So you just had your baby and you’re anxious to get your pre-pregnancy body back. But when you look in the mirror, you still see folds of skin on your belly, waist, and upper arms. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Loose skin after pregnancy is a challenge that many new moms face.
Why Do I Still Look Pregnant?
You might be surprised at the look of your stomach after birth. Even though the baby is gone, you may still have a rounded midsection–your tummy will look smaller than before, but you could still look like you’re several months pregnant.
Some women will also have a dark line down their abdomen. This is called a linea nigra. You’re also likely to see stretch marks along your abdomen, caused by the extensive stretching of your skin during pregnancy.
Nine months of stretching is a long time. So it’ll take a long time for your body–especially your belly–to fully recover.
Birth triggers the hormone changes that will cause your uterus to contract to its normal size. But this process can take six to eight weeks.
In addition, all the extra fluids in your body that accumulated during pregnancy will be eliminated through the body in a few weeks' time.
But this can still leave a stubborn excess of abdominal fat around your middle–that doesn’t always go away over time. While stretch marks can fade, fat isn’t as easy to get rid of.
What Causes Belly Fat?
A lot of your belly fat can be blamed on your recent pregnancy. But not everybody experiences pregnancy in the same way–and there might be other reasons for the padding around your midsection.
Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Genetics
Some people genetically carry more belly fat than others. This is due to traits passed down from your parents. It can also just be a part of your biological makeup, and it’s how your body functions normally.
Hormones
Hormones are the main driving factor behind changes to your body during pregnancy. Some hormones have a greater influence on weight gain and the way you store fat.
For women, in particular, a rise in estrogen levels during pregnancy can lead you to gain more weight on your belly, breasts, and thighs. This primes the body for breastfeeding and keeps the baby safe during pregnancy.
Another way that hormones can lead to weight gain is through stress. The stress release hormone called cortisol is elevated during high-pressure situations. Over time, this can lead you to store more fat.
Abdominal Separation
In two-thirds of pregnancies, an issue can arise called abdominal separation. This involves the separation of the abdominal muscles in the middle of the stomach.
It’s more likely to occur with older mothers. But for any woman who experiences abdominal separation, it can lead to a bulge on your midsection.
10 Ways To Tighten Loose Skin After Pregnancy
Eventually, your body will work to revitalize itself, but there are steps you can take to speed up the recovery process. To help you achieve a speedy recovery, we’ve created a guide detailing the 10 best ways to restore, rejuvenate, and tighten loose skin after pregnancy so you can get back to your pre-baby body in no time.
1) Prevent Stretch Marks While You’re Pregnant
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s certainly true when it comes to rejuvenating loose skin after pregnancy. Following the same steps that will help you prevent stretch marks during the first nine months of your pregnancy will go a long way toward keeping your skin tight after your baby is born.
2) Eat Healthy To Improve Skin Elasticity
Your skin gets the nutrients it needs to maintain its elasticity from the foods you eat. Unfortunately for your skin, it’s one of the last organs to receive vitamins and minerals. If you don’t get enough nutrients, your skin will become deprived of what it needs to stay soft and resilient.
To promote elasticity and tighten loose skin after pregnancy, eat a healthy diet including plenty of fruits, vegetables, fats, and lean protein. The vitamins and minerals in a well-balanced diet will contribute to the flexibility and health of your skin. This flexibility can help your skin return to normal after your baby is born.
Fruits and vegetables like broccoli, strawberries, and spinach provide vitamins C and A along with other healthy nutrients and minerals. Vitamin C is essential for collagen production which gives your skin its firmness. Vitamin A acts as a humectant, drawing water to the surface where the moisture helps your skin remain supple.
Healthy fats like sunflower seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts contribute vitamin E and other antioxidants that work to eradicate toxins and free radicals. Lean protein like fish, chicken, and turkey supplies your body with vitamin D, which contributes to your skin’s ability to stretch.
3) Lose Weight Slowly
After your baby is born, you may be super excited to lose the weight you’ve gained over the past nine months. Keep in mind, though, that losing weight too quickly can make the problem of loose skin even worse.
If you shed weight too fast, you will lose both fat and muscle. Losing muscle robs your body of its ability to maintain a tight, toned shape. Less muscle also reduces your metabolism and makes it more difficult to lose weight further down the road.
To maintain muscle tone while losing weight, we suggest incorporating weight training into your exercise routine. Don’t worry, you won’t bulk up like the boys do. For women, weight training has more of a tightening effect.
Whether you do cardio, weight training, or both, aim to lose one to two pounds per week. That rate of weight loss makes for a much healthier body and is sustainable over the long term. It may not seem like much at first, but it will add up over time.
4) Treat Stretch Marks After Pregnancy
If you’ve worked to prevent stretch marks during your pregnancy, you’re well-prepared to combat loose skin postpartum. That said, you may still have to deal with small lines and skin discolorations after your baby is born.
Don’t get disheartened, though. All the work that you put into preventing stretch marks while you were pregnant will make your recovery a lot easier.
In the months after your baby is born, your hormones will change again like they did when you first got pregnant. The chemistry in your skin will change too. Because of these changes, what worked for you while you were pregnant might not work after you give birth.
5) Stay Hydrated
Tightening loose skin after pregnancy is all about promoting and maintaining elasticity. That elasticity depends, in large part, on staying hydrated. And the only way to stay hydrated properly is to drink at least eight cups of water every day.
In addition to keeping your skin elastic, drinking water helps your body burn calories and reduces water retention in your abdomen. All these things together can make the appearance of loose skin less noticeable.
You can also help keep your skin hydrated by applying a product containing natural ingredients like glycerin and ceramides moisturize dry skin, reinforce your skin’s elasticity, and leave skin looking and feeling younger. The hydration also contributes to your body’s natural ability to restore and tighten loose skin.
That’s why we recommend you tighten loose skin after pregnancy from both the inside and outside by drinking plenty of water and applying a moisturizing balm every day.
6) Apply A Skin-Firming Product Every Day
The firmness of your skin depends, in large part, on the underlying muscle. The muscle provides support and works to pull the skin tight. That’s why it’s so important to strengthen those muscles with exercise.
But you can also increase skin tone by working from the outside in. The best way to do this is to apply skin-firming products.
For example, centella asiatica increases tone and improves the firmness of loose skin. Peptides promote elasticity and relieve tightness caused by stretching. Sophora japonica helps to visibly remodel body contours after childbirth.
We recommend massaging the firming gel or serum into your stomach, hips, thighs, and bust twice a day. Do this for one month to help rejuvenate and tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
7) Breastfeed Your Baby
Breastfeeding benefits both you and your baby. Breast milk is an extremely healthy source of nutrition for newborns. It helps them grow physically and mentally and keeps their immune system functioning at 100%.
Breastfeeding your little one also helps you lose weight and tighten loose skin after pregnancy. When you breastfeed, your body uses a larger portion of the calories you consume every day to make milk. As a result, your body stores fewer calories as fat and may even dip into your existing body fat to keep milk production up.
That’s great news for new moms because it means that you can lose weight faster and tighten loose skin after pregnancy just by doing what comes naturally.
8) Exfoliate Your Skin
Exfoliating is the process of removing dead cells from the surface of your skin. This promotes new skin growth, which is, by nature, healthier and tighter than old surface skin. Exfoliating also improves blood circulation to the surface layers of your skin, which increases skin regeneration and promotes elasticity. All of these benefits help to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
You may already exfoliate your face and neck as part of your daily skincare routine. But the easiest way to exfoliate loose skin is to grab a loofah or bath brush during your shower and give a bit of extra attention to your belly and thighs.
You can also dry-brush loose skin before your shower when your skin is firmer, but be gentle or you may actually damage the skin you’re trying to heal.
9) Maintain The Healthy State Of Mind
It’s definitely frustrating when you’re trying to tighten loose skin after pregnancy and results don’t come as quickly as you’d like. But don’t give up. Stay calm and maintain a healthy state of mind. You’ll get there eventually.
Here are some tips for finding your best mental state:
- Remind yourself to be patient — your body just went through a significant trauma
- Practice deep breathing when you feel yourself getting frustrated
- Listen to your favorite music
- Enjoy the outdoors as much as you can
- Play with your baby
- Focus on making your newborn as happy and as comfortable as possible
- Nap when your baby naps so you don’t exhaust yourself
- Meditate
Prioritizing your mental and emotional well-being will contribute to all of the physical work necessary to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
10) Try Skin Wraps
If you need a quick fix for a special occasion, try a skin wrap at your local spa. Skin wraps contain ingredients like:
- Powdered kelp
- Sea salt
- Clay
- Nourishing oils
- Algae
- Minerals
These spa treatments also detoxify your skin and help you relax and reduce stress. But they are only temporary — they aren’t a permanent way to tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
Get Into A Routine
After your newborn arrives, the bulk of your time will be devoted to them. But you can still find a few minutes here and there for yourself. Use that time to create a skincare routine from the tips on this list to help you tighten loose skin after pregnancy.
Soon you’ll feel great and your body will be back into the shape you love.
Source: Mustela USA