How to Avoid Loose Skin

You’ve finally found a workout you love and an eating plan that syncs with your lifestyle. The extra pounds you’ve carried for years have begun to melt away.

Just one problem—the same surface area covers your new, smaller self, leading your skin to sag or lag behind. Folds can form on your belly and arms, and even your face can seem a bit slack.

While you won’t be able to completely prevent loose skin if you’re losing large amounts of weight, there are steps you can take to firm up your dermis. A healthy lifestyle and specific strategies to boost collagen, the structural protein responsible for skin’s plumpness and elasticity, can make a difference, says Lisa Chipps, MD, a UCLA dermatologist and American Academy of Dermatology board member. Here are 8 ways to hold your skin tighter as you work toward your goal weight. (Continue your weight loss and lose up to 15 pounds WITHOUT dieting with Eat Clean to Get Lean, our 21-day clean-eating meal plan.)

1. Lose weight gradually.
Most experts recommend aiming for 1 to 5 pounds per week, depending on your starting point. “Losing weight quickly, by means of fad diets and cleanses, will compromise the contours of your face, affect the health of your skin, and impact your overall success in keeping the weight off,” says Slone Mathieu, a medical aesthetician at Boston’s Dream Spa Medical.

2. Build muscle.
Replace the fat that once filled out your skin with lean mass by focusing your fitness routine on strength training, says Lori Shemek, PhD, author of How to Fight FATflammation! “You want the muscle to essentially replace the fat that is being lost to prevent loose or sagging skin,” she says. “When your underlying muscle is toned and tight, it really helps give your skin a strong foundation to rest on.” Building strength as you target flab not only keeps your skin taut, it also amps up your calorie burn long after you leave the gym, aiding your weight-loss efforts. (Check out these exercises that burn more calories than running.)

Depending on your preference, you can use dumbbells, machines, or body weight—but aim to do 4 days of resistance training per week, Shemek advises. Add 2 to 3 days of high-intensity interval training, short bursts of near-maximum effort, to stoke your metabolism and build even more muscle mass. (Check out our beginner’s guide to HIIT workouts here.) For best results, pair this routine with adequate protein—eat some at every meal and snack—and you’ll get stronger, tighter, and firmer, inside and out.

3. Practice good sun protection.
If you exercise outdoors, take steps to reduce your exposure to the sun’s collagen-destroying UV rays. Plan your walk or run for the early morning or late in the day, when the sun is less scorching. Slather on sunscreen, and make sure the label says “broad-spectrum”—that means it protects against UVA and UVB rays, which both damage your dermis. And consider protective clothing. “There’s a lot of great UPF clothing that gives you an SPF of about 50, just by putting on a shirt,” Chipps says. (One option: the Sunshade Hoody, $69, from Patagonia.)

4. Eat plenty of produce.

Pile your plate with a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables, which contain nutrients vital to skin health, Chipps says. Specifically, load up on vitamin A or lycopene—a recent research review in Experimental Dermatology reports this antioxidant offsets damage from UV rays. (Try these 25 best foods for healthy skin.) You’ll find it in tomatoes, red peppers, and other rosy-hued veggies. Meanwhile, leafy greens and citrus fruits boast plenty of vitamin C, which helps build collagen, Chipps says.

5. Smooth on a serum or revel in retinoids.
Though there’s no such thing as a magical skin-tightening potion, topical products can stoke collagen growth and improve your appearance if you use them daily and consistently, Chipps says. Your dermatologist can prescribe retinoid-containing creams or gels, such as Retin-A or Tretin-X. Or look for over-the-counter serums containing epidermal growth factor, which stimulates fibroblasts deep in the skin to ramp up collagen production. (One to try: DNA Regeneration Serum, $149.)

6. Stay smoke-free.

Toss your cigarettes and take an extra step away from any cloud of fumes you pass. Lighting up makes your skin less resilient, says Eugene Elliott, MD, a cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA. What’s more, emerging research suggests exposure to secondhand smoke raises levels of inflammatory proteins in your skin, reducing collagen levels and contributing to thin skin and wrinkles.

7. See an MD.
You won’t want to spring for a facelift or other surgical procedure until you’ve reached your goal weight—skin responds best to these operations from a “steady state,” Elliott says. But minor in-office procedures can address troublesome areas while you’re still shedding, Chipps says. Ask a dermatologist about radiofrequency devices, which warm and expand collagen fibers to immediately improve your appearance while also stimulating new collagen production for longer-lasting results. (Here are 5 solutions for excess skin after weight loss.)

8. Drink up.

Water, that is. Dehydration can strike skin cells, too, leaving them shriveled and inflexible. Shemek suggests aiming for half your body weight in ounces of H2O each day.

The weight is dropping off rapidly, your carb cravings are gone, and you can barely contain your excitement until you think of one unwelcomed possible side effect of significant weight loss: developing loose skin on a keto diet.

The health benefits of losing excess weight and maintaining ketosis outweigh the possibility of having loose skin. Still, we are a visual and self-conscious society, and looks play a significant part in how we feel about ourselves—it’s OK to admit it.

Although loose skin may be unavoidable if a lot of body fat is lost rapidly, and you are genetically disposed to having less elasticity in your skin, there are some tips to prevent or reduce this effect. We’ll share more on that below.

Why Does Loose Skin Occur on a Keto Diet?

Rapid or significant weight loss doesn’t give the body time to snap back, and fast fat loss on keto is quite common. Quick weight loss is one of the main reasons that people turn to a low-carb, high-fat diet—the protocol is amazingly useful.

Even those in the public eye, like Jenna Jameson, who recently released about 70 pounds by following a ketogenic diet can develop loose, wrinkly, or saggy skin, as she’s recently shared on social media—more on Jenna’s weight-loss transformation below.

Plus, the ability to lose weight effortlessly without exercise on keto can be seductive. Not everyone loves hitting the gym or going for a run in the middle of winter, and a sedentary lifestyle on keto can cause loose skin as the weight drops.

Consider incorporating strength training, yoga, or pilates into your regimen as you eliminate refined sugars and carbs in your diet to mitigate loose skin as you lean out.

Also, focus on eating healthy fats like salmon, MCT oil, or buttery and nutrient-dense salted pili nuts instead of processed keto-friendly foods that may not spike sugar but fail to provide the micronutrients needed to keep skin taut.

Jenna Jameson Posts Photos of Loose Skin

Everyone on Instagram looks perfect, with no smile lines or loose skin, along with a perfect hourglass figure, but most of that is thanks to Facetune and other photo editing software; it’s not reality.

Not everyone lives in a mansion, with all designer gear and fancy cars. Some of us have acne, kids who make our houses look like a bomb just exploded in our living room most days, and we’re simply glad to take an uninterrupted shower—our idea of a proper staycation.

Adult entertainment star, Jenna Jameson, recently made some transparent posts on Instagram regarding the loose skin she has after giving birth to twins and then shedding 70 pounds on keto.

Jameson noted that she chose keto and shed the pounds to keep up with her kids, get healthy, and also reach her ideal weight. But more than for looks, Jameson wanted to feel better and improve her quality of life.

Although she has experienced some loose skin as a result of her weight loss, she notes that the benefits of feeling mentally sharp and more energized, along with weighing less, is well worth the bit of loose skin that her life partner embraces and doesn’t even notice.

How to Avoid Loose Skin on a Keto Diet

Exercise, a whole-food-based diet, and the inclusion of loads of healthy fats in your plan will all work to prevent or limit loose skin.

Also, taking quality supplements to promote skin health is very useful to avoid loose skin as you lose weight.

Biotin

Although more commonly associated with promoting rapid hair growth, biotin also helps maintain taut and vibrant skin. Biotin, also known as vitamin H or B7, helps to convert food into energy as well as promoting healthy nails and hair.

Our hair, skin, and nail supplement is fantastic as it includes quality ingredients and no fillers. Plus, our supplement helps keep skin supple.

Vitamin E

In addition to supporting liver function, if your system is healthy enough, vitamin E also helps with skin elasticity. Also, with vitamin E being an antioxidant, it helps to protect skin from UV rays, which can deteriorate elastin in the skin.

COQ 10

As an aid in maintaining collagen and elastin, COQ 10 is essential in keeping skin tight and healthy. Pesky free radicals break down molecules in the body that help keep skin elastic and taut, causing them to lose their shape.

Fortunately, COQ 10 can neutralize free radicals and help with skin elasticity, a vital ingredient present in our hair, skin, and nail formula.

The loss of elastin and collagen can cause the skin to sag and get wrinkly; fortunately, COQ 10 acts as an antioxidant to help keep skin firm.

Collagen

Collagen composes about 80% of our skin’s structure and provides structural integrity and firmness, and its presence can help to prevent loose skin when losing a significant amount of weight.

Adding collagen alone into your regimen may not be enough to keep skin smooth and firm, but adding collagen into your protocol can help keep skin firm and healthy.

In addition to taking a quality supplement, you can also eat certain foods to increase collagen. Consider adding the following fatty foods into your diet:

• Fatty fish (e.g., salmon, mackerel, sardines, or herring)
• Avocados
• Sunflower seeds
• Red or yellow peppers
• Brocolli
• Walnuts
• Tomatoes
• Dark chocolate
• Green tea
• Red wine (in moderation—watch the carb macros)
• Bone broth

MCT Oil

MCT oil is excellent to add to keto coffee or take directly daily to keep energy levels high. But another benefit of MCT oil is keeping skin elastic, moisturized, and supple.

MCT oil is rich in fatty acids, antioxidants and possesses antibacterial properties, all of which are very useful to prevent or lessen loose skin.

Plus, medium-chain fatty acids are better absorbed by the body than their longer-chain counterparts, which help regulate blood sugar and boost body fat loss, not too shabby.

Summary

Exercise, quality supplements, and optimal nutrition all contribute to taut and supple skin.

Our premium supplement and customized 28-day keto meal plan are the perfect pair to help you release fat and prevent loose skin.

Couple our supplement with our keto meal plan and exercise, and you have a three-pronged, super-charged, approach to lose weight.

In addition to taking premium supplements, ramping up physical activity, and eating a diet filled with whole organic foods is advised planning your meals is also ideal when losing weight on keto.

Again, we have composed a quick quiz to help you customize a meal plan suited to help you achieve your needs and goals, and you can take it here to start losing weight on keto today.

More Articles

1. Can Crunches Tighten up Loose Skin From Weight Loss?
2. Can You Tighten Loose Skin With Exercise?
3. How to Remove Moles With Glycolic Acid
4. Elasticity of Skin After Weight Loss
5. How to Kill the Bacteria That Causes Acne

If you’re losing a large amount of weight quickly, it’s difficult to avoid excess skin. But slower weight loss of 10 to 20 percent of your body weight minimizes the potential that you’ll have baggy skin once you reach your goal. Lose weight without excess skin by consuming a healthy diet, plenty of water and adding muscle tone. Take your time and lose the weight properly. It took some time for your skin to stretch as you gained weight, so allow the same time — if not more — for your skin to return. Losing the weight too quickly can result in saggy skin that can only be removed through surgery.

Lose one to two pounds per week. This realistic time frame provides time for your skin to shrink, and is recommended as the healthy approach by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• If you’re losing a large amount of weight quickly, it’s difficult to avoid excess skin.

Can Crunches Tighten up Loose Skin From Weight Loss?

Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. The epidermis layer of skin is primarily composed of water. Increasing the fluid content of the skin leads to a greater skin thickness, whereas dehydration causes the skin to lose its elasticity. Staying dehydrated for long periods of time can cause more elasticity to be lost and your skin may not be able to recover.

Add resistance training to your workout to help build muscle tone. Losing weight without building muscle will remove any mass between the skin and bone, causing the skin to sag. As you build muscle mass, the skin has something to grab onto, filling the void left by the loss of body weight.

Kami Price

Head Trainer & Nutritionist / Posted on

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After a long and difficult journey, you have finally reached your goal body weight! But, what have you found that what is left behind may be less appealing than you had hoped? You might find that your skin isn’t bouncing back even though you have lost weight. You might be left with saggy or loose skin, especially in the stomach, thigh, and hip areas.

So, what can you do to prevent sagging skin after losing weight? And why doesn’t our skin spring back?

What Causes Loose Skin After Weight Loss?

Our skin is susceptible to so many disorders, diseases, and changes, and sagging skin is just one among many such changes. It is caused by aging, sun exposure, smoking, lack of hydration, and losing a lot of weight – as in, 100 pounds or more.

Sagging skin means there has been a loss of collagen, which gives skin its elasticity, and for those who experience it as a result of weight loss, various tissues in the skin become less able to maintain their form. Some might carry saggy skin around as a reminder of the person they used to be, and they might be surprised at how they are still unhappy with their bodies.

The fat is gone, but all that skin is held in place, and they wonder how to take care of it.

How To Prevent Sagging Skin After Losing Weight

There are few things you can do to prevent your skin sagging after you lose weight.

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

Beyond what it does for your energy and overall weight loss, staying hydrated is one of the biggest contributors to skin elasticity. So important, in fact, that The American College of Sports Medicine reported that individuals who stay adequately hydrated along the entirety of their weight loss journey are less likely to have severe sagging skin.

2. Eat a balanced diet

Free radicals can destroy the skin’s basic components: collagen and elastin, which is important for your skin to spring back. To combat this, your diet should include lots of Vitamins A, E, and C, as these have been proven to combat free radicals .

3. Fill any gaps with the right supplements

Nutrients can work wonders in building skin elasticity, but it’s harder to get them through a normal diet. One such example is gelatin, which has been shown in some studies to increase elasticity in skin. Another example is fish oil, as one of its multiple benefits includes improving the skin elasticity in women.

Collagen is a key protein for the elasticity of your skin. Taking a collagen supplement, like IdealCollagen can help to strengthen its’ elasticity and ability to hold its’ firmness and form even after significant weight loss.

4. Incorporate lean muscle building workouts

As you’re losing the layer of fat, you need to replace it with lean muscle to help fill up the space that results in excess skin. Including workouts like resistance training into your weekly routine helps build muscle mass and improve the appearance of sagging skin, according to The American Council on Exercise . If you need a bit of direction with what workouts to include, check out my IdealShape For life Challenge! These simple yet effective workouts have been designed to help anyone lose fat and build toned muscle in just 30 minutes a day!

5. Lose weight slowly

The absolute best way to prevent loose skin is to lose weight in a gradual and consistent fashion. When you lose around 1-2 pounds per week, you give your skin time to adjust gradually to its ever-shrinking size. Furthermore, when you rapidly drop pounds, you’re not losing as much fat as you would with a more modest rate of weight loss. Instead, you’ll most likely lose water weight or even lean tissue . Your body just can’t burn up that many fat calories in a short period of time.

How To Prevent Loose Skin After Weight Loss

Weight loss can be incredibly frustrating, and already takes discipline and hard work. Now add on top of your weight loss the issue of loose, extra skin and it can just totally deflate your new self-confidence! That’s why it’s important to take care of your skin from the inside out, and help strengthen its’ elasticity and suppleness.

When you work to lose a bunch of weight, you dream of a tighter, toned body. You don’t picture extra, loose skin. But that’s a real possibility, and one that can cause health problems and a poor self-image.

“It’s frustrating to patients who have put all this hard work and commitment into their weight loss journey and new bodies to be left with extra skin that doesn’t reflect that effort,” says Jason B. Lichten, MD, a plastic surgeon in Columbus, OH. “Often, they feel that their extra skin hangs on them the same way their old clothes from before their weight loss would, only they can’t take it off.”

It’s not just about your looks though. It can cause rashes, infections, and back pain. Plus it can stop you from being as active as you want.

Why Skin Doesn’t Snap Back

The elasticity of your skin depends on how long you were obese. It doesn’t matter if you dropped pounds quickly or slowly. The longer it was stretched out, the less likely it is to bounce back.

“It’s like a balloon,” says Marie Jhin, MD, a dermatologist in San Francisco. “When you first blow up a balloon, it’s really small and tight.” You have to stretch it first, she says. But when it’s deflated, it doesn’t return to its original shape.

A lot of it has to do with age and genetics, too, she says. “Everyone starts to lose [elastic tissue] as they get older.”

Bothers and Burdens

Saggy skin can not only be an embarrassment, it can lead to rashes and yeast infections in the folds.

“Perspiration gets trapped, and you can get a rash,” Jhin says. “I recommend powder or cornstarch. It will help absorb [the moisture].” Some people, she says, even put a little fabric underneath.

While compression garments can help, loose skin can also make getting in shape tricky. “Imagine strapping 30 to 40 pounds to the front of you,” says Jennifer Capla, MD, a plastic surgeon in New York City. “It changes your center of gravity. It’s harder to move.”

Continued

No Easy Fix

Building muscle will help plump your skin some, Capla says, but there’s “no magic cream” or drug that will push and pull it back into place.

“It’s something that has to be dealt with surgically,” she says.

But only 20% of weight loss surgery patients get body contouring, says John Morton, MD, president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

A big reason for that is the expense. A total body lift can cost $30,000 . Health insurance might pay for a tummy tuck because stomach folds can often get infected, but it won’t pay for most other body parts. Companies claim those surgeries are for cosmetic reasons and not reconstructive.

“The most common areas we treat, in order, are belly, backside, breasts, thighs, arms, male chest, and face,” Lichten says.

A surgeon will only remove extra skin if you keep the weight off for 6 months. And they’ll only work on one or two areas at a time. That cuts down on the risk of complications, says Claude-Jean Langevin, MD, DMD, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Cedars-Sinai Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center in Los Angeles. Plus, it won’t hurt as much to move during recovery.

Surgery does leave scars, but they can usually be covered with clothes. No one has ever said the scar wasn’t worth going under the knife, Capla says.

Body-Image Issues

Then again, not everyone wants the surgery. Susan Hawkins, 67, of Atlanta, lost 150 pounds after gastric sleeve surgery. She doesn’t love the sags left behind, but accepts them.

“My clothes do a remarkable job of hiding the aftermath,” Hawkins says. “[I’d] take the excess skin any day [to being obese]. For me, it’s my badge of honor.”

Others have trouble accepting their new look.

“Many view excess skin as a reminder of their old life and associations with emotional issues that they were struggling with when they were at a higher weight, such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem,” says Alexis Conason, PsyD, a psychologist in New York City.

Continued

It’s healthy to embrace your new body, skin and all. Tanisha Shaneé, 30, of Brooklyn, NY, did just that. She lost more than 140 pounds with diet and exercise.

“There are challenges for one to accept with this journey,” she says. “I had to relearn how to love my body and accept the new, healthier one.”

Sources

Jennifer Capla, MD, plastic surgeon, New York.

Alexis Conason, PsyD, psychologist, New York.

Marie Jhin, MD, FAAD, dermatologist, Premier Dermatology, San Francisco.

Claude-Jean Langevin, MD, DMD, plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Cedars-Sinai Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center; clinical assistant professor in plastic surgery, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine; adjunct staff member, Cleveland Clinic.

Jason B. Lichten, MD, plastic surgeon; founder and director, Central Ohio Plastic Surgery, Columbus.

John Morton, MD, president, American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery; chief of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine.

Susan Hawkin, Atlanta.

Tanisha ShaneГ©, Brooklyn, NY.

Outpatient Surgery magazine: “This Year’s Hot Item: Body Contouring Gift Cards.”

Conscious of having loose skin around your body? Don’t fret; it’s completely normal for skin to sag a little, especially if you’ve recently lost a lot of weight or had a baby. If you’re searching for ways to reduce the appearance of it though, know that surgery isn’t the only option.

There are a few other things you can do to get rid of saggy skin which may be making you feel self-conscious or even causing physical discomfort.

First of all, what causes loose skin?

Having loose skin around areas of the body such as the stomach, legs, arms or face is typically down to one of three reasons: 1

1. Recent weight loss

Despite the natural elasticity of skin, one of the biggest causes of sagging is rapid weight loss. When we gain weight, our skin has to stretch in order to accommodate any excess fat. If we suddenly lose all of that fat through intense exercise and dieting, it’s not uncommon for our skin to be loose afterwards. Depending on things like your age, skin health, genetics and how long you were overweight for, it can take time for skin to spring back. And, in some cases, it might always look a little saggy. 2

1. Pregnancy

Having a baby inevitably causes the skin to stretch, most notably around the stomach, but also in other places such as the face, legs and buttocks. While some women are lucky and have very little loose skin after giving birth, it’s completely normal to see some and want to get rid of it.

1. Ageing

It’s a known fact that our skin sags as we age. That’s because our bodies produce less and less collagen the older we get. Collagen is a protein and a major building block of skin. It’s essentially what keeps it elastic. 3

How to get rid of loose skin

While there’s no immediate way to get rid of loose skin without invasive methods, there are a few tips you can follow to help tighten it up. These include:

1. Exercising regularly

Despite the fact that exercise may have been a contributing factor to your loose skin, it’s also a great way to reduce it, too. Want to know why? Once your body has burnt off any excess fat through exercise, it starts to develop muscle instead. It’s this extra muscle mass which may help reduce the appearance of looser skin. Weight training exercises, in particular, could be helpful as they focus solely on your muscles. 4

1. Moisturising your skin

As well as aiding with eliminating the appearance of any lines and making your skin feel soft, moisturising may also help firm up looser skin. Take a look at the creams and lotions in our skin ailments range and look out for things containing collagen, especially if you’re hoping to get rid of loose skin around your face. 5

1. Taking a supplement

To improve your skin’s elasticity, it might be worth taking a supplement. Collagen supplements are a particularly great option; however, you’ll find vitamin C is also suitable as your body needs it in order to produce collagen.

What are the health risks of having loose skin?

Beyond the emotional challenges of having lots of loose skin on your body, there are also some potential health risks. Firstly, folds of skin can become sore or even infected if you don’t clean in and under them regularly. 6 Having looser skin may also affect your ability to move around as quickly. 7

How to avoid having excess loose skin in the first place

Ultimately, the best way to avoid getting lots of loose areas of skin is to avoid shedding large amounts of weight in one go. If you do it gradually instead of over just a few weeks, you’ll give your skin more time to spring back to its original shape. 8

If you’re worried about loose skin and its possible impacts on your health and wellbeing, it’s worth having a chat with your GP. Thinking about losing weight, but keen to avoid getting loose skin? A dietician or nutritionist should be able to help you work out a way to slowly lose weight while staying healthy.

Bariatric surgery can help people who struggle with obesity lose significant amounts of weight, but after that weight comes off, it can leave behind sagging or loose skin.

This happens because the skin does not tighten fully after rapid, massive weight loss, according to Sebastian Winocour, MD, a plastic surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who treats patients who have had bariatric surgery.

“Substantial sagging skin is less common after traditional, non-surgical weight loss,” because people who lose weight through means like diet and exercise usually drop fewer pounds and do so more slowly, says Winocour. Here’s what to do about sagging skin after bariatric surgery.

Sagging skin after bariatric surgery may be temporary

In the 6 to 18 months that follow surgery, your body will change a lot. For example, most people will have some degree of sagging skin, but the problem is often more temporary than they expect, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).

A number of factors influence how much your skin tightens, including your age, genetics, and the amount of weight you lose. Certain medical conditions can lead to skin thinning, Winocour says. And whether or not you exercise or smoke will also influence how your body heals from bariatric surgery.

If you want to opt for a quick fix, compression garments can help reduce the appearance of sagging skin in the short term. They can also reduce common rashes that can occur from chaffing. You can also control chaffing and excess moisture between loose layers of skin with powder, according to PennMedicine.

How to tighten sagging skin after bariatric surgery naturally

While Winocour says there is no guaranteed way of preventing sagging skin before surgery, there are a few things you can do to aid tightening afterward.

“Balanced nutrition, including appropriate vitamin supplementation as recommended by your bariatric team, will ensure that your body has the necessary building tools to heal your surgical wounds,” he says.

This is easier said than done since people who have had bariatric surgery are prone to malnutrition because the surgery alters the gut’s ability to absorb nutrients. Therefore, patients must have their nutrient levels monitored and take supplements, such as iron and vitamin B12, to avoid malnutrition and give their body, including sagging skin, the best fighting chance to heal.

While some topical creams and therapeutic massages claim to help tighten skin after bariatric surgery, these have not been proven effective, according to Winocour.

How to tighten sagging skin after bariatric surgery with body contouring

Laser treatments and cryotherapy, which uses extreme cold, offer some degree of tightening, but not enough to fully address sagging skin following bariatric surgery. The most effective tightening is accomplished through surgery.

These so-called body contouring procedures are aimed specifically at people who have recently undergone bariatric surgery or have lost a significant amount of weight through diet and exercise. During these procedures, excess skin is cut off using long incisions that are made so as to reduce visible scarring.

In 2014, nearly 45,000 people who had massive weight loss, which is generally associated with bariatric surgery, had plastic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Insurance often covers the removal of sagging abdominal and breast skin, but may consider procedures on the arms and elsewhere cosmetic and therefore not eligible for coverage, according to the ASMBS.

You did it. You logged the woman-hours at the gym and stocked your fridge with enough kale and Greek yogurt to slenderize an elephant. Or maybe you went under the knife and are now putting in major effort to maintain. Regardless, the numbers on the scale are at super-satisfying lows. There’s just one teensy, tiny (ahem, giant, looming) issue: Your skin didn’t get the “I’ve got a new body now” memo.

Kelly Coffey’s skin sure didn’t. Coffey, a personal trainer, wound up with some serious excess after losing 170 pounds from gastric bypass surgery. “It happened very quickly; I was sort of shocked at how much there was,” she says.

For her own body, Coffey went the tummy-tuck route for extra skin around her midsection and amped up her weight-lifting routine for her arms, legs, and back. (Looking for a total-body toning workout that will fit into your busy schedule? How does 10 minutes a day sound? Try Prevention’s Fit in 10 DVD today!) But which route is right for you? Here are 5 ways to deal with loose skin—surgical and not—after a serious drop in pounds.

Embrace the Weights

Sadly, gaining muscle isn’t going to actually remove any extra skin. But toning up could help you appear more taut after weight loss. The heavier the weights you lift, the better, suggests Coffey. (Here are 10 of the best strength-training moves for women over 50.) “Don’t be afraid to lift heavy weights; it takes a lot less time to achieve the same degree of muscle with heavier weights, and the quicker I built muscle, the faster I toned up,” says Coffey. To make sure you’re doing it correctly and safely, enlist a professional’s guidance when you’re first starting out.

Update Your Support System

Don’t worry; we don’t want you to get new friends. (Unless they’re totally toxic—but that’s another story.) A great bra and panties can go a long way, suggests Claudine DeSola, a stylist at Caravan Stylist Studios in New York. “Good intimates are a great way of helping conceal excess skin in the belly area,” says DeSola. Opt for bras with front closures and thicker bands, which give a cleaner, smoother look to your back. Trade in your bikini-cut panties for some high-cut briefs while you’re at it, and don’t shy away from Spanx—they’ll make everything feel a bit more secure, says DeSola. (Thanks, Tina Fey, for showing we don’t have to be ashamed to enlist a little Lycra every now and then.)

Come Out of Hiding
Don’t you want to congratulate yourself with an updated wardrobe? Have fun with form-fitting layers, suggests DeSola. “A slightly fitted tee with a sweater on top and a thick belt is a great way to cinch your waist,” says DeSola. Mid-rise jeans are another great option—ones that hit right below the belly button are the sweet spot for a perfect fit. Looking for something a bit more fun? Try a wrap dress in a bold color like red. It should hit at (or just below) the knee, and pairing it with heels will make your legs look longer and leaner.

Ditch the Negativity

Fact: Losing a ton of weight won’t automatically reserve you a spot on the Victoria’s Secret runway (and let’s be real—would you want to perpetuate that skinny ideal anyway?). “When we lose weight, we’re not headed toward a different body; we’re headed toward a smaller body,” Coffey says. Instead of hating on that extra skin, wear it as a badge of honor—you made a commitment to living a healthier, more active life, and loose skin is just proof that you did what so many other people have trouble doing. “Excess skin isn’t the terrible tragedy that so many of us think it will be; it’s just another one of the details about your body that makes you you,” says Coffey. It’s a symbol of your journey—and that’s something to be proud of.

Make Like a Snake
When it comes to excess skin after weight loss, the hard, cold truth is that going under the knife is the only surefire way to totally get rid of it. And if you’ve tried everything else and still aren’t even remotely satisfied with your appearance (or if your extra skin is getting irritated), it’s probably time to talk with a plastic surgeon about your options. Extra stuff around the midsection can be removed through an abdominoplasty—also known as a tummy tuck—according to Raul Rosenthal, MD, president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. “Because the skin has stretched over so many years, it’s very difficult for that skin to go back to where it was before; it will not return to its natural consistency or elasticity,” says Rosenthal. According to him, patients who undergo plastic surgery following extreme weight loss not only experience a better quality of life, but they’re also more likely to keep the weight off. One last note: Before you choose to shed your skin for good, make sure you talk to your insurance provider, as most don’t cover such procedures.

So many life experiences like pregnancy, losing weight, and simply getting older can make your skin lose its elasticity. Sagging skin is always a concern for people, but learning how to avoid loose skin will greatly help minimize the problem.

How to Avoid Loose Skin

There are a number of things to keep in mind to avoid loose skin. Here is more about it.

1. Add Weight Training

You can improve the overall quality of your skin by adding strength training to your workout routine. You can try different methods of resistance, such as tubing, machines, free weight, or body weights to strengthen your muscles. Aerobic exercise is also effective because it helps burn fats while weight training creates a thin layer of muscle underneath your skin. Combining strength training with aerobic exercise will make the skin appear tighter.

Warning: If you’re losing weight, do take it slow. People always want to shed pounds quickly. However, if you lose weight too fast, you would end up dealing with loose skin. So you’d better lose weight slowly and your aim should be to lose no more than two pounds every week.

2. Brush the Skin

Get a soft boar bristle brush and use it before you take a shower. It can exfoliate your skin and improve blood circulation. The increased circulation will make nutrients available to your skin, which will help enhance its elasticity.

3. Keep a Balanced Diet

How to avoid loose skin? Actually, what you eat will have an impact on your skin. Therefore, keeping a balanced diet is very important. Your diet should include adequate protein because it is essential for skin elasticity, and the lack of collagen will lead to skin degradation, wrinkles, and other serious skin problems. Adding lean protein to your diet will help build lean muscle which will make your skin look tight. Avoid crash dieting because it hurts the store of protein and collagen.

4. Take Multivitamins

When trying to lose weight, you may find it difficult to keep track of what types of nutrient you are losing along with calories. Taking multivitamins will help you to keep healthy. Be sure to provide your body with vitamin A, C, E, and K along with the B-complex vitamins. Besides, a supplement that includes selenium, zinc, copper, and other essential minerals is even more beneficial. Multivitamins with nutrients like DMEA, alpha-lipoic acid, hyaluronic acid, and MSM are especially good for skin.

5. Do Massages

Getting a massage will help improve blood circulation of your skin and prevent loose skin in return. While getting a professional massage is the best thing you can do to get healthy skin, you can also use essential oils or lotions to massage your skin on your own.

6. Stay Hydrated

Forget about having healthy skin if you do not drink plenty of water every day. Staying hydrated is important for your skin and muscles. Be sure to drink no less than 9 cups of water a day if you are a woman and 13 cups if you are a man. Athletes and pregnant women should drink at least 16 cups of water every day. Along with water, you can also drink juices and non-caffeinated tea to keep you hydrated.

7. Reduce Sun Exposure

Do you want to know how to avoid loose skin? Reducing your sun exposure is another thing that you should keep in your mind. UV rays can speed up the natural aging process by causing a breakdown of elastin fibers and collagen, which will lead to loose skin.

8. Add Weight Training

You can improve the overall quality of your skin by adding strength training to your workout routine. You can try different methods of resistance, such as tubing, machines, free weight, or body weights to strengthen your muscles. Aerobic exercise is also effective because it helps burn fats while weight training creates a thin layer of muscle underneath your skin. Combining strength training with aerobic exercise will make the skin appear tighter.

How to Tighten Loose Skin

You may already have loose skin for different reasons. If so, you can take some other steps to tighten your skin. For instance:

• Use Oil: Apply baby oil or almond oil to your skin after shower. This will help protect the moisture in your skin and improve elasticity.
• Use Skin-Firming Lotion or Cream: Using products that contain vitamin E, vitamin A, and collagen will help tighten your skin. You can also use products that contain aloe because it has natural skin tightening properties. Apply these products at least once a day.
• Include Raw Food in Your Diet: Raw fruits and vegetables contain loads of minerals and vitamin that help you with healthy skin. Eating vegetable and fruit smoothies for breakfast or drinking juice of raw fruits will work wonders.
• Do Yoga: Try yoga if you are struggling with loose skin after weight loss. It improves blood circulation and helps keep your body toned. You can join a yoga class or do it at home with an online video.

Besides the above mentioned methods, there’re actually many simple yet effective remedies in your chicken to tighten up your sagging skin on the neck, face, breasts, and arms. For instance:

• Use Egg Whites: As a natural astringent, the egg white can improve the quality of your skin. They also contain hydro lipids that lift loose skin. Take two egg whites and whisk thoroughly until you get a foamy texture. Apply it on your skin, and rinse off with cool water after 20 minutes.

• Use Lemon: Lemon is rich in vitamin C, which can promote the production of collagen. It also has astringent properties which can help reduce wrinkles. Apply fresh lemon juice on your skin and then Rinse off with water after 10 minutes. Repeat thrice a day.

• Use Cucumber: Cucumber will also help tighten saggy skin. It tones your skin naturally and also makes it look fresh. Take half a cucumber, grind it, and extract its juice. Apply the juice directly on your skin and leave it on for a while. Use cool water to rinse it off once it dries. Do it once daily for great results.

• Use Honey: Thanks to its antioxidant, hydrating, and anti-aging properties, honey is one effective remedy for loose skin. Take a small bowl, and add a few drops of olive oil and lemon juice in it. Then add 2-3 teaspoons of honey as well. Mix them well and apply on your skin. Leave it to dry and then use warm water to rinse it off. Do it at least once a day.

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What Causes Excess Skin

–> Major weight loss transformations are a testimony an individual’s determination, resolve, and discipline. But in some cases, that transformation is marked by loose excess skin.

“Our skin is a living organ, and it adapts to weight gain by expanding or stretching,” says Christine Choi Kim, MD, a medical and cosmetic dermatologist based in Santa Monica, CA. “It has a limited ability to tighten once that weight is lost, and this depends on a number of factors.”

When it comes to the extra flab around your stomach, the accumulation of fat stretches your skin tight—like a fully- or over-inflated balloon—so when you melt away fat, your skin isn’t able to snap back to where it used to be, according to the Mayo Clinic. Over time, the elasticity of your skin weakens and stretches your abdominal muscles and connective tissue (also known as the inner girdle) which are largely responsible for how tight and toned your abdomen is. Click to the next page to find out skin doesn’t just snap back.

Why Skin Doesn’t Just Snap Back

Some people are more susceptible to excess skin. “Your skin’s ability to contract and bounce back after losing weight depends on various factors such as the quality of your skin tone at baseline (determined by the strength of your collagen and elastin fibers), age, genetics, the amount of weight gained and lost, sun exposure, and lifestyle factors such as smoking,” Kim says.

Quick, drastic weight loss shocks your system in such a way that your skin’s elasticity doesn’t have enough time to adapt to your new shape. Click to the next page to read about the side effects of loose skin.

Side Effects of Loose Skin

“Mentally, excess skin can lead to embarrassment and a lack of satisfaction with your body image—even after significant weight loss,” Kim says. The accomplishment of losing 50 or more pounds is sometimes diminished because all your hard work isn’t reflected in your excess skin. And it’s not always anticipated. Some people think the end goal of weight loss means a tight, toned body, so the extra skin really hangs heavy on them, literally and figuratively.

Aside from hurting self-esteem, the extra skin can also be uncomfortable. Sweat can get trapped and chafing can occur, both of which spur irritation and rashes. What’s more, it can hinder further weight loss and quality of life.

“You may not be able to wear the clothes you’d like to, or be able to perform the physical activities you want to because of the excess skin,” Kim adds. Compression clothing is sometimes useful to keep extra skin from moving too much when you run; but it’s still challenging. Click to the next page to find out what you can do on your own.

What You Can Do On Your Own

“Building muscle will help rev up your metabolism and exercise can help somewhat, especially if you have good skin to begin with and a modest amount of skin laxity,” Kim says. “But it won’t necessarily tighten excessively loose skin.” There’s just too much space for your muscle to fill.

“Don’t waste your money on skin-tightening creams either,” Kim advises. The same goes for DIY body wraps (wrapping saran wrap snugly around the midsection); you’re dehydrating your skin, which temporarily gives the appearance of tighter-looking skin, but won’t provide any lasting results. It’s also potentially dangerous: Aside from dehydration, you run the risk of cutting circulation off by wrapping your torso too tight. Click to the next page to find out what a dermatologist or surgeon can do to help you.

What a Dermatologist/Reconstructive Surgeon Can Do

“If you have modest amounts of loose skin in specific areas, a dermatologist can use a number of non-invasive skin tightening devices that use radiofrequency or ultrasound energy,” Kim says. Make an appointment with your dermatologist to see the available options and discuss what would be the most beneficial to you.

“If, however, you have significant amounts of loose skin, the only effective treatment is surgery to remove it,” she adds.

A surgeon will remove extra skin—from your belly, backside, thighs, arms, chest, even your face—on the condition you’re able to keep the weight off for 6 months. If you need skin removed from multiple areas on your body, you’ll go under the knife multiple times in order to lower the risk of complications and decrease the pain during recovery. If you’ve been carrying 100 or more extra pounds over the years, and now have excess loose skin, you’re probably a good candidate for plastic surgery. However there are certain health risks, so it should only be done in extreme cases. Click to the next page to find out how to prevent excess skin from forming in the first place.

How to Prevent Excess Skin from Forming

If you’re about to embark on a major weight loss transformation, don’t use any drastic measures. Sure, losing a tremendous amount of weight in the shortest timeframe possible seems appealing. But your health remains the most important thing. Plus, losing a modest amount of weight at a reasonable pace—about 1-2 pounds per week—will help prevent tons of excess skin.

Incorporate weight and resistance strength training so you can build or maintain muscle mass as you lose weight. If you just diet and do cardio, or diet alone, you’ll lose the mass that plumps up your skin.

Remember, the accomplishment of having lost a significant amount of weight is an unbelievable feat in and of itself. Accepting your body and feeling content in your skin is huge to your health and happiness.

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Having loose, excess skin is often the result of losing an extreme amount of weight. Every “body” is different, thus varying how the body handles the situation. Some people can lose a great amount of weight and not have any excess skin while others are the exact opposite. The elasticity and condition of your skin before weight loss and during weight loss determines how much, if any, skin you are left with.

The Human Integumentary System, or skin, is a living organ and actively adapts to the body’s internal and external environments. So, when you lose an extreme amount of weight, you are not only losing body fat, but losing lean muscle mass as well. Below is an example by fitness expert, Ron Brown, of how this entire process works.

Say you start at a firm and in-shape 110 pounds, but gradually gain 100 pounds of body fat. Then you go on a weight loss diet to quickly lose the 100 pounds. When losing this much weight, you not only lose body fat, but lean muscle mass as well. According to Ron Brown, 20 to 60 percent of the weight lost is lean muscle mass. Let’s go with 2o percent; so 20 percent of 100 is 20 pounds. Now you are back to your original 110 pound body weight, but with 20 percent (20 pounds) less muscle and 20 percent (20 pounds) more body fat. So, now your 110-pound firm body is replaced by a greater volume of flabby fat instead, thus causing excessive loose skin.

Below are five ways that will help you prevent or reduce excessive skin after extreme weight loss:

1. Change your body composition, not just body weight. Increase lean muscle mass while reducing body fat.
2. Nourish and exfoliate your skin daily. This will encourage elasticity and circulation to help tighten your skin.
3. Don’t lose the weight all at once. Find a diet and exercise routine that you can handle and focus on losing two pounds per week.
4. Aloe vera extract, cucumbers, tomatoes, and coconut can improve your skin’s elasticity. These increase your body’s production of elastin and collagen; which help tighten skin.
5. Drink a lot of water and eat a high-protein diet. This help keeps the body and muscles hydrated and prevents the loss of lean muscle mass.