How Being Obese Can Keep Hurting You Even After You've Lost The Fat
Nobody wants to experience the negative side effects of living that come with being obese. From difficulty getting around to the impact it has on your appearance and figure, it can be embarrassing or downright humiliating to get to this point. So if you've put in the time and energy into losing the weight, you deserve to be applauded. However, your problems may not yet come to an end just by getting rid of the excess fat. Here's what could be a danger to your health.
The Impact of Being Obese on the Skin
As you likely already know, carrying an excess amount of weight has a tremendous impact on the skin. While the body is capable of building new, healthy skin cells, oftentimes when people gain a large amount of weight they do so before the body can keep up with new skin. This causes microtears in the skin, which are essentially small scars, also known as stretch marks.
Once a large amount of weight is lost, some of the excess skin is reabsorbed by the body, and some tightening of the skin appears as a result. However, these damaged portions of skin can't be removed or restored. As a result, most people who lose a large amount of weight experience saggy, hanging skin afterwards, particularly in the abdominal region.
When the Fat Goes Away
It's great for your health to have lost the weight, but if you're still carrying a large amount of loose skin, it can still spell problems for you.
An excess of skin in the abdominal region can cause something called an abdominal apron. This is where the skin that used to hold a lot of belly fat hangs down over the abdomen, and oftentimes the pelvis or even lower depending on the quantity of weight lost.
This is obviously an aesthetic issue, and many people hate seeing their body look like this after putting in the work. However, that's not the biggest problem there. An excess of hanging skin can put you at risk of developing skin ulcers, infections, and severe sores. This is a constant condition as the skin rubs on itself during your day-to-day activities. Without resolving the issue, many people end up developing extremely dangerous skin infections that can quickly spread and become life-threatening without treatment.
What to Do
The good news is that there's a procedure you can sign up for that will not only restore you aesthetically but will keep this problem from happening, too. That procedure is a tummy tuck.
Tummy tucks are surgical procedures that remove the majority of the loose skin and tighten up what's left behind. Once the excess skin has been cut away, the two ends of the skin are stitched together. In some cases, some muscle tissue will also be removed if it was damaged from the excess weight gain.
Once this procedure is complete, the apron will no longer be there and you won't be at risk of those terrible conditions anymore. Plus, you'll look as great as you feel since losing the weight.