Tightening Loose Skin- Part I Courtesy of Doreen

Once again, our sweet Doreen has done some superb research for us! Several of us had expressed dismay over the fact that we were getting the "sags" in skin here and there due to loosing weight. This is wonderful information and well worth reading all three parts! One thing I might add is that we can provide some collagen to our skin from within by using gelatin. So, here is part I.

 Research on How To Tighten Loose Skin
Part 1

The first step in tightening loose skin is to understand what makes it sag in the first place. Skin is actually an organ. It is amazingly resilient. Skin is designed to stretch as our bodies grow and to shrink as we become smaller. This is the first clue that it may be possible to tighten loose skin mother natures way without the risk of surgery. Very severe cases of loose sagging skin may in fact require a surgical procedure but first try the natural way. Understand that it may take some time to accomplish tight skin again but it is far better to avoid surgery if possible. If you have experienced rapid weight loss such as with weight loss surgery, tightening the excess skin may not be an easy task. It will require hard work and life style changes. As well you will need to be patient. Your skin did not stretch over night and you will not tighten it over night.
If you are just beginning your weight loss journey there are things you can do to help prevent large amounts of sagging skin in the first place. Try to lose weight slowly, about 2 lbs. per week. This will allow your skins elasticity to keep up with the weight loss. As well, when you lose weight rapidly, and without proper amounts of exercise, you lose muscle tone. Muscle acts at a prop preventing skin from becoming loose and drooping.

Exercise

Now if it is after the fact and you are already experiencing loose skin there are things you can do to improve it. Begin a daily exercise routine. Aerobic and cardio exercises work well. Ab crunches, sit ups and weight lifting are great but even if you just walk 30 minutes a day you will see improvement. Exercise helps tighten the loose skin it two ways. It helps to build muscle tone and it will finish burning any leftover excess fat under the skin. Sometimes although we have reachd our goal weight there is still fat deposits under the skin. The deposits of fat weigh the skin down preventing it from tightening back up.

Another important aspect to losing weight and tightening your skin is to lift weights. Lifting weights is a really important part of being healthy and staying in shape and can help build up your muscles. Lifting weights will turn that flab into muscle and will make you look more lean and toned. You can lift free weights starting out with five to ten pounds and then increase the weights each week. You want to do exercises like lifting free weights about three to four times per week for best skin tightening results.

Stomach crunches will naturally help your loose skin turn into a tighter look because of the abdominal muscles that are used during the exercise. Stomach crunches are very easy to do and you can do them anywhere which is why they are important to for tightening and toning loose skin. If you do not like stomach crunches or your day is so busy you can not do them, sit in your chair and do a similar stomach exercise. If you are someone who is often on the computer or sitting at a desk, take your stomach muscles and push them inward. Breathe in very deep and let your stomach muscles go inward and hold that position. You should hold this position for about two minutes and repeat this exercise at least 10 times. This is a very fast and simple exercise to help tighten loose skin especially if you are sedentary throughout the day.

Along with stomach crunches and lifting weights, you should also be doing regular exercises to help tighten your loose skin. Walking, running, jogging, push-ups, sit ups and bicycling will all help tighten up your loose skin.

You should do aerobic exercises every other day to help tone the loose skin and build your muscles and do anaerobic exercises in between those days. You should also give yourself a rest one day per week so that you do not get burned out on exercising within the first week. It is important you give your muscle groups a rest one day in between exercising with them again so that you do not hurt yourself or injure a particular muscle. Exercising is a very good way to tone your body and tighten your loose skin no matter which area of the body it is at. Building muscle mass is also known to make you appear more toned and help bring back your natural skin elasticity.

cont'd...