There are lots of myths floating around about Stretch marks, Loose Skin & Gyno (Gynecomastia). I'm going to explain proper ways to either make these "blemishes" melt away, fade or become completely un-noticeable - either through surgery or by techniques done daily.
I know that you lost a lot of weight and you want to show off your new body, but you have a few "hang ups". Surgery should not be the only option. I personally lost over 100lbs. I did this over a period of one year.
When I got to a sub 10% body fat I didn't have any loose skin. However, I did have stretch marks. Below I will explain what I did to make these become less noticeable.
While growing up I had "man boobs" (a lot of people who are overweight have this). I'm not ashamed of it. I took the right supplements while building my chest muscles to develop them. In this article I will tell you the right products to use and help you gain more confidence about your body!
Stretch Marks
The only true way to really prevent stretch marks is to lose or gain weight slowly. These lines start out red and then evolve to a white depressed scar with a different advancement than adjacent tissue.
They are caused by breaking of collagen which then heals with a scar.
You don't have to be pregnant, fat, or big to get them. As a matter of fact, it is a very common skin condition, but most people who have them are embarrassed by them and keep them to themselves - some people have good genetics and some don't when it comes to skin elasticity.
Tips To Reduce Stretch Marks
The following tips may help you reduce their appearance. Surgery is always a last resort - following these tips could possibly give you results, but it does take time. Remember secrets to achieve success are found in your daily routine.
- Massage cocoa butter into the stretch marks - or a cream such as Barmon Stretchmark Cream with Cocoa butter as one of the ingredients.
- Exfoliate your skin with a loofah or skin brush when you shower to stimulate circulation. Doing this removes the dull skin and the dead cells in the scars that show as stretch marks.
- Massage Vitamin E oil or cream on your stretch marks. Rub it into your skin after a shower. Products such as Rejuvine includes Vitamin E as one of their ingredients.
- Speak to your doctor about prescribing to tretinoin cream (Retin-A).
What Is Tretinoin?
Tretinoin is used to treat acne and aged, sun damaged skin. A study in the Archives of Dermatology, May 1996, shows that 0.1% tretinoin significantly improves the appearance of early stretch marks. Tretinoin works best on stretch marks that are new or enlarging.
- Eat foods high in vitamins A, E, C. Also use supplements in addition to your diet that supplies you with these vitamins. These vitamins help form collagen - the supporting fibers in the skin.
- Zinc - Eat foods high in this or use a supplement such as ZMA. This vitamin helps form collagen - the supporting fibers in the skin.
- EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids), help make cell walls. Essential fatty acids can be found in many vegetables, vegetable oils and fish oils. If you don't regularly eat these try supplementing your diet with them.
- Drink lots of water! Make sure that you keep your skin hydrated!
- Laser Surgery has shown to be useful in reducing the appearance of stretch marks. They seem to work best on stretch marks that are still fairly new and are red or purple in color.
Loose Skin
When someone are overweight, the skin stretches to accommodate the increased volume of weight. After weight loss, the skin sometimes fails to tighten back, and becomes loose, hangs or sags. It often acts as a reminder of the weight you once had.
Unfortunately, this may be difficult if not impossible to remove through normal exercise or dieting. If you are young enough, the loose skin may regain some of it's elasticity. If you are older (and overweight for a long time prior to losing weight) the loose skin is likely to remain.
Skin Care
Start by exfoliating your skin daily in the shower. The outer layer of your skin is made up of old, dried, dead cells. Your skin is a pretty low-maintenance and takes care of the removal of dead skin cells all on its own. But, when you get a little older this process of natural exfoliation begins to slow down.
Exfoliating will help the skins circulation and the balance of skin growth. Then apply a cream such as Thiomuplex Cream to tighten the skin.
How much your skin will tighten depends on your age, length of time the skin was stretched and how much it was stretched, how much weight you lost (and to some degree how fast you lost it), the amount of elastin in your skin, and genetics.
Ingredients To Look For
Yeast Extract, Aloe Vera Extract and Soy Protein. These tighten the skin, induces collagen and elastin production and reinforces the natural skin defense system. Hyaluronic acid restores water to aged skin and is naturally found in our skin and depleted over time.
It Takes Time
The loose skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. Over time the skin gradually tightens up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss is maintained and exercise continued.
This should not be a problem if you make this a lifestyle and not a diet.
Change Body Composition
This means working on the ratio of your body fat to lean body mass. You should gain muscle to replace some of those lost pounds while preventing loss of lean body mass when dieting - This will dramatically improve loose skin from appearing. Also, loose skin is one thing, but still having body fat is another.
This is important to getting tighter skin. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skin fold calipers or a variety of other devices or procedures.
Calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Last but not least, only after you reach your ultimate body fat percentage goal, you should give thought to surgery.
CONGRATULATIONS Cameraobscura on losing more weight! Good job 
with you...you will be losing that weight in no time
? I'm sure your fiance would appreciate it, and it would help to burn off some calories!
but I just went into a Lane Bryant store on my way home from work. And guess what everybody....as suspected I am no longer a size 24. I am now a size 22
