Valecia is licensed through the state of Texas as a therapeutic massage therapist who specializes in providing on-site chair massage for corporations and events. She is also a certified personal trainer with NESTA, as well as a licensed ZUMBA instructor.
Have you ever waved at an acquaintance across the room and your skin between your elbow and shoulder kept “jiggling” still jestering a wave more than your hand? I refer to that as the “second hand”. A common question for someone who has lost a lot of weight is, “what do I do with the excess skin?” Ladies, when we lose weight too swiftly, it’s inevitable that there will be excess skin that will need to be firmed up. There are a number of ways to deal with the unwanted sagging skin. One is losing excess adipose (fat) tissue and another is hydrating your skin by drinking more water, which will encourage the elasticity to return to adapt to your new body. Now, there are a couple of factors that can prevent this from happening. If a person is older or carried the weight for an extended period of time, it may be pretty difficult to firm up the excess skin…but not impossible.
Let’s take a look at some steps that can be taken to help us firm up that “second hand” and other areas where our skin just does not want to cooperate.
- Find a fitness trainer in your area. Begin a regimen to help firm up and build more muscle. Not only will building muscle help burn fat, but it will also help fill in the excess sagging skin.
- Reduce your body fat. Skin is a living organism and is organic. Our skin usually adapts to the environment. In other words, it “takes the hand that it is given”. Very often excess skin will be just covering excess body fat. Try to do exercises that will help burn the fat underneath the skin and the skin usually will adapt. So, even if you have lost a lot of weight, you may need to lose a little more to eliminate your loose skin.
- Hydrate your skin by drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. Just like a plant perks up when it is watered, so does your skin. Your skin responds better when it is well hydrated.
- Take your time with your weight loss program. Be consistent, but be sure not to lose weight too fast. Ladies, you have to give your skin time to adapt to the loss of being filled with something…in most cases FAT. Healthy weight loss is no more than 3 pounds a week. When you lose it too quickly, you body tends to not only regain the weight just as fast, but also leaves your skin sagging more than would be desired.
Think of how long it took your body to reach your highest weight. It didn’t happen overnight, so you can’t really expect your skin to become taut in such a short space of time. We are at the height of summer and, naturally, showing the most skin we will all year long. Taking care of your skin should be your number one priority.