What causes “loose skin” after weight loss?
You see it on TV how people that were morbidly obese, lose hundreds of pounds quickly and their skin looks like it is just hanging there. However sometimes this happens (to a lesser degree) with people who lose 40, 50, 60 pounds in less than a year, but it still looks pretty ugly. Is it because they are burning more muscle and not enough fat? Does the skin ever go back to normal without surgery?
July 30th, 2011 at 2:02 am
when you gain weight your skin stretches to accomodate the weight gain. you can even see where the skin is stretch too far- stretch marks.
when people lose weight very rapidly (more that 3-4 pounds a week) thier skin has no time to adjust to the loss so it hangs.
if you follow a good plan and lose weight slower- like 2-3 pounds max a week- you wont have any lose skin
unfortunatly most extreme cases that you see on TV cannot be fixed without surgery. 🙁
July 30th, 2011 at 2:44 am
When you gain weight your skin stretches.
July 30th, 2011 at 3:23 am
It varies from person to person. The skin hangs like that because it’s lost its elasticity after being stretched for so long from the fat behind it. Look at… the elastic band on a pair of underwear, or a rubberband even. Have you ever noticed how after repeated stretching they don’t have that taut tightness about them anymore? This is the same thing that happens to peoples’ skin when they loose a significant amount of weight rapidly.
July 30th, 2011 at 4:16 am
** You need to lose weight slower and exercise to tighten the skin as you slowly lose weight. Your skin has to catch up with the weight you are losing. Hope this helps and good luck.
July 30th, 2011 at 5:15 am
It happens when either the person is morbidly obese and have stretched their skin or when a person loses weight too rapidly. If you lose more weight than your body can handle, you’re losing muscle. If you burn a lot of muscle and not fat, you’re still going to have the fat on your body…if the form of lose flesh.
Almost anyone can avoid loose skin if they lose weight the right way (unless they start when they are morbidly obese, which in that case there is not much you can do)