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#140 - Preventing Loose Skin With Weight Loss
15 Plays2 days ago
Loose skin is one of the biggest fears people have about losing weight.
In this episode, we'll break down what actually matters and what you can do about it, so loose skin is not the thing that stops you from getting healthy.
- How losing 100 pounds affected my own skin, and what I did that helped limit loose skin
- The main things you can control like weight loss speed, lifting, protein, sleep, and basic skin care
- The things you cannot control, like age, genetics, how long you have been overweight, and how much you plan to lose
- A simple plan to follow to keep your skin as tight as possible
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. Before we get into the weekly episode, if you have not, if you can leave a review, I appreciate that. Continue to get this information out to the people who can use it the most.
Exploring Weight Loss Challenges
00:00:21
Speaker
The topic of the week is something a little bit more niche, but I get asked this question a lot around weight loss. So some of the questions that I get quite often, since people know that I've lost a lot of weight, is first and foremost, like what kind of diet I did, what kind of training program I followed, how long it took. Like those are all really common questions. But another one that I get quite often is about how come I don't have loose skin.
00:00:44
Speaker
I've lost 100 pounds and I don't really have a lot of loose skin and that's kind of rare. And so people ask me this question quite a bit. and Every time that I make a piece of content about why I don't have loose skin or how to prevent loose skin or things like that, it always gets a ton of engagement. and I get people asking me specific questions about this. And so I know that's something that a lot of people think about and especially the people who have a lot of weight to lose, they think about this.
00:01:07
Speaker
So I wanted to do more of a deep dive just entire episode on this topic.
Impact of Lifestyle on Loose Skin
00:01:11
Speaker
I've answered this question on some Q and A's in the past, but I thought that just doing an entire episode on this and really laying out all the factors that affect why people end up having loose skin and ultimately some things that you can do to help prevent that. I thought that would be helpful in just laying out the science and laying out the facts and mixing in a little bit of my experience with this and how I've been able to prevent that loose skin. So that's what we're gonna do with this episode.
00:01:35
Speaker
Definitely get it if this is not something that you want to listen to, because it is a very niche topic, but I think for the right people, this will be super helpful. So my experience with not having loose skin, I think some of it just happened by chance because I wasn't really super educated about like losing weight and preventing loose skin and all those certain things. But there's definitely some things that I know looking back that really played into me not having a ton of loose
Lathan's Weight Loss Journey
00:01:59
Speaker
skin. And so for me, when I first got into this, I didn't really think about how to prevent loose skin. I just knew that I needed to and really wanted to get this weight off. And if I had some loose skin later on, I think that was just something that I was going to think about and worry about and deal with later. I don't necessarily think that's the right approach because I think there's a lot of things that you can do as you approach weight loss that's going to help you prevent that loose skin when you start. And so that's why I want to dig into some of those things. And so for me, i don't really have a lot of loose skin. If I got leaner, like if I got down to say 10% body fat, I certainly would have some loose skin around my stomach and maybe some other areas. I would probably have a little bit of extra flab.
00:02:38
Speaker
But right now, like where I'm at in the body fat percentage that I have and how I look and all those things, I don't really have a ton of loose skin. And so like, it's not really something that I've ever really paid too much attention to or worried about too much. But like I said, I know a lot of people do think about that. And so for me, looking back, some of the things that really helped me out to prevent this is first and foremost, like I was young.
00:03:00
Speaker
I was 21 when I first started this whole process of losing weight. And as you get older, your skin will become less elastic. And this is pretty easy to see if you look at somebody who's younger, like in their teens or even 20s, like their skin is typically going to look more young, more vibrant, more tight than somebody who's in their 50, 60, 70 years old. Like as you get older, your skin starts to sag, it starts to lose that elasticity, it starts to lose that tightness. And so being young is definitely to your benefit it when it comes to losing weight. Obviously, that's not really something that you can control. But if you're the person who has maybe been putting off that weight loss or wanting to change, just understand that you're not getting any younger. And the longer that you wait, the less likely that your skin is going to be bouncing back with weight loss and especially with like major weight loss. The younger that you can start weight loss and get that weight off, the better off that you are going to be.
Strategies for Muscle Preservation
00:03:52
Speaker
The second thing that I think really helped me out is the fact that I lost the weight fairly slowly. My first goal when I got into weight loss was to lose 75 pounds. It took me 15 months to lose that 75 pounds, which if you average that out is five pounds per month. And I know that doesn't seem like a ton, but that's a pretty good rate of fat loss. And I think losing it in that way losing it fairly slowly and methodically helped me out a ton to give my skin a chance to actually bounce back and to adapt as I was losing the weight.
00:04:23
Speaker
One to two pounds a week is a pretty good place to be. And I think for a lot of people, they get into weight loss and they have this idea that I just want to get this weight off as quickly as possible. And I'll explain why that's a really bad idea.
00:04:34
Speaker
as we get into this podcast, because when you do that, you're gonna end up losing a lot of muscle mass, you end up doing things that aren't sustainable, and you end up not really looking the way that you wanna look. Losing it slowly definitely helped me. And then the third thing that I would give credit to as to why I don't have tons of loose skin is lifting weights mixed with a high protein diet in this goes right along with that preserving that muscle mass or even building some muscle mass as you're losing the weight because if you lose a bunch of muscle mass as you're losing weight you may see that scale drop quite a bit but if a lot of that weight is from muscle mass i can promise you you are not going to look the way that you want to look and if we're being completely honest Most people, if not everybody, who loses a good amount of weight, part of the reason is they want to look better.
00:05:19
Speaker
Obviously, you have all those other benefits that I talk about all the time with increased quality of life, with living longer, with better health outcomes, with better mental health, all that stuff. but all of us want to look good. Like we want to look a certain way. And if you are wanting to look more tone, more fit, more athletic, you're not going to look that way if you don't have muscle mass. And so making sure that you lose weight in the right way and preserving muscle mass, if not even building some muscle mass as you lose the weight is critical. And that helped me out a ton. I would look very different if I didn't lift weights and I didn't have muscle mass as I lost a hundred pounds. I just know I would.
00:05:53
Speaker
If that's you as well, you need to make sure that you are really focusing on preserving that muscle mass and those things can help with that. Let's get into some of the factors that you can control. As I mentioned, some of those things just a second ago, with the rate at which you lose is something that you have full control over. And so losing around one to two pounds per week for most people is going to be pretty ideal.
00:06:13
Speaker
If you're smaller and you don't have tons of weight to lose, it might be less than that one pound per week. If you're bigger and you have a lot of weight to lose, 100 or more pounds, you might actually lose weight at a little bit higher clip.
00:06:25
Speaker
I've seen people who have tons of weight to lose, so maybe like 100 150 pounds, 200 pounds, 300 pounds, like sometimes those people will end up losing five, seven, 10 pounds in a single week. And for somebody who has that much weight to lose, that's not anything to be worried about. But for most people, that range of one to two pounds is a pretty good place to be. So you give your body a chance to adapt. You give your skin a chance to bounce back and tighten up.
00:06:51
Speaker
Second thing that you can control and I think is huge is resistance training to build and hold on to that muscle. So making sure that you are doing the right forms of exercise as you lose the weight is super helpful.
00:07:03
Speaker
I think that now weightlifting and just strength training in general has become more common, which is great because that is going to be really beneficial in terms of holding on to muscle and building muscle.
00:07:15
Speaker
Because when people want to lose weight, a lot of times they'll just think, what is the exercise that I can do to burn the most calories? And so people will just like do tons of cardio. They'll skip out on the weight training because that doesn't necessarily burn as many calories as say hopping on a treadmill and running for an hour, but burning calories and holding onto muscle and looking the way that you want to look, those two things aren't necessarily synonymous. Like you don't want to just be losing as much weight as possible and burning as many calories as possible. You want to be making sure that you are losing the right weight and not losing that precious muscle.
Maintaining Skin Health
00:07:46
Speaker
So resistance training, lifting heavy weights, training close to failure, really pushing the intensity, getting in the gym two, three, four times week to make sure that you're doing that is going to be something that you can control and something that is going to help so much. And so making sure that that is a priority with losing weight is to make sure that you're strength training.
00:08:06
Speaker
Third, right along with that, mention this, but high protein diet. And with that high protein diet, also just making sure that you're focused on mostly whole foods. The simplest thing that I can tell you about this is that you literally become what you eat. And I think sometimes we forget that, but like the body that you're looking at, your skin, your hair, your nails, your muscle, all that stuff, like,
00:08:26
Speaker
it comes from the food that you put in your body and from just a super simple view of like, would you rather be made out of like tons of highly processed foods and chips and Twinkies and desserts and things like that? Or would you rather be made up of foods that have tons of nutrients, whole dense type of foods like lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, things like that? Like being made out of one of those things versus being made out of the other is probably going to be a little bit more conducive to looking a certain way. And so focusing on high protein diet, lots of whole foods, making sure that you're getting lots of nutrients is also going to be helpful.
00:08:59
Speaker
Fourth on the list is to drink water so that you can stay hydrated. Your skin does better when it is hydrated. And so making sure that you are just drinking plenty of water, simple thing to do, but it just is going to help with that skin elasticity and that skin health. So drinking lots of water, very simple, very easy to do, and that will help out somewhat as well.
00:09:19
Speaker
Sleep quality is another thing. And you've heard the term like I need to get my beauty sleep. Well, there's a lot to that. If you see somebody who hasn't gotten a good night of sleep, you can typically tell like you can see it on their face, you can see it in their skin, they just don't look as vibrant, they don't look as young, they don't look as like refreshed, like you can just see it on people's skin. And that's just from a single night, you start to do this for many nights in a row, or maybe you see like some parents who recently had a child who their sleeping schedules are off, you can just see it in their face, in their skin, in their body, like, it's just not good for a long term skin health. It's not good for
Uncontrollable Factors in Skin Elasticity
00:09:54
Speaker
health in general. But for skin health as well, having poor sleep and not getting enough sleep is going to affect how your skin responds. So making sure that you are prioritizing that and getting as much sleep as possible, or I should say as much quality sleep as possible or that your body needs.
00:10:09
Speaker
And the last thing that I'll mention is to avoid smoking. I think most of us at this point know that smoking is not a good thing for health at all, but it's also not good for your skin. It dries it out and it just doesn't help with the aging of your skin. And then the other thing is just making sure that you're protecting your skin when you're in the sun. And so if you've ever seen people who have like lived in really warm climates, who spent tons of time outside and in the sun, you can usually see it in their skin. like Their skin looks very weathered, typically darker, like their skin looks rougher and things like that. so If you're in the sun a lot, if you're outside a lot, like that's a good thing. You get a lot of good health benefits from being in the sun, but making sure that you are protecting your skin so that you can have the healthiest skin possible. So those are some things that are in your control and some things that you can really focus on to help yourself out. But I think it's also important to understand the things that are going to affect your skin and things that you cannot control.
00:11:00
Speaker
The first thing that I'll mention, which I already touched on is age. So as you get older, the elasticity decreases over time. You need to understand like if you have a weight loss goal or if you've been heavy for a while and you've just been putting that off, today is the youngest that you will ever be. And so to start to work on that and start to take that weight off, you're going to be better off from a standpoint of being able to prevent more loose skin. the younger that you're able to get that weight off. And so the sooner you can do it, the better.
00:11:29
Speaker
Don't wait. Don't keep putting it off because it gets harder as you get older, not just from a standpoint of like how your body feels and habits and all that different stuff, but from a skin standpoint and your skin's ability to bounce back, it's also going to become harder the older that you are.
00:11:44
Speaker
Second on the list, something that you don't really have control over is your genetics. And so how well your skin responds and how quickly it bounces back is just partly genetics. And I think of this from like a pregnancy standpoint in women, you'll see two women, maybe the same age, very similar.
00:12:00
Speaker
things going on and in their life and similar diets and things like that. And sometimes you'll just have a woman who bounces back, or snaps back like super quick. They don't really have loose skin from their pregnancy. They lose the weight very quickly and their body is basically back to what it was previous to having that child. and There's definitely some other factors at play and things that they can control and maybe some things that you don't see. But part of it is just genetics. Like some people bounce back very quickly. And then you might see another woman who like is doing all the right things. But for whatever reason, like her body just doesn't bounce back quite as quickly. Like she has a little bit of extra loose skin after pregnancy, a little bit more sag in the skin. It's not quite as tight as it was. And part of that is just genetics. You can't control it, but it is something just to acknowledge and to understand.
00:12:44
Speaker
Third thing on the list of things that you cannot control, this is something that I think plays a massive role, and this is how long that
Natural Prevention Methods for Loose Skin
00:12:51
Speaker
you've been overweight. So if you've been overweight for six months, eight months, a year, like versus somebody who's been overweight for most of their life for five years, 10 15 years, 20 years, twenty years The amount of time that your skin has been stretched out is very different. And the longer that that skin is stretched out, the more damage that is being done and the less elastic that is going to bounce back. It's like if you've used a rubber band for a really long time, like eventually that rubber band starts to lose its elasticity.
00:13:18
Speaker
or like if you had a pair of like shorts or something for years, like the elasticity, like in the waistband, eventually it starts to give out. It starts to wear down and things like that. And so that's similar to your skin. Like if your skin has been stretched out for a really long time, the likelihood that it's going to bounce back In the same way of somebody whose skin has not been stretched out for that same amount of time for decades, it's going to be different. And so you need to understand like that plays a massive role in it. If you've been overweight for a really long time, you're probably going to have more difficulty with that skin bouncing back than if somebody was just overweight for a shorter period of time.
00:13:56
Speaker
The other thing that I think plays a massive role with this, along with like your skin's ability to bounce back is just simply the amount of weight that you have to lose. If you have 15 pounds to lose, 20 pounds, 30 pounds to lose, even 40 pounds, depending on like how tall you are in your frame and how you carry that weight. you're probably going to deal with less of those skin issues than somebody who has 50 to 100 or more pounds to lose. Because simply put, like, if you have more fat tissue, your skin got stretched out more, and you're likely to have more of that excess skin as you start to get rid of that fat. Understanding that those two things play a massive role. And now at this point, like you are where you are and you don't really have control over those things. So like if you're overweight right now, or if you've been overweight for a very long time, like you don't really have control over it. Like the only thing that you can do now is start to work on that.
00:14:48
Speaker
Same thing with how much weight you have to lose. Like you're at this certain point. So the only thing you can really do is start to work on those things. But those two things, they do affect how well your skin will bounce back and they affect it quite a bit.
00:15:01
Speaker
And so those are the things that you can control. Those are some of the things that you cannot control. and and so once you understand all the things that factor into this whole skin problem, now you can start to get into some of the things that you can do to prevent those things. And there's things that you can do naturally. And then there's other things that you can do that aren't as natural, like surgery and things like that, which I'm going to touch on towards the end of this. But some things that you can do naturally.
00:15:25
Speaker
As I mentioned, lose the weight slowly. So from day one, you want to make sure that you are doing this at a sustainable rate so that you give your body a chance to bounce back. You see this with lots of people, especially now with things like GLP-1s or in the past, it was like weight loss surgeries. People lose a lot of weight very quickly and then they struggle with having lots of loose skin.
00:15:46
Speaker
If you are trying to lose weight, stay away from the crash diets, stay away from like trying to do tons of cardio or lose the weight as quickly as possible and make sure from that day one that you are focused on strength training as well. And so if you are using, let's say something like GLP-1 or you're doing something that's a little bit more extreme, you want to make sure that you are strength training because that is going to be the best way to make sure that you hold on to that muscle as you start to lose weight. Focusing on losing the weight slowly along with lifting weights would be number one suggestion on my list.
00:16:21
Speaker
Second thing I would tell you is to make sure that you're eating a high protein diet, at least 0.7 grams per pound of body weight. If you want to get a little bit more, one gram per pound of body weight might be even slightly better. You have to understand that protein are the building blocks for your body. And obviously from the muscle building standpoint that we all know of, but your skin also needs protein too. And so making sure that you are focused on getting plenty of protein is going to help with keeping your Muscles in a good spot, but also helping with your skin as well.
00:16:51
Speaker
Third
Skin Adjustment Post-Weight Loss
00:16:52
Speaker
would be to focus on a whole foods diet. So I've mentioned this before, but the 80-20 rule is kind of my goal in the standard, making sure that you're getting 80% of your foods from whole minimally processed things like lean proteins, fruits, vegetables. All those things are going to have lots of quality nutrients in them and to help you just get the things that you need and to help your skin get the things that it needs as well.
00:17:15
Speaker
Drink water to stay hydrated. Don't need to say too much on that. Prioritizing sleep. So seven to eight hours a night is ideal. And also with that, just managing stress.
00:17:26
Speaker
Similar to the sleep thing, you can see when people have been under stress for a long period of time because it starts to show in their face, it starts to show on their skin, it starts to just show up in your body. And so managing stress is important as well, finding ways to handle those things and to not let them overtake you. That can be a thing that's going to help with not just skin health, but also just your health in general.
00:17:50
Speaker
In doing a little bit of research for this podcast, some people mention things like supplements, like using different lotions or different things like that that are going to help tighten skin. And I personally never used any of that stuff, so I can't speak on it too much. And to be honest, in just doing research, there's not a ton of like very conclusive hard evidence that shows that that stuff helps a whole lot. But I know a lot of people have said that they've used different lotions and used supplements and they feel like those things helped. I don't think that's the thing that you want to focus on. But if you want to add those things as maybe a slight bonus, then by all means, go ahead. So there is things like collagen or things like moisturizers or lotions and things like that, that people will use to help with those effects of maybe preventing or tightening up skin or things like that. And then the last thing I would say just with like
00:18:41
Speaker
Understanding just like these natural ways to help you prevent loose skin is just understanding that when you're losing weight, it takes your skin a while to tighten up. So even if let's say you lose weight and you want to you get to your goal weight and you want to maintain that for a while, it can take up to six to 12 months before that skin kind of settles in and has stopped.
00:19:02
Speaker
tightening to the amount
Interventions for Loose Skin
00:19:03
Speaker
that it's going to tighten. So let's say you lose your weight and you have some excess skin, you wouldn't want to like jump into anything like super crazy, like getting skin surgery or anything like that. And as I'll mention here in a minute, like a lot of doctors will tell you like you need to wait a certain amount of time because you want to see where that skin is going to settle. So Your skin could take an extra six months to a year to tighten up to the amount that it's going to tighten up after you get to your goal weight and after you're sitting at a certain place for a while. So just something to keep in mind as well. When it comes to like the more non-natural options, so basically like surgery type things or even like non-surgery type things, but things that you're going to get done by a professional. There are some options with this. Again, this is not something that I did, so I don't really have experience with doing these things.
00:19:47
Speaker
But I followed some people who have gotten skin surgery. I followed some people who have done some of these protocols and things like that. And there's obviously tradeoffs with these things. Like, I mean, one, skin surgery removal is very expensive. And there's also the fact of just recovering. Like the people who I've heard talk about it say it's extremely painful, like especially for the first week or so.
00:20:07
Speaker
That's just something that you have to weigh out. Like if you have a ton of loose skin and it's something that like you just really want to get rid of, then maybe surgery is the right thing for you. But there's also some things that you can do like non-surgical. So there's things like ultrasound, there's like laser type treatments, there's like radio frequency type things that basically say that their whole goal is to help you like tighten up your skin. But this is also done for like minimal type of skin tightening type things. Like if you have a lot of saggy skin or a lot of loose skin, these type of treatments are not going to be for you. Surgery is probably going to be the ultimate or the the best thing that you can do if you have a ton of loose skin and you really want to get
Embracing Loose Skin
00:20:45
Speaker
rid of it. But again, that's something that you probably need to have a conversation with a doctor about and just see the options of those things and just take into account all the things that that is going to entail and just decide if it's something that you want to do.
00:20:58
Speaker
So wrapping this whole thing up, my top advice and things that I would tell you if this was something that you were worried about is to lose the weight slowly, lift weights, eat a high protein diet with mostly whole foods. Those are the things that I did. And those are the things that I think you have the most control over and things that you can really focus on that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. But the other thing that I would tell you to like loose skin is normal and it's common and especially you have a lot of weight to lose like it's probably pretty likely your skin is going to be a little bit lax or a little bit loose in certain areas. And if that's the trade off that you have to have to living a longer life to living a better life to having better health outcomes to having better mental health all these different things that weight loss is going to give you then to me.
00:21:42
Speaker
that's worth it 10 out of 10 times. Like it's nothing to be ashamed of. It is what it is. Like if you have some extra skin and there are options and there are things that you can do to control those things, both in a natural way, or maybe even like a surgical route. So if it does start to affect you in certain ways, there's always options there, but just understand that the things that you're going to get from weight loss, like it's worth the trade-off of having some loose skin. and Hopefully this was helpful. I know this was, again, a very niche topic, but I also know that this is something that a lot of people think about and a lot of people struggle with. So just wanted to give my insight and just lay out a few practical things that you can start to do if you are losing weight and this is something that you are worried about.
00:22:22
Speaker
With that being said, the one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes as always. If you want some help with your fitness goals, your weight loss goals, all that good stuff, you can check that out. And other than that, I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.