Ways to Get Rid of Loose Skin After Weight Loss

Have you busted your butt off for months and months to lose weight, and are now struggling with loose skin that’s preventing you from achieving the look you ultimately desire? If so, then this article is for you! This problem can get really frustrating for some, and I understand. Nothing is more discouraging than feeling like you’re doing everything right, but without the results you really desire to show for it.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to handle the loose skin issue. Let’s dive in.

The Problem Isn’t Always Loose or Excess Skin While there are legit cases of excess skin after weight loss, what many people think is loose or excess skin is actually just excess subcutaneous fat. This fat is soft and jiggly and easily mistaken as skin. And in cases of major weight loss, as you get leaner, it can be quite stubborn.

What do I mean by “stubborn,” exactly? Well, I mean that it’s simply harder to lose than other deposits of fat. Instead of getting into the whole explanation of why this is here, head over to my article on how to lose stubborn fat to learn more. I would also recommend you read my article on intermittent fasting as well, as this is another effective way to attack stubborn fat.

For the purpose of this article, what you need to know is that we have areas of our body that are physiologically resistant to weight loss. For men, it’s the lower abdomen and back, and for women, it’s the hips, thighs, and butt. Not coincidentally, these are also the areas most often associated with loose or excess skin problems.

There’s an easy way to tell if you’re dealing with actual loose skin or too high body fat percentage. Pinch the area you’re concerned with and if you can grab more than a few millimeters of skin, there’s more fat in there to lose. Until you lose that fat, your skin has no reason to return to its former size and tautness. It’s not a swath of passive, inert flesh–it’s a living organ that adapts to its internal and external environments. As long as the fat its attached to remains, it will sag.

If you’re a man, I wouldn’t take any special measures to deal with loose skin until you’ve hit 9-10% body fat. If you’re a woman, 17-18% is the number. The reason why is once you enter these ranges of body fat percentage, you just won’t have much subcutaneous fat left. In many cases, this alone will handle the problem that was once thought to be loose skin.

If, however, you get to these ranges of body fat percentage and your skin is almost paper thin and looks like crinkled papyrus, then it truly is a matter of excess skin, and can be dealt with accordingly.