Skin Sagging After Weight Loss Surgery
One primary concern of people who worked hard to lose weight is the excess sagging skin. Many people wonder “Will I have sagging skin when I lose weight, or exactly how much weight loss causes sagging skin?” These are sensible questions.
Are you interested in weight loss surgery but worried about excess skin sagging ?
As you gain weight, your skin expands around the new mass. Then the shrinking ability of your skin is not enough to retain its shape when you lose weight as it loses its elasticity.
However, several solutions are there to help. Exercises, surgical, and non-surgical medical procedures can help tighten skin.This article provided by Dr Venu Gopal Pareek provides information about skin sagging after weight loss surgery.
How does sagging skin affect you?
It’s hard to say because everyone is different. The amount of loose skin you have afterwards depends on several things that are beyond your control, such as:
- Initial weight
- Age
- Smoking history
- Genetics.
This also depends on the type of surgery you choose. Patients with duodenal switch surgery have more excess skin than patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, possibly because patients with duodenal switch tend to lose more weight. So think about excess skin as a result of weight loss. The more a person loses weight, the more likely they are to have more excess skin.
If you are concerned about extra skin after surgery, we can discuss options in time. If you want to remove excess skin, the most effective way to do it is to see a plastic surgeon who can remove excess skin and restore normal body contour.
Excess sagging skin problems
- Excessive skin can cause blisters and rashes, especially if rubbed against other skin folds or if left damp. When you have sagging skin, the wrinkles often rub inward. Over time, the top layer of skin – your epidermis – breaks and gets irritated when rubbed. Wearing non-abrasive clothing can prevent this.
- Excess skin can also cause infection. Loose skin causes wrinkles that are difficult to remove. Scrubbing can sometimes damage the skin and leads to infection.
- Many people who have excess skin after weight loss surgery can rub their thighs, groin, armpits, or stomach. But it can appear anywhere that has extra skin.
For many people, loose skin is also problematic due to the way it looks.
How to deal with excess skin after weight loss surgery?
It is important to know that there are many ways to minimize sagging skin after surgery. Let’s look at some of them together:
- A balanced diet with lots of vitamins
- Exercise
- Regular skincare
- Plastic surgery (if all the above was not enough)
Eating a balanced diet can reduce sagging skin after weight loss surgery.
After bariatric surgery, eating a balanced, high-protein diet can help you lose weight, keep muscles lean, and feel better than ever. This diet can help minimize sagging or excess skin.
If you get enough protein, you can maintain and build lean muscle. Losing fat is great, but preventing muscle loss and even building new muscle can help fill in your skin, prevent sagging voids, and minimize sagging skin. When you get enough protein, you can also optimize the elasticity of your skin to fit your new body better. After bariatric surgery, it’s important to consume 60-100g of protein a day.
If you take sufficient vitamins, skin elasticity can be maintained even after bariatric surgery. Vitamins C, A, E, K and vitamins from complexes and trace elements such as zinc are essential for healthy skin. After surgery, doctors recommend a complete vitamin strategy.
You also have to make sure that you are drinking enough water. After completing the six-week postoperative diet change to your regular diet, your minimum water intake should be at least 64 ounces/day. Since your body (including your skin) is mostly water, you need to increase your intake to a maximum of 100 ounces per day. When you drink lots of water, your skin becomes healthier and more elastic.
After surgery, Dr Venu Gopal Pareek’s experienced team will work closely with you every step of the way to develop a balanced diet that suits you. We’ll help you eat to maximize weight loss, feel better, and reduce sagging skin.
Exercise:
Exercise can prevent sagging skin after weight loss surgery for the same reasons as eating protein. When you avoid losing muscle mass, you reduce the looseness of your skin. As you build muscle, your skin becomes fuller.
After surgery, Dr Venu Gopal Pareek’s team will work with you to create an exercise program that will help you lose weight, feel great, and minimize excess skin.
Take care of your skin.
Your skin is an organ, like your liver or kidneys. And if you want to avoid sagging skin after weight loss, taking care of these organs can help.
One suggestion that we recommend after surgery is to wash the skin with a soft brush. It feels great and can increase blood flow to your skin, which helps transport collagen and elastin through your skin. This can help your skin optimize its elasticity, so it can shrink around your new, thinner body after bariatric surgery.
Excess skin is often made worse or better by your overall health, and the health of your skin in particular. If you neglect your skin and diet, you will end up with more relaxed and sagging skin. However, if you take care of your skin and your entire body, you may have toned skin that will still look great even after you lose weight.
Plastic surgery for sagging skin
You don’t want to end your journey to a healthy weight to avoid sagging skin. Surgeons usually recommend patients to wait at least 18 months after surgery before being examined to see if the skin is sagging. Before, your body went through too many changes. If there is excess abdominal skin, there are usually two cosmetic procedures to choose and that are done by plastic surgeons.
- Panniculectomy: Your doctor may recommend this procedure if you have skin breakdown or infection with loose skin or loose skin on your stomach. In this procedure, excess skin is removed and tightened but the muscles are not tightened.
Some patients also have loose skin on the lower body and choose a thigh lift procedure which helps to tighten the skin on the thighs and makes the legs look weaker. Treatment of sagging skin on legs and arms is usually not covered.
Conclusion:
The tips in this blog will help get rid of sagging skin and improve your overall health after surgery. From dietary changes to surgical solutions, you can choose the appropriate option based on your needs. For more information on bariatric surgery and sagging skin correction surgery in Hyderabad, call Dr Venu Gopal Pareek at 091777 77715.
About Dr Venugopal Pareek – Bariatric Surgeon
Dr Venugopal Pareek, a Consultant Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgeon in Sunshine Hospitals, has done more than 9000 surgeries in 12 years. He is one of the best bariatric surgeons in Hyderabad and an expert in performing various Bariatric surgical procedures like gastric bypass surgery, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. He has attended several conferences and published articles on bariatric surgery in various national and international journals.
