Sagging/hanging skin

[ravi_singh]

Hello,

I just wanted to find out how to prevent sagging skin after extreme or normal weight loss. I've just read a success story on Shapefit where someone lost an extreme amount of weith over 5 years, but their are unhappy about their loose skin....I need some advice to prevent this from happening to me. I'm about 80lbs overweight and I'm about to start dieting and exercising and problem is, I want to do this really fast in about 1 year. Please help!

[Boss Man]

Doing it fast will potentially cause the sagging skin. Most people can only lose weight in a healthy way, at around 4lbs of fat a week max and you've got to be really morbidly obese to do that.

For most people around 100lbs or less overweight, 2lbs a week is a sensible target to aim for, though expect a bit more than that for the first 3-4 weeks, especially if you are consuming significantly less sodium in your diet, as some of the weight loss could be excess retained water, but then the weight loss would hopefully plateau out to a sensible steady amount.

Losing weight too quickly, I.E. crash dieting, like say 8lbs a week for example, could cause this, as the skin would struggle to recontour, to the ever decreasing proportions of the body.

However, if the person was really overweight and had caused significant amounts of elastin damage, then sagging skin would almost certainly be inevitable, even if they were achieving sensible weight loss amounts per week, as without enough structurally sound elastin, the ability for the skin to bounce back would be compromised.

When loose skin is an eventual inevitability, the only real option thereafter is surgical restructuring I'm afraid.

[ravi_singh]

Thanks Boss Man....after reading your reply I think that it would be in my best interest to do it slow...1 to 2 lbs a week. Are there certain exercises I can do to help my skin contour to my body....like perhaps some kind of toning exercise??? I heard that surgical procedures to remove excess skin is very expensive and that would not be an option for me at this time. I have also heard that it can be very painful.

[musculArgirl2]

I think it depends too on how old you are and how long you have been overweight if you will have sagging skin too. I worry about that too. I would imagine slow weight loss along with adding a little muscle would help the most.

[Boss Man]

There no specific exercises, ut as long as you're doing a good training regime, that can stimulate better, even and pain free body condition, you'll get most of what you want eventually and if you're not getting the complete result then it would likely be one or more modifications in diet might be needed not more modivfications to training.