Loose Skin After Weight Loss? Learn About Our Surgery-Free Skin-Tightening Treatment

You’ve finally achieved your weight-loss goal. Congratulations! You’ve taken a major step toward better health and improved self-confidence, too.

While shedding those extra pounds is certainly a reason to celebrate, many people find that losing a significant amount of weight also comes with an unexpected (and unwanted) surprise: loose, sagging skin. Fortunately, our team at Luminary Dermatology offers a solution through the noninvasive, state-of-the-art SkinTyte® system. Here’s how it works.

Weight loss and sagging skin

To understand how SkinTyte works, you need to know why skin sags after major weight loss. The answer has to do with your skin’s underlying structure, specifically two key proteins called collagen and elastin that help your skin grow and adapt as your body contours change.

Collagen and elastin help skin stay smooth, firm, elastic, and resilient. When we’re young, our skin produces plenty of collagen and elastin, in part to help skin grow and expand as our bodies grow. As we get older, collagen and elastin production slows down, making it harder for skin to adapt as readily to changes in body size.

When you gain weight, your skin stretches to make room for fatty tissue. Too much stretching actually damages collagen and elastin fibers, causing them to become thinner and weaker. As a result, it’s much harder for your skin to “snap back” once you shed those pounds, particularly after a significant weight loss and major changes in your contours. (The same effect can occur following pregnancy.)

Get rid of the flab

For a long time, surgery was the only solution for flabby, sagging skin following weight loss. While surgery can be effective, it’s also invasive, which means it involves more substantial risks. You also need to plan for recovery time and be prepared for scars. Fortunately, SkinTyte offers a noninvasive option to help eliminate flab and tone up loose, sagging skin. 

SkinTyte uses infrared light energy to penetrate skin without incisions and without any need for anesthesia. Once those energy rays reach deeper layers of tissue, they trigger natural healing responses, including increases in collagen and elastin production.

SkinTyte can be a great choice for tightening up flabby skin in multiple areas, including common trouble spots like your belly, flanks, inner thighs, and arms. It’s also ideal for tightening up a sagging jawline.

SkinTyte treatment: What to expect

SkinTyte is completely noninvasive, and there’s no need for anesthesia. If your skin is very sensitive or you're nervous about your treatment, we can apply a topical anesthetic to numb your skin first. 

During treatment, we move the special handheld applicator over your skin’s surface, allowing the infrared energy to penetrate to the deeper layers of your skin. It’s common to feel some warmth during treatment, but the applicator is designed to keep your skin protected and comfortable.

Afterward, you might have some mild swelling or redness for a few hours, but there are no activity restrictions, so you can go back to your regular routine. You’ll need to take extra care to protect your skin from exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays, so wearing sunscreen or protective clothing is a must during healing.

SkinTyte’s heat energy helps tighten collagen fibers right away, but you can expect to see your final results within four months as new collagen and elastin fibers form a supportive network for your skin. Most people achieve maximum benefits with 4-6 treatments followed by touch-up treatments every couple of years.

Celebrate your weight loss with smoother, firmer skin

Don’t let sagging skin take away from your weight-loss success. To learn more about SkinTyte and how it can help your skin look its best following weight loss, book an appointment online or over the phone. Contact our team at Luminary Dermatology today at one of our offices in Arcadia, Miami, Bradenton, Homestead, Sarasota, Venice, Longboat Key, and Northport, Florida.