For small to moderate amounts of weight loss, your skin will likely retract on its own. Natural home remedies may help too. However, more significant weight loss may need body-contouring surgery or other medical procedures to tighten or get rid of loose skin.
Many individuals who have successfully lost a large amount of weight, usually 100 pounds or more, may find themselves with loose skin that is uncomfortable and frustrating. Fortunately, there are ways to manage and treat loose skin with lifestyle changes, noninvasive treatments, and surgery.
However, larger amounts of weight loss, such as 50 pounds and over, especially over a short period, can considerably increase your risk of loose skin. Your genetics and age will also play an important role in determining how much weight loss causes loose skin.
“In general, it can take anywhere from weeks to months—even years,” says Dr. Chen. If after one to two years skin is still loose, it may not get any tighter, she says.
Does everyone have loose skin after major weight loss? Nope—it's not inevitable, says Dr. Prachand. But it's also not easy to predict who is going to experience it, he says.
You should include foods that are rich in collagen and elastin to your diet. Milk, legumes, cottage cheese, beans, nuts and fish are examples of foods that contain elastin and collagen. They help with skin firmness, strength and elasticity.
Some good skin tightening exercises include crunches, bridges, and pelvic thrusts. Keep an eye out on the progress of your exercise routines. You may notice the reduction of flabby skin on your arms, legs, and belly over time.
Engaging in exercise such as resistance training can increase muscle mass. Building muscle through exercise can improve the appearance of sagging skin, especially in the legs and arms. Also, facial exercises may improve muscle tone around the jaw and neck. This may reduce sagging skin in these areas.
Getting rid of lower stomach fat
Exercises like cardio, yoga, and crunches may tone your muscles and strengthen your lower abs, but they won't “erase” fat deposits. The only way to lose fat on your lower stomach is to lose fat overall. A calorie deficit helps with this.
Regular exercise, including cardio and strength training, will help you maintain your weight and tone your body. It also may help your skin look tighter.
Also include aerobic exercises in your physical fitness activities. Walking for just 20 to 30 minutes daily improves circulation, which helps to tighten loose skin on the thighs.
Most loose skin treatments, from creams to laser resurfacing, focus on boosting collagen production. Lifestyle changes can keep collagen from slowing down even more. Take your vitamins, stop smoking (if you do), avoid tanning, and swap out harsh skin care for products with nourishing, medical-grade ingredients.
Vitamins A, C and E
Vitamin A helps to hydrate the lower layer of skin, vitamin C preserves and protects skin-firming fibers such as collagen and elastin, and vitamin E safeguards skin from sun damage.
With a slower, more gradual weight loss, it's easier for a person's skin elasticity to sort of snap back into place, shrinking back down as the fat is lost. But when too much is lost too fast, the skin's elasticity doesn't have time to catch up. To get rid of the loose skin, exercise helps, a little.
In most cases loose skin is actually just cases of excess subcutaneous body fat covered by skin. Because subcutaneous fat is "soft" fat, it is looser, or jiggly, and easier to confuse with skin. In some cases of major weight loss, as you get leaner, it can be quite stubborn to lose this remaining fat.
While it varies, mild weight loss (think: 20 pounds or less) typically doesn't lead to excess skin, Zuckerman says. Weight loss of 40 to 50 pounds can seem as massive as a weight loss of 100+ pounds.
But many health care providers agree that a medical evaluation is called for if you lose more than 5% of your weight in 6 to 12 months, especially if you're an older adult. For example, a 5% weight loss in someone who is 160 pounds (72 kilograms) is 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms).