Top 6 Sure Shot Tips To Tighten Your Skin 

During nine months of pregnancy, the skin, particularly the abdominal skin, has been stretched to the limit. After delivery, this skin area can hardly return to its previous elasticity, causing it to sag and lose its aesthetics. Hence, new moms after birth are often curious about how to recover the skin after giving birth the fastest, especially the postpartum belly skin recovery.

Pregnancy can bring many changes to your skin, which may fade away after giving birth, but sometimes leave saggy skin. Since skin comprises collagen and elastin, it stretches with weight gain. The skin, once stretched, can be difficult to return to its original shape. The skin stretches to accommodate a growing bump after pregnancy. Depending on many factors, such as women's weight, age and genetics, determine how quickly the skin can return to normal after giving birth. Loose skin can be emotionally frustrating for women who want to snap back to a pre-pregnancy belly. It takes a lot of time, but it can be done.

Top 6 Tips To Tighten Your Skin

• Eat healthily

The journey to toned skin starts with what's on your plate since eating healthily plays an important role in the overall health of your skin. So, how does consuming a balanced diet help to tighten loose skin after pregnancy? So, here are some ways you can eat to firm and tone your skin. The supporting structure of the skin is elastin and collagen. While elastin makes your skin right, collagen firms your skin. The proportion of stretching the skin undergoes during pregnancy may be overwhelming for these two components. The outcome of this is loose skin with stretch marks. Your skin requires some essential nutrients to maintain its elasticity and firmness. These nutrients help to improve the skin's collagen and elastin levels and help your skin to stay soft and resilient.

A balanced diet of vegetables, fruits, fats, and lean proteins will help restore, tighten and facilitate your skin's elasticity. Until you wean the baby off, restrictive dieting is not recommended. In addition to that, make sure to consume foods that will not hinder your milk production. Stay off caffeine and carbonated drinks and consume other foods in moderation. Some essential nutrients to boost elasticity and firmness are as follows:

Omega 3 fatty acids

Salmon, tuna, and mackerel are good sources of omega 3 fatty acids, and they help battle inflammation and protect your collagen. Plant-based sources of omega-3 fatty acids comprise flax seeds, chia seeds, and soybeans.

Vitamins

They are very good for your skin since they are filled with various nutrients. Vitamin C facilitates the synthesis of collagen and shields it from UV rays. A derivative of vitamin A, retinol is highly essential to your skin. In addition to increasing cell turnover, it stimulates collagen and elastin production. You can get vitamin A from various sources such as beef, dairy products, liver and eggs. Vitamin B5 stimulates your skin's elasticity. Since this vitamin is a humectant, it preserves the moisture of your skin and helps boost elasticity. Vitamin B2 helps to promote the structural integrity of the skin by promoting cell turnover and collagen maintenance. B complex-rich foods include spinach, dairy products, beef, mushrooms, cereals and bread.

Protein

Since protein and collagen are protein components, it makes sense to include protein in your diet. A high protein level in your skin will give you a toned and firm appearance. Food such as poultry, fish, dairy products, nuts, tofu, legumes and beans are good sources of lean protein.

• Exercise

Your loose skin will not vanish into thin air even with a healthy diet. You have to supplement with exercise along with a proper diet. As a new mom, if you haven't settled into a routine with your baby, exercising can be a challenging task. Also, your body may not have healed adequately to do most exercises. However, there are still exercises you can do to support toning your body. But don't rush to lose weight. The goal is to lose weight gradually, giving your body enough time to adjust accordingly and build muscle. While rapidly losing weight may worsen your problem of losing skin, it will also cause you to lose both weight and muscle. Without muscle, it is impossible to have a toned, tight and well-shaped form. Exercise also promotes blood circulation, which enhances oxygen supply to the tissues and also helps to stimulate elastin and collagen formation. Your exercise routine should be as follows, depending on when you gave birth.

Cardio exercises:

These exercises burn off excess fat by toning your abdominal muscles. Before starting any form of exercise, consult with your doctor. Start with simple non-strenuous workouts after the doctor has permitted you. Moreover, schedule your exercise sessions according to your baby's routine. A simple stroll around the neighbourhood would suffice for cardio. You can take your baby along for a stroll. As your body heals adequately, you can start going on long walks or jogging. You can also try swimming as it can help to tone your entire body. However, your exercise should not interfere with your comfort or breastmilk supply. Avoid high-impact exercises like jumping jacks since jumping up and down with breasts full of milk is not comfortable. Ensure to feed your baby or pump some milk before any exercise session, depending on the time of the day and your baby's routine.

Strength training exercises:

While lifting weights can grow and tone your muscles, it can also tighten your skin. Starting with your body weight, you can use it to create resistance. Some good examples are crunches and leg raises. Include some weights as you progress in your training, such as kettlebells. To help your body adjust, start with the lightest before moving to the heaviest. Go for sit-ups and pushups if you want to tighten loose skin after pregnancy, specifically the skin on your belly. Try yoga and pilates if you want to tighten and tone your gluteal muscles, core and hips. Planks will also help to tone your body in the long run.

• Exfoliate your skin

A good and consistent skincare routine can help to fix loose skin after pregnancy. Exfoliating your skin is one way to do it. It removes dead and old skin and promotes the growth of new skin, which is tighter and healthier. In addition, exfoliation also boosts circulation, which promotes skin elasticity. It also evens skin tone; since the skin around the belly tends to darken because of too much stretching, it also helps restore the skin's original colour. You can use a homemade body scrub to exfoliate. You can mix sea salt and lemon in a 50/50 ratio and gently massage this mixture on your belly. You can also use a loofah to exfoliate your skin. Pay extra attention to the loose skin around the tummy while taking a bath or shower. Gently scrub with loofah along with body wash and conditioner.

Use a skin-firming product daily.

The firmness of the skin depends on the underlying muscle. Hence, strengthening and toning these muscles with a healthy diet and exercise is essential. To help tone your skin, you can still work from outside. Skin-firming lotions and creams are one way to do this. These products contain natural ingredients that help increase the skin's tone and firmness. Some products also contain peptides, which can help reduce tightness caused by stretching and promote elasticity. Some products also help to remodel your body contours after childbirth as well.

Massage with skin oils

A wonderful massage with oils will do you a lot of good. Castor oil could be used to massage as it has strong emollient properties due to higher concentrations of fatty acids. It also promotes collagen and improves the elasticity of the skin. All you need to do is warm a small portion of castor oil on your palms and gently massage your belly.

Another miracle worker is olive oil, used to massage the belly or any other body part with loose skin. As it contains vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, this oil is a powerful antioxidant. It enables you to seal the moisture in your skin cells and strengthen muscle tissue to tighten the skin. You can also use grape seed oil to massage your belly to get rid of loose skin. It is used consistently over time since it is a carrier oil that helps tighten your skin. It also contains healthy fats and vitamin E, which help to hydrate the skin and boost collagen production. These are essential for your skin's overall health.

• Be positive about the body changes.

Accept your new body and appreciate it for the amazing work of pregnancy and delivery before you start looking for remedies for loose skin after pregnancy. While your body is going through normal changes, you can get back your pre-pregnancy belly with consistency, discipline and hard work. Keep a healthy mind even as you look for solutions to help tighten loose skin after pregnancy. Don't panic, be patient if the changes you expect don't show within a certain period, and keep up with a balanced diet and exercise.

A few tips to help you stay positive about your body changes are as follows:

1. Keep yourself engaged by taking up an activity such as gardening.
2. Play with your baby as often as possible, and try to make them comfortable.
3. As you practice deep breathing, try meditating.
4. Listen to your favourite music and pursue a hobby.

How Long Does It Take To Tighten Loose Skin After Pregnancy?

It is not an overnight process to tighten loose skin after pregnancy. However, you will have to be patient to see any results. The speed of transition and degree of transition depends on various factors such as genes, bone structure, size of your pre-pregnancy belly, level of physical activity during pregnancy and amount of weight gained during and after pregnancy.

Despite eating well and exercising, you may be unable to tighten and tone the loose skin completely. Don't lose hope, and remember being healthy and happy is more important. Your baby's health is also important, so even as you plan to go on a restrictive diet or start exercising, make sure that your baby's needs are met.

What are stretch marks, and how to prevent them?

Stretch marks are streaky indentations in the skin which can be pink, red, purple or brown, depending on an individual's skin colour. They are not exclusive to pregnancy; many women and men can develop these markings when the skin stretches rapidly. Stretch marks can occur on your stomach, breasts, hips, thighs and upper legs, arms and buttocks during pregnancy. They may change colours when they fade, appearing whitish or silver which may also darken some time.

Stretch marks result from the body expanding faster than your skin can keep up with. Keeping your skin moisturised and hydrated could help it. The more supple your skin is, the less chance stretch marks appear. However, no oil will help to get rid of stretch marks, but applying oil to your skin can supplement the natural lipid barrier, which helps the skin to retain its moisture. While body oils may not do wonders for stretch marks, they will help to maintain overall skin health. There are a few treatments to consider for stretch marks.

• Stretch marks creams and oil

Although these products can not prevent the formation of stretch marks, they can reduce the appearance of these marks after pregnancy. They have ingredients such as retinoids from vitamin A, which help boost collagen production on the skin's surface and reduce the appearance of stretch marks.

• Light and laser therapy

These therapies help to boost collagen production and improve the elasticity of the skin.

• Microneedling and microdermabrasion

These treatments promote collagen growth, which can help reduce stretch marks by blending them into the surrounding skin.

Summary

Pregnancy changes your body; sometimes, dealing with these changes can be difficult as it takes a toll on your psychological well-being. There are a lot of natural remedies that can help to tighten your skin safely and healthily if you feel so self-conscious.

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