Don’t Fret!
There Is Something You Can Do About it.
Today we’re going to talk about how to tighten face skin, in general as we get older, and especially after weight loss.
This article is leaning towards firming facial skin after losing quite a large amount of weight, but of course everything I’ve written here equally applies to those of you who want to tighten your face skin even though you don’t need to lose any weight.
The principals are the same for both.
Being Overweight
When you’re overweight most of the unwanted fat will be stored in your body, mainly your stomach, hips buttocks and thighs. However, there is normally a small proportion of that fat which will be stored in your face.
And because of this, your face isn’t too wrinkly or sagging because the fat is pushing the skin to the limits and therefore hiding the saggyness of your true natural skin.
I know that this might be a hard read for some, but it’s the truth.
The truth:
If you’re overweight, your face tends to look younger because the fat is stretching your skin and hiding the normal and natural middle-aged developments of your skin and facial muscles.
Ouch!
But, we still need to lose weight for health and vanity reasons.
And the consequence of this is that we’ll also lose weight in our face which will reveal saggy cheeks and droopy jowls.
This isn’t a great side-effect of us losing weight now is it?
And I think that sub-consciously it puts some people off from actually losing weight because they’ll be faced with this problem.
“Do I want to be thinner or look older?“
Like it’s a choice between the two.
This should’t have to be so, should it?
And yes, I’m facing this exact scenario as I type this; so I’m speaking from a current understanding and experiencing a little anxiety as I’ve already started my weight loss journey.
I’m just hoping my sub-conscious mind doesn’t sabotage my weight loss efforts because it knows that I’ll probably look a little older than I do now.
However, don’t fret too much as I’ve found a solution for us.
But first, let’s understand what’s going on with our skin:
- What exactly is skin elasticity.
- What happens when our skin is stretched.
- Facial skin and facial muscles explained.
- What happens when you lose weight.
Then once you understand how and why your face will sag a little when you lose weight, we’ll take a look at three essential ways to combat this from happening.
So let’s get started.
Skin and Elasticity
Skin elasticity is when the skin is able to ‘snap’ back into it’s original place if it’s been pulled.
This is allowed to happen with the enormous amount of help from collagen.
Collagen is a fibrious protein and it is essential as it’s the building block for bones, skin, hair and nails.
Related Reading:
Collagen Peptides and 15 Natural Collagen Foods To Give Your Skin a Boost
However when we get older our skin starts losing it’s elasticity because as we age the production of collagen slows down. This is one of the major reasons how we get wrinkles and sagging skin, especially on our face.
Stretching of the Skin
When you’re overweight your skin will undoubtedly stretch to accommodate the additional fat you’ve put on.
Since we’re just talking about our face skin here, this fat will lie between the facial muscles and our skin. But the good news is that only a little bit of weight goes onto your face as compared to your tummy, hips, thighs and buttocks.
So yes, if you’re overweight you will have additional layers of fat getting in the way of your facial muscles and skin.
Why does this fat get in the way and what does it mean?
Your Facial Skin & Face Muscles
Your face skin has a connection to your facial muscles.
You know this because when you make any kind of facial expression your face changes.
- When you smile, this is your cheek muscles in action.
- When you frown, this is your forehead muscles in action.
- When you laugh, this uses your outer-eye muscles (crows feet)
Your Facial Muscles
Alongside our collagen production declining and our skin being stretched, in middle years our facial muscles start to deteriorate and lose tone too.
This means that they are not as effective as they used to be.
This is when you begin to see expression lines.
- The cheek bones lose tone leaving us with nasolabial folds.
- When you frown, you can see brow frown lines.
- When you laugh, you can see crows feet around your eyes.
But don’t worry, all is not lost.
This can be repaired by exercising these facial muscles.
What Happens When You Lose Weight?
There’s not one specific answer to this because it depends on:
- How overweight you are.
- How much of your weight in on your face.
- How much weight you want to lose or have lost.
But if you’re in your middle years, your skin elasticity is reducing anyway and so when you do lose facial weight, your skin in not going to snap back to its original position as it would if you were in your twenties.
The connection between your skin and facial muscles is not going to be as effective because of the loss of tone of these muscles.
As I said above at the beginning of this blog post, you have to wonder whether some people unconsciously avoid losing weight because the stretching of the skin to some degree hides the effects of aging; wrinkles, sagging and sallowness. And if they lose weight then their true face wrinkles and sagging skin will be revealed.
So if you’re in your 40s or 50s and you just cannot seem to stick to a diet long enough to lose weight, do you think it might be your subconscious mind telling you not to lose weight as you’ll look older?
It’s worth thinking about.
Also, don’t forget about the reduction in collagen when you get older too.
Three Steps To Take
So there we are. What are we left with?
- Our collagen production is reduced and therefore our skin will not snap back into position.
- Our facial muscles are starting to lose their tone and not be as effective.
- When you’re overweight the extra fat is stretching our skin.
So what’s a girl to do?
Not get depressed or disheartened.
Do these three things…
1) Do Facial Exercises
As early on as you can in your weight loss journey, start doing facial exercises.
As you start to lose weight you will then already be putting ‘corrections’ in place by exercising your facial muscles. When you exercise and strengthen your facial muscles, this then lifts up your sagging skin because the skin and face muscles are connected in a variety of ways.
It’s similar to the advice given to exercise and strength train when you’re trying to lose a lot of weight. By doing this, you’re skin is much less likely to sag in folds because you’re actively tightening and firming your body muscles as you lose weight.
It’s the same with your face and facial muscles.
To learn more about face exercising read my blog post on Face Exercising: A Face Lift Without Surgery. Here I give you a quick overview of exactly what face exercising is and how to get started with free YouTube videos.
Carolyn’s Facial Fitness
If you’re already serious about doing face exercises and getting rid of your sagging cheeks and droopy jowls, then you might want to skip the sporadic free YouTube videos and opt for a robust and streamlined face exercise program.
This facial exercise program is by Carolyn Cleaves who is now an amazing and very youthful 72 year old. I bought her DVD set way back in about 2012 and I can vouch that they are great quality and very effective.
Although you can still get them on DVD, Carolyn also now has the option of accessing them via digital download.
Read more about Carolyn’s Facial Fitness and be sure to check out her and her students’ before and after photo’s.
Carolyn also sells her own unique nourishing skin care products which superbly compliment face exercising. You can view all of Carolyn’s products in her shop.
2) Take Collagen Peptide Supplements
Now we’ll move onto the second most effective way to try and keep our skin youthful- collagen.
If you remember from above, collagen is what gives your skin it’s elasticity which enables it to snap back into position when pulled. Unfortunately as we age, the production of collagen becomes very slow.
The solution…
Introducing collagen peptide supplements.
These collagen peptides (which can be purchased very reasonably from Amazon) come in a matcha green tea blend. This means you can literally drink your collagen peptides in yummy green smoothies, as green tea itself or putting it in a bullet proof coffee.
As I said, this particular collagen peptide supplement is from Amazon so you can read all of the 21K positive reviews (yes, 21,000+) and see some of the before and after photos taken from happy customers.
Check the price of this amazing collagen peptide matcha green tea here.
3) Eat Collagen-Rich Foods
And last but not least, a free collagen boost.
Well, it’s not totally free because it’s still buying food, but you have to buy food anyway so you may-as-well buy collagen rich foods!
I’ve wrote a whole blog post on this where I outline which foods to include in your weekly shopping list.
Go read it here 15 Natural Collagen Foods To Keep You Looking Young and Fresh.
Well that’s it my friend, I hope you found this blog post helpful and a little insightful in learning how to tighten your face especially after weight loss.
Good luck!
