How to Avoid Loose Skin After Weight Loss Surgery

Introduction

Controlling some of the bad ‘hangover’ effects of losing excess skin is an important step to feeling happier in your new body, quickly. Sure, the loose skin isn’t going to ruin your happy dance after your transformation, but you want to give it the old college try, don’t you?

Here are the most effective strategies for managing excess skin after bariatric surgery:

• Understanding where it comes from
• Reducing the amount of extra skin you’ll return home with
• What you can still do to improve your appearance after the surgery

Understanding Loose Skin

Factors That Affect Skin Elasticity:
Loose skin after sleeve gastrectomy is related to our age, genes, amount of weight lost, nutrition and habits such as smoking or sun exposure.
People who are older or lost a lot of weight in a short time is most likely to have this problem.
Another way to avoid loose skin after sleeve gastrectomy is to maintain proper nutrition and not to harm our body by bad habits.

Medical Reasons: Excess skin thickens, wrinkles and hangs onto the body, causing chafing, rashes, infections, and difficulty maintaining a basic level of hygiene. These concerns can quickly impact your quality of life, affect your health, and take over your daily life.

Getting these medical issues resolved early will prevent complications and improve your quality of life in time for your surgery.

Pre-Surgery Preparations

Dietary adjustments: increase your protein intake, eat foods rich in vitamins C and E minding your other nutrients that are important for skin health Overall, providing your body with adequate nutrition helps mainly for two reasons.

Firstly, your skin has to undergo more stress after surgery, and therefore it is good to provide it with the right nutrients so as to be can to cope. Secondly, proper nutrition will strengthen your skin elasticity and support your overall skin health, thus making your skin look better.

As you can see, there is a lot we can do in order to get ready for our surgical treatments. Make sure to talk to your doctor to decide which is the best for you regarding your skin type.

Psychological Readiness: You must be psychologically prepared to accept the outcome that, while your loose skin will improve, it won’t go away completely. You must have realistic expectations, and you should prepare yourself for what your body will look like after the surgery.

If you understand that it’s a process and that your skin tightening will take time, you’ll find it easier to keep a positive attitude. Emotional readiness can also help and keep you focused and motivated towards accomplishing your desired outcome and remaining committed to how you need to take care of yourself post-surgery.

Post-Surgery Nutrition

Balance is the Key: Just as important as the food you eat is how much of it you eat. A well-balanced diet is necessary to maintain your skin elasticity as well as recover your body. Consuming good protein and vitamins, as well as minerals, is an absolute necessity for keeping muscle mass up, for a healthy skin and for your body to recover properly.

Hydration: Stay hydrated to keep your skin elasticity is very important but the bad news is that it gets worse as we get older because elastin fibres lose their ‘sponginess’ and are no longer as springy.

The good news is that a glass of water may be all we need to do to make sure that our skin’s elasticity is good and strong. With skin, your approach is the same – your body will react positively if you water it when it needs it, and so water is something we always keep an extra half-gallon of on hand for.

Exercise and Physical Activity

Strength Training: Building muscle will fill out areas where loose skin might fall and drag, making you seem less saggy. Focus on exercises that involve all the major muscles groups. If you remain relatively lean – which is important – and maintain your muscle mass, strength training is a good way to increase skin tone. You can go a long way towards tightening up your own skin and looking better.

 Cardiovascular Exercise: Cardiovascular training further boosts circulation, and ensures that your skin gets all it might need to be healthy. Cardio also helps keep you in good shape by keeping weight under control and helping to maintain skin elasticity. Again, by combining cardio with strength, you have addressed most of the important areas of fitness and skin health.

Consistency: consistent exercise habits will help upkeep your muscle mass as you get older, and thus continue to support the skin beneath. Consistent exercise helps to maintain the benefits of your weight loss by keeping your weight consistent and avoiding further skin sagging. Building a consistent habit will support your skin and your health for years.

Skin Care Routine to Avoid Loose Skin after Weight Loss Surgery

Regular moisturizing and use of sunscreen. Avoid smoking. Skin care on a daily basis creates a healthy framework for skin That’s better now!

Advanced Skincare – For those with loose skin issues, professional dry brushing along with regular massages are very important to tighten up your skin. Dry brushing balances your body’s oils and combined with a regular massage by a specialist can really help increase your elasticity and circulation for better skin health through your surgery.

Trigger point massage is helpful to increase tight areas for a full stretch and loosen up sections on your neck, shoulders, and back, especially if you are undergoing any liposuction procedures in these areas. Regular facials and advanced treatments are also beneficial to improve your skin texture and elasticity.

Non-Surgical Treatments

 Creams and lotions: No cream or lotion, however effective, can make the skin thinner or get rid of excess skin, but regular applications of moisturisers help to soften the skin’s texture and make it look smoother.

They help to keep the skin well hydrated and more supple. These topical treatments are useful adjuncts to any good skin-care regimen.

Non-Invasive Procedures: Coolsculpting, radiofrequency therapies, and many other treatments that have come back into fashion can tighten skin with some improvement without surgery, but are usually less effective than surgical approaches and may require more sessions. These procedures represent a choice for outcomes that have traditionally been limited to surgery – a middle ground, if you will.

Surgical Options

Body Contouring Surgeries: Procedures such as a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), an arm lift (brachioplasty) or a thigh lift can remove excess skin. These are more involved surgeries with greater recovery needs, but dramatic aesthetic improvements are possible. Speaking with a board-certified plastic surgeon is the best place to start when considering one of these surgeries.

Recovery and fees: These surgeries usually require an extended time to recover; these might also cost you. If you were to undergo these surgeries, your insurance plan could cover it, but you’d need it to be shown as medically necessary, for example as a result of infections or other issues.

Maintaining Your Results

Remaining Stable: After you have achieved your weight goal, it is best to stay right there to avoid further stretching of your skin. If you do experience significant swings in your weight after surgery, your skin can once again become loose and limp. Stability in your weight during the long term will help you maintain a tight, toned body.

 Maintain It Long Term: Ongoing skin care practices – with exercise and diet – are needed to maintain the look of your skin. You’ll need to be committed to eat well and stay active as remaining slim and healthy depends on lifestyle rather than inches lost.

Going forward in a healthy way with skin care is the best way to maintain weight loss. Long term maintenance can be a great way to sustain your look and confidence.

Personal Stories and Testimonials

Real-Life Examples: Many people have learned how to manage and even overcome loose skin through a combination of diet, exercise or (surgical) interventions. There are many success stories of people who have dealt with loose skin and may be able to provide others with helpful tips. Learning from others’ experiences can be inspiring.

 Ask Your Doctor: Consulting with your family physician, as well as bariatric surgeons, dietitians and plastic surgeons, will give you not only advice tailored to your body type and lifestyle, but also those that ensure you get the right treatments needed for your situation. Professional help is highly recommended for you to attain and keeps optimal results.