Excessive Skin After Weight Loss

Where Does All That Skin Go See For Yourself

Franklin Santana, a 29-year-old who lives in the Bronx, had gastric bypass surgery in October 2011, and before the surgery, he weighed 395 pounds. Two years later, as of late last year, he was down to 170. To the public, he seemed like a trim, even skinny, guy. But underneath the clothes, he said his sagging skin reminded him of a deflated balloon.

Im wearing a fat suit I feel like Im a thin person inside wearing a body thats twice the size of mine.

To me, it looks gross, said Santana. You know how a pumpkin looks, at the beginning of October? And then, at the end of October, its all sad and saggy and deflated. I guess you could say it looks like that.

Fantana had done his research before getting the surgery done, and he knew that hed probably be saddled with loose skin after it was over.

Deborah Olmstead, who first had weight loss surgery done in 2001, knew to expect it, too she just didn’t know how awful it would make her feel.

“I was not really comfortable even looking at myself in the mirror, with all the excess flesh,” said Olmstead, who lives in New York state and had cosmetic surgery in Manhattan, led by Wallach, to remove the sagging skin in 2004. “You’ve done all this work, you’ve made this big, massive change that you see on the scale, but you don’t necessarily see it in your clothing, or the way you feel about yourself.”

Consume Certain Nutrients And Stay Hydrated

Certain nutrients are important for the production of collagen and other components of healthy skin:

• Protein. Adequate protein is vital for healthy skin. The amino acids lysine and proline play a direct role in collagen production.
• Vitamin C. Vitamin C is needed for collagen synthesis and also helps protect skin from sun damage (

What Should You Know Before You Consider Surgery For Excess Skin

It’s not a good idea to undergo surgery for excess skin if you’re still in the process of losing weightor if there’s a good chance you’ll gain it back right away. “We look to see that a patient is at a healthy weight based on their body mass index or based on their lifestyle and how they feel,” Dr. Malin explained. “I want a patient to be at that stable weight for about six months since their weight loss, which gives the body time to get back to equilibrium.”

Sometimes, a plastic surgeon may refer you to a nutritionist or a personal trainer, to help with weight loss, before they address their excess skin. Healthcare providers will also consider the patients’ overall health when determining whether they’re a good candidate for surgery.

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Q: What Are Some Benefits Of Surgery To Treat Extra Skin

Dr. Jones: The biggest gain is self-confidence. A lot of my patients have a long story behind their decision to pursue bariatric surgery. In some ways, the excess tissue serves as a reminder of the parts of them they wanted to leave behind, and it interferes with the way they want to present themselves to the world.

Excess skin can also cause medical issues like infections and skin rashes. And having a lot of loose, excess skin can make it difficult for people to fit into clothes. Some of my patients have already tried things like wearing shapewear clothing before they come to me to discuss skin surgery.

Keep Up With A Healthy Diet

In order to lose a significant amount of weight in the first place, especially if you want to keep the weight off, you probably had to focus on changing your eating habits and maintaining a healthy diet. That healthy diet, however, is equally important for maintaining your skin’s elasticity and helping you avoid as much loose skin as possible. Keep up with that healthy diet, including plenty of healthy fruits and vegetables to help promote healing throughout your body.

Don’t let the possibility of excess skin following substantial weight loss keep you from taking the steps you need to lose weight, whether that means going on a strict diet and exercise program or turning to bariatric surgery to help you reach your weight loss goals. There are solutions that can help you look and feel your best even with loose skin–and utilizing those solutions can help you feel even better about your new body. Do you need help reaching your weight loss goals? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.

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Q: How Soon After Bariatric Surgery Can Someone Have Treatment For Excess Skin

Dr. Jones: In general, I like to do surgery for excess skin about 18 months after bariatric surgery. This is because patients need to be at a stable, healthy weight for a steady 6 months before having skin surgery. If they gain or lose weight after the plastic surgery procedure, patients can lose the aesthetic benefits. For example, the skin could appear uneven if they gain weight, and losing more weight can cause the skin to sag again.

Is Loose Skin Something To Worry About

I think this is an important questionis loose skin really worth worrying about?

If your loose skin is causing pain or discomfort, and especially if you are getting chafing during activity, you may want to do something about it, like opens in a new windowwearing compression garments. Exercisers that carry larger amounts of weight are often more susceptible to repetitive-use injuries like strains, shin splints, sprains, and other joint issues. But simply wearing some compression gear can help compress loose skin against the skeleton and minimize the tiny tissue tears that can be caused by skin vibration and oscillation.

Dont let the stigma of loose skin stop you from living your best life.

But if your loose skin isnt causing pain or injury, please dont let the stigma of loose skin stop you from living your best life. Im a fan of the attitude expressed in an article from SELF magazine called opens in a new window17 Women Share Pics of Loose Skin After Weight Loss to Prove How Common and Normal It Is.

As one woman quoted in the article said, Dont you dare hold your potential hostage because youre worried what someone might say or think.

That said, even if you are ready to be as bold as the people in that SELF article, there are still some steps you can take to give your skin a little help.

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What Causes Excess Skin After Weight Loss

Elasticity is your skins ability to stretch and then contract to its original shape. With rapid weight loss, the skin often cant bounce back quickly enough to adapt to your new body. Additionally, several factors can make you more prone to excess skin after weight loss.

• Obesity – obesity pushes the limits of skin elasticity, keeping it from fully contracting when the weight comes off. And the longer your skin is stretched by excess weight, the more challenging it is to bounce back when the weight comes off.
• Skin Quality – skin quality also affects excess skin. The firmer your skin is before you lose weight, the better your chances of it tightening again.
• Age – as you age, your skin naturally loses collagen and becomes looser. The reduced firmness that comes naturally with age can contribute to excess skin after weight loss surgery.
• Genetics – some people are genetically predisposed to looser skin. You can inherit genes that affect how your skin responds to weight gain and loss.

Side Effects of Excess Skin

Significant weight loss is an accomplishment, but the sagging skin it leaves behind can cause embarrassment and frustration. More than only a cosmetic concern, excess skin is often uncomfortable, making it hard to bend your limbs, move around or exercise. If perspiration gets trapped in the skin folds, you can also develop rashes or yeast infections.

Skin Removal After Weight Loss Surgery: What To Know

Finelli says she constantly felt pressure from the hanging skin on her back, stomach, and knees.

âFrom the pain I felt from the weight pulling on my nerves to looking at myself in the mirror, wanting to celebrate the weight loss, but not loving what I saw, it was a daily struggle,â she says.

The nearly 2 years she lived with the excess skin were physically, mentally, and emotionally painful, Finelli says. She eventually found relief through a series of plastic surgeries referred to as âbody contouring,â which removes excess skin from the body.

In 2020, almost 200,000 Americans had bariatric surgery, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. While the procedure can help people with obesity lose a significant amount of weight and lead to improved health and quality of life, an unpleasant side effect is the loose, excessive skin that once held the now-lost weight. And excess skin can cause serious health issues.

Why Does Loose Skin Occur After Bariatric Surgery?

While skin is flexible, quickly losing a lot of weight doesnât give the organ time to shrink and contract, in part because the more skin is stretched, the less elastic it is.

After Brenda Langford, 46, had weight loss surgery in 2018, the excess skin that hung down from her belly reached halfway to her knees.

What Body Contouring Entails

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Keep The Skin Well Hydrated

Using an emollient moisturizer rich in vitamin E will help improve the barrier protection of the skin and lock in moisture, Devgan says. And the topical medical-grade ingredients you use on your face for firmness and tightness of the skinlike hyaluronic acid, peptides, niacin, squalene, vitamins C and B, retinol, and bakuchiolcan work elsewhere, too, she says. Most people focus on using these for the face and neck in their daily routines, but from a molecular perspective, their efficacy is present anywhere on the body.

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Top 5 Abs Toning Exercises To Tone The Sagging Tummy Post Weight Loss

Significant weight loss can also lead to sagging of the abdominal muscles along with extra loose skin around the mid-section, and this belly jiggle is really difficult to get rid of. Here are a few effective ab toning exercises which you can to tighten and strengthen the abdominal muscles and get rid of the extra skin in no time.

Air Biking

Air biking is a fun and easy solution to the problem of how to get rid of loose skin after weight loss and tone the flabby tummy. This exercise is done lying on your back.

Rest your hands behind your head with the elbows bent and the knees pulled slightly towards you. Curl your shoulders off the floor by using your abs and do a cycling movement by pulling your right elbow to your left knee until they are almost touching and then pulling your left elbow to your right knee. Continue the alternating right to left and left to right movement till you feel the burn in your abs.

Straight Arm Crunches

Crunches are the most effective exercises for toning your abdomen, and it is often included in tummy toning exercises routine. This specific crunch exercise helps to tone the upper abs and can be done with a dumbbell in order to make it more challenging.

Side Bridges

Pelvic Thrust Exercises

Lying Leg Raises

Leg raises are considered one of the functional tummy toning exercises that show quick results. It also helps to tone and tighten the gassing skin around the lower abdominal muscles.

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What Exactly Is Skin Anyway

Your skin is technically the largest organ in your body, serving the vital function of protecting your insides from the environment. The inner layers of your skin are comprised of proteins, including one called elastin. Elastin as its name implies provides elasticity to the surface layer of your skin, keeping it tight. When you gain weight, your skin expands to make room for the increased growth in the abdomen. The one exception to this rule is pregnancy, where the expanded skin retracts naturally after the birth of the baby.

Can You Tighten Loose Skin After Weight Loss

If you have loose skin after weight loss, first celebrate your weight loss victory! Then, learn more about the factors that affect skin elasticity and what you can do to help your body snap back.

• Loose skin is usually a byproduct of losing a lot of weight quickly.
• Because skin is a living organ, it can tighten up some over time.
• Age, the length of time excess weight was present, and genetics all play a role in how much your skin can tighten.
• Eating well, staying hydrated, and looking after your skin health can help.
• If you think of your skin as a wrapper, putting on some muscle mass can help “refill” the wrapper.

If youve lost a lot of weight recently, then you may have noticed that you have a bit of loose skin hanging around. Common areas for extra skin after weight loss include under the arms, under the chin or a pouch around the stomach. But loose skin can appear almost anywhere on the body, especially if you have lost weight rapidly.

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Schedule Your Consultation Today

Dr. Thomas Bartell is Madison, Wisconsins only board-certified plastic surgeon that focuses solely on below-the-neck procedures. With his dedicated, specially selected surgical team and fully accredited surgical suite, Dr. Thomas Bartell provides care thats highly personalized, safe, and private.

If you think post-weight loss procedures like liposuction, tummy tuck, arm lift, male chest reduction, or breast lift might be right for you, schedule your free consultation with Dr. Thomas Bartell today. At this consultation, youll be able to see before-and-after photos of real patients and learn more about the kinds of results Dr. Bartell can achieve for you.

You did the hard part. Let Dr. Bartell take you the rest of the way to a new body.

Dr. Thomas Bartell offers chest reduction, tummy tuck, breast lift, and liposuction in Madison, Wisconsin.

What Is The Follow

Subsequent procedures are performed based on the original plan, but can be modified depending on the response to the first stage of the procedure. Asymmetries are common, and healing problems are more significant with greater weight loss. Revisions are often necessary.

Complications are common in patients after major weight loss but can also occur in patients with less severe changes in body weight. The most common complication is a fluid collection under the skin . Drains are frequently used to minimize this complication and are usually removed after one to three weeks. Infections, wound breakdown, reaction to sutures, and hypertrophic scarring can also occur.

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Five Ways To Tighten Your Skin After Weight Loss

One of the issues weight loss patients in Los Angeles can sometimes experience is loose skin. Excess skin after weight loss can be a challenge and we are here to support you and provide solutions.

The longer you have been overweight or obese, the looser your skin will be after weight loss due to elastin and collagen loss. There are a number of reasons why this can happen:

• When you have a weight loss of 100 pounds or more during a short time frame, it can typically result in a greater amount of loose skin than with more moderate weight loss.

• Older skin has less collagen than younger skin and as a result, tends to be looser following weight loss.

• Your genes may affect how your skin responds to weight gain and loss.

• Chronic sun exposure has been shown to reduce skins collagen and elastin production, which may contribute to loose skin.

• Smoking leads to a reduction in collagen production and damage to existing collagen, resulting in loose, sagging skin.

For many of our Los Angeles patients at West Medical, having loose skin after bariatric surgery can be a challenge, especially after they have such tremendous feelings of positivity and achievement due to reaching their weight loss goal. Excess skin can be uncomfortable and possibly interfere with their normal activity. Loose skin has also been found to interfere with being able to exercise after bariatric surgery which can also cause concern.

If You Are Wondering How To Tighten Skin After Weight Loss These 5 Tips Can Help You Improve The Appearance Of Your Skin And Get Rid Of This Problem

You may dream of having a tighter, more toned figure while you work hard to shed a few pounds. But if you end up with saggy skin after a significant amount of weight loss, youre bound to feel a tad upset. Losing weight to manage obesity can considerably decrease your chance of developing various diseases. However, it sometimes leads to loose skin.

This is a pretty common side effect of weight loss. In fact, up to 70 percent of those who undergo bariatric surgery may also experience it, according to a review published by PubMed Central and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Even though this can be normal and not an indication of a concern, it can nonetheless be uncomfortable and make your skin appear older. So, how to tighten skin after weight loss? Lets find out.

Health Shots spoke to Dr Rinky Kapoor, Consultant Dermatologist, Cosmetic Dermatologist and Dermato-Surgeon, The Esthetic Clinics, to suggest some best ways to overcome this skin issue due to weight loss.

Dr Kapoor says, Apart from the cosmetic factors, maintaining a healthy weight also brings with it many health benefits such as good heart and metabolism and a glowing skin. There is only one side effect of losing weight and that is loose and dull skin.

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