How Does Losing or Gaining Weight Affect the Skin?

Like many women, I too am a yo-yo dieter. Unfortunately, more ups than downs, but I started working out at a place called CrossFit and after six months, I’m down a bit and planning on staying that way. I don’t own a scale so I don’t know how much I’ve lost, and truly that doesn’t really matter. What matters to me is how my clothes fit and how I feel when I look in the mirror. But one thing I have noticed when I look in the mirror is that I have a few deeper lines in my face that weren’t there previously. With weight loss and weight gain, the skins appearance will be affected, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better…

How does losing weight affect my skin?

When you lose weight, you lose the fat in the skin, which decreases the natural plumpness in the skin. Lines and wrinkles are deeper and more noticeable and the skin is looser, thinner and can start sagging, especially when weight loss occurs over age 40. Losing 10-20 pounds will probably not make a huge difference in the skin’s appearance but anything over that and the skin can definitely appear older. When you watch shows like The Biggest Loser, you can really see the dramatic change in the skin. A lot of people who have experienced extreme weight loss have to have the skin on their body surgically removed since it sags and hangs so much, so this confirms that point.

What can also be made more noticeable is the size of pores. Just like lines and wrinkles, pores are indents in the skin and without fat underneath filling them out, they sink further in the skin making them appear larger and deeper. This also goes for chicken pox scars.

Read: What’s the Best Way to Shrink Large Pores?

How does gaining weight affect my skin?

The opposite of losing weight will occur. When gaining weight, you increase fat cells underneath the skin which gives a natural plumpness to the skin to plump out lines, wrinkles and pores. Generally people who carry extra pounds will look younger. Keep in mind people pay thousands of dollars to get fat injections in their skin to do exactly what high-calorie and high-fat foods will do. (I’ll take eating hot fudge sundaes any day, thank you! Oh oops, I forgot my hips and thighs will get bigger too.)

How do frequent weight fluctuations affect my skin?

For those like me, who are up and down, it does have a negative effect on the skin which relates specifically to elasticity of the skin. Similar to a rubber band, when the skin is stretched out regularly, it will bounce back, but  as you get older, the elasticity weakens. So the idea of expanding, constricting, expanding, and constricting the skin over and over will take its toll on your skin’s elasticity which will encourage looser, less-firm skin. This is often most apparent for jowls, which will become worse with frequent weight fluctuations.

A lot of my celebrity clients work very hard to maintain a very thin weight which allows them to look amazing on the red carpet, but especially for those over 50, a few extra pounds could do wonders to an aging women’s face.

Read: An A-Z Guide to Anti-Aging

The goal of any person should be to keep as close to the same weight as possible, and a healthy one as recommended by your doctor. And when the skin starts to change, using good quality skin care products and professional skin treatments that address your skins needs will help greatly.

Read: Skin Care Tips for the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Read: Are You Aging More Like Your Mother or Father?

Read: What’s Your Skin Type?

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Information courtesy of www.ReneeRouleau.com, a website with skin care tips, products based on nine skin types and advice from skin care expert and celebrity esthetician, Renée Rouleau.