How To Get Rid Of Loose Skin

While the loosening of the skin is a natural process — all of us will eventually experience it as we age — sometimes, the skin loses its elasticity before the right time due to a variety of factors. For example, if you lose an extreme amount of weight very quickly, you will be left with a lot of loose skin on your body. Similarly, menopause and pregnancy can cause women to have loose skin, especially if a woman is carrying twins or triplets (via Healthline). That aside, illnesses such as cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome can also result in loose skin.

Some other lifestyle factors can also make your skin lose its tightness, including regular consumption of alcohol, smoking, artificial tanning, exposure to ultraviolet rays, and the consumption of medications like steroids and corticosteroids (per Medical News Today). As Healthline explains, while you can develop loose skin anywhere on your body, certain locations are more prone to it, including eyelids, upper arms, stomach, chin, throat, and jowls.

Your skin primarily loses its firmness and becomes saggy because it starts losing collagen and elastin, which are proteins that work together to give skin its texture and shape (via Healthline). During your youthful days, your skin remains smooth, firm, and supple because of the production of these two proteins. However, as you age, the production of collagen and elastin reduces. When you expose your skin to the harmful UV rays of the sun, the collagen breaks down to damage your skin and it is not replenished by the body as quickly as it does when you're young (via Hillelson-Whipple Clinic, posted at American Self).

Another reason your skin becomes saggy is due to the loss of volume in the skin. Per the clinic, the process of volume loss occurs in conjunction with the slow production of collagen and elastin, thus causing your skin to become loose. Meanwhile, the third reason for your skin to lose its elasticity is the weakening of muscles and gravity.

While many of the factors causing loose skin are beyond your control, such as ageing, some of the process is reversible and your skin — depending on the extent of damage or loosening — can be salvaged. Cosmetic surgery is the most effective way to tighten your skin, but since many people prefer not to go under the knife, there are non-surgical ways to lift your loose skin, too. According to Healthline, these methods include the use of firming creams that contain a chemical derivative of vitamin A called retinoids. This substance helps with the "proliferation, maturation, and turnover of skin cells," Dr. Alyson Wells, owner and medical director of the Valley Plastic Surgery, told the website.

Secondly, supplements containing hyaluronic acid could prove helpful, although this method is deemed comparatively less effective (via Healthline). Another way to tighten loose skin is to break a sweat in the gym. That's right: Weight training exercises that can help you build muscle mass can help decrease the appearance of loose skin, particularly if weight loss is the reason why your skin to became loose. Apart from these, regularly getting massages can also help lift loose skin. Per Healthline, massages can help tighten loose skin by increasing the flow of blood and "evoking an anti-aging response."