is important to understand why loose skin happens to help determine if you may be at risk for experiencing loose skin down the road.
Why Does Loose Skin Happen?
How elastic your skin is and your skin's overall condition prior to you losing weight will ultimately determine how much - if any - loose skin you may experience. Another thing that factors in is how quickly you lose the weight. If you lose it very quickly, your risk of loose skin will be higher. Losing a significant amount of weight - such as 100 pounds or more - can also play a role.
Can I Prevent Loose Skin After Weight Loss?
Not completely, but you can help to reduce how much you end up with, to a degree. Losing weight at a slow pace is beneficial. This would be one to two pounds a week on average. This will help to preserve the elasticity of your skin. Some believe that regular exercise is also beneficial, but the jury is still out on this one. Exercise is obviously good for many other things, but whether or not it plays a role in helping your skin maintain maximum elasticity has not been proven.
Factors You Cannot Control
If you have been overweight for a prolonged period of time, the higher your risk of loose skin. This is because your skin has been stretched out for quite some time. Age also plays a role. The older you are, the less elastic your skin is. So, if you are young, your skin has a better chance of "snapping" back into place.
As you can see this is really an unanswerable question. It is highly individualized and you really will not know if you will have loose skin after weight loss until you lose the weight. All you can really do is try to lose weight at the right pace and know that the benefits of losing weight far outweigh some loose skin - if it were to occur. You should not let this stop you from pursuing your weight loss goals. Loose skin can be removed if it does occur.
Resources
eMedicineHealth: Excess Skin Removal After Extreme Weight Loss
Published by R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen - Featured Contributor in Health & Wellness
Rose is a freelance medical writer with a background in health care. She has been a freelance medical writer for five years. Rose is also an editor and writes on a variety of other subjects, such as sports... View profile
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