Article
by Tom Venuto,
NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Loose
Skin And Weight Loss
If you're
extremely overweight
or if you've been extremely overweight in the past, then you know that
getting rid of excess weight is only one of the challenges you face.
Once
the fat is gone, you are often confronted with an equally frustrating
cosmetic
problem; Loose skin.
I receive a
lot of e-mail
from people with loose skin or from overweight people who are concerned
about having loose skin after they lose the weight. Just recently, I
received
this email from a reader of my syndicated “Ask Tom” fat loss column:
“Tom, I
began a fat loss
program using your Burn The Fat program and it worked so well I got
down
to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused me a problem:
Excess
abdominal skin. I didn't crash lose this weight, it came off at the
rate
of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommended. Now I'm unsure of
whether
to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot of excess skin - I feel like
I've turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! (You know, as in the dog!)
Does
everyone go through
this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight for more than 12
years.
Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal? Can you offer me
any
advice? I'm a medical student in the UK and my colleagues seem
determined
to proffer surgery as the only option.”
My
answer included 12
things you should know about loose skin after very large weight losses:
1. Skin is
incredibly elastic.
Just look at what women go through during pregnancy. Skin has the
ability
to expand and contract to a remarkable degree.
2.
Elasticity of skin tends
to decrease with age. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the
consequence
of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors
such
as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional
deficiency.
The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you
cannot.
Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be
realistic
and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.
3. How much
your skin will
return to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get,
the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will
not return to normal.
4. How long
you carry extra
weight has a lot to do with how much the skin will become taut after
the
weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years
carrying
100 excess pounds.
5. How much
weight was carried
has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance.
Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back"
one hundred percent.
6. How fast
the weight was
gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight
appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected
to "snap back."
7. How fast
weight is lost
also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid
weight
loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet
another
reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if
you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are
measuring
body fat and you’re certain it's fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).
8. There
are exceptions to
all of the above; i.e, people who gained and then lost incredible
amounts
of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to
normal.
9. There
are many creams
advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin.
None are likely to work – at least not permanently and measurably – and
especially if you have a lot of loose skin. Don't waste your money.
10. If
you’re considering
surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is
not
a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be
making
his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery may be
recommended
in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as
the ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.
11. Give
your skin time.
Your skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and
heard
of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least
partially,
after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and
exercise continued.
12. Know
your body fat percentage
before even THINKING about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still
having body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by
taking
your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a
variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you
have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis,
underwater
weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for
example, a man
drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be
congratulated,
but I would tell him, "Don't complian about loose skin, your body fat
is
still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”
Average
body fat for men
is in the mid teens (16% or so) Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and
single
digits is extremely lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with
100%
tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat, and women
low teens).
Except in
extreme cases,
you are unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body
fat.
It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up and literally
start
to “cling” to your abdominal muscles once your body fat goes from
“average”
to "excellent." Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton
of loose skin is a rare sight.
So... the
key to getting
tighter skin is to lose more body fat, (and build more muscle), up to
the
point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the
“good” to “great” category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your
long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess
skin
removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few
isolated
cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of
loose
skin remaining.
However,
unless you are really,
really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose
skin,
what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will
tighten
up when the rest of the fat is lost.
|
