Looking to tighten loose skin after pregnancy? You’re not alone. This is the challenge of many new moms, especially those who have had their child for a couple of months. You have started to lose weight rapidly – and that is giving you joy – but you realize that you have some sagging skin around your abdomen and sometimes your arms, bra line, and thighs.
The loose skin might be unattractive to see but it is a testament to your journey back to normalcy. The size of the loose skin varies and depends on your age, your skin health, and how much weight you’ve lost. Although it can take some time to tighten loose skin after pregnancy, there are tips on how you can help hasten the process.
In this article, you will be fortified with tips to tighten loose skin after pregnancy. You will also be told what the healthy options in the short term and long term are and how you can begin tackling the loose skin you might get after pregnancy right from your pregnant days.
What Causes Loose Skin?
The cause of loose skin is rapid weight loss and immense weight loss. When your body began to increase in size as your baby grew, it stretched your skin. Your skin could stretch because of the elastic nature endowed by the presence of collagen and elastin on it.
Once you put to bed and your body begins to expel tissues and fluids, your weight begins to climb down, and as it comes down, you expect your skin to do the same, but it isn’t. This is because it has been stretched to that limit it is presently for some time; it will, therefore, need some time to snap back.
The rate at which your weight climbs down and how much weight you gained during pregnancy will determine how much loose skin you have. If you lose as much as 40 kg of weight (it happens), you’re likely to have loose skin. However, for weight losses around 15 – 30 kg, the loose skin is minimal.
How Do I Get Rid of Loose Skin?
Before you can get rid of loose skin, you need to understand the nature of your skin and its immediate environment. You also need to be sure you’re dealing with loose skin and not stubborn fat. If the skin is thin to touch – like the skin on the back of your hand – it is loose skin. However, if it is kind of bulky to touch, it is fat.
Your skin is a living elastic organ that comprise of the visible outer layer, epidermis, and the inner unseen layers, dermis and sub-dermis. Underneath the inner layer is fat deposits and underneath that are the muscles. All of these is what makes the skin taut. When your body size increases as you gain weight, your skin becomes tauter and the longer it remains in that state, the more it gets used to it.
It is essential that you know that your weight gain happens due to deposition of more fats and a steady weight loss removes these fat deposits a little at a time, say 1 – 2 kg per month, and this gives the skin time to retract. Losing the same amount of weight weekly may lead to loose skin since the skin wasn’t given time. However, it will catch up.
Since you do not control the rate at which your uterus shrinks back to its natural position, and how your body expels fluid and tissue during the next 6 – 8 weeks, it is safe to assume that you might have some loose skin, the size now depends on how much weight you gained during pregnancy.
Tips to Tighten Loose Skin After Pregnancy
While it will take your skin some time to snap back to its usual self, or taut enough to cover your fat deposits, there are things you can do to help your skin regain its elasticity faster or add healthy bulk to stretch out the skin. Here are 10 tips to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
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Hydrate consistently
One of the ways to tighten loose skin after pregnancy is to drink adequate amount of water. Water is an important component in improving and maintaining the elasticity of the skin. It helps the cells get rid of toxins and help them maintain turgidity. These toxins have adverse effect on skin elasticity and the turgidity of the cells mean the skin cells are fully packed and help it regain tautness over time.
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Loose a little weight at a time
Another tip to help tighten loose skin after pregnancy is to lose a little weight at a time. The skin is elastic and has been accustomed to being taut over a mass of fat and muscle. Losing those tissues rapidly affords the skin no time to regain its tautness. However, a little weigh, say 2 kg, at a t time, say a month, will give the skin enough time to retract in accordance with weight loss.
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Continue Breast feeding
Breast feeding is known to cause weight loss, even when the mother is fed 500 calories more than she usually eats. It can, therefore, be a way to lose weight naturally and help tighten your skin after pregnancy.
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Do some cardio
Some cardio will do you good. Not only will it help you lose weight, it will also help to condition your cardiovascular muscles and improve blood flow. When blood flows to the skin cells, it increases their turgidity and helps it regain some of its elasticity, an important event that help to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
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Improve Skin care
Apart from drinking water and engaging in exercises that improve the elasticity of the skin, you can also use natural topical ointments, like Aloe Vera, that contains vitamin C and vitamin E.
They help in improving the skin health and appearance. Vitamin C aids in restoring elasticity to the skin while vitamin E helps to get rid of stretch marks.
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Eat healthy
Eat foods that are less in fat but abundant in vitamins and minerals. Do not ignore your need for proteins as well.
In your quest to tighten loose skin after pregnancy, always consider water as part of your food.
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Do Abdominal exercises
Abdominal exercises do not tighten loose skin after pregnancy, they help to build and strengthen the abdominal muscles that lay just beneath the fat deposits in your abdomen.
These exercises when done properly over time, increases the bulk of abdominal muscles and complements the skin around the abdomen, giving them a mass to stretch over.
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Give it time
To tighten loose skin after pregnancy, you need to exercise patience. This endeavor is not one that you can achieve in two or even three months. It takes up to nine months in some people. It is, therefore, advisable that you do not judge your body by the results of someone else.
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Avoid alcohol
Alcohol is an enabler of accumulating belly fat. While you are struggling to tighten loose skin after pregnancy, avoid alcohol completely; it will only frustrate your result.
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Consider Surgery
If you’ve lost a lot of weight and your skin is sagging. All measures you have taken does not seem to be working, you can consider undergoing surgery. Surgical procedures such as tummy tuck, though expensive, are effective in helping to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
It is one of the easiest options, but it is expensive.
Conclusion
It is a herculean task trying to lose weight. Trying to tighten loose skin after pregnancy is another big task on its own. Follow the self-care tips you’ve been given above and with a lot of patience, you will see results.