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10 Helpful Tips To Tighten Belly Skin After Pregnancy

10 Helpful Tips To Tighten Belly Skin After Pregnancy

5 Apr 2023 | 7 min Read

Sudeshna Chakravarti

Author | 799 Articles

It is natural for the skin around your belly to appear saggy and loose after pregnancy. While your skin usually shrinks back to its normal state with time, you may look for ways to tighten belly skin after pregnancy and tone your body.

In this post, we have shared some effective tips to help firm your loose skin after pregnancy. These methods are completely natural, and with regular practice, you will begin to notice the original shape of your stomach. Read on to know more about restoring and firming your loose stomach skin post-pregnancy.

Helpful Tips To Tighten Belly Skin After Pregnancy

Eating vitamin-rich foods helps encourage collagen synthesis and promotes skin tightening / Image credit: Freepik

Eat Healthily

Your skin requires essential nutrients to maintain its elasticity. Hence, you need to consume enough nutrients for your skin to remain soft and resilient. Consume a balanced diet filled with vegetables fruits, fats, and lean proteins to tighten your loose skin and promote elasticity.

You can consider adding the following nutrient-rich foods to your diet.

Vitamins A and C: Fruits and veggies, such as spinach, broccoli, and strawberries are rich sources of vitamins A and C. While vitamin A prevents dryness, vitamin C boosts collagen synthesis which keeps your skin firm.
Healthy fats: Sunflower seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts contain healthy fats and antioxidants that keep your complexion healthy and promote skin cell turnover to enhance elasticity.
Beta Carotene-rich foods: Fruits rich in beta carotene, such as blackberries, sweet lime, and oranges promote collagen synthesis, which further helps in tightening your skin. Vegetables such as spinach, carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce are also good sources of beta carotene.
Zinc-rich foods: Chickpeas, mushrooms, pumpkin seeds, and cashews may also help in tightening your skin.
Protein-rich foods: Pulses, eggs, quinoa, and sprouts may help tone your muscles and reduce sagginess.

Exercise To Loose Pregnancy Weight Gradually

Exercising regularly can help strengthen your abdominal muscles and tighten saggy skin. It also helps you lose excess pregnancy weight, tones your stomach muscles, and reshapes your body.

Exercise also promotes blood circulation, which also improves oxygen supply to your tissues, and helps boost elastin and collagen production.

You can consider trying the following exercises to regain skin firmness and lose pregnancy weight gradually.

Strength training exercises: They help tone and strengthen your muscles, which improves your skin’s elasticity. Crunches, cycling, and leg raises are some strength-building exercises you can try.
Cardio exercises: It helps tone your abdominal muscles and burns excess fat. You may try walking, swimming, or jogging. However, make sure to talk to your doctor before starting any of these exercises.

Practice Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises help tone down abdominal muscles and reduce sagginess / Image credit: Freepik

Before you involve yourself in any kind of physical activity or regimen, practice breathing exercises to correct your breathing rate. You can do this by breathing in deeply through your nose and letting the air fill up your lungs. Next, exhale slowly through your mouth to empty your lungs.

The expansion and contraction of your belly through breathing exercises may also help firm saggy skin around your belly and tone down your abdominal muscles.

Stay Hydrated

Maintaining an adequate amount of hydration promotes and maintains your skin’s elasticity. Keep drinking water frequently throughout the day. It helps flush out all the toxins from your body and burns calories, which can make the loose skin around your belly less noticeable.

Breastfeed Your Baby

Breastfeeding benefits both you and your little one. Apart from being your little one’s optimal source of nourishment, breastfeeding can also help you lose weight and tighten your skin after pregnancy.

According to a few studies, when you breastfeed, your body uses a large portion of your daily calorie intake to ensure adequate milk production. As a result, your body stores fewer calories as fat, and may even rely on your existing body fat to boost milk production. This helps you lose pregnancy weight and also firms saggy skin around your body.

Exfoliate Your Skin

Exfoliation encourages the growth of new skin cells that are healthier and tighter as compared to old skin. It also helps improve your blood circulation, which further creates new skin and promotes elasticity. You can use a loofah or a bath brush to scrub your belly and promote skin cell turnover to get rid of loose and saggy skin.

Try Skin Wraps

You can try getting a skin wrap at a spa to add firmness to your complexion. But keep in mind, this practice gives temporary results.

A spa wrap usually contains powdered kelp, sea salt, clay, nourishing oils, and algae. All of these ingredients detoxify your skin and help tighten it.

Go For A Massage To Tighten Belly Skin After Pregnancy

A relaxing massage can help boost blood circulation and encourage skin cell turnover / Image credit: Freepik

A relaxing abdominal massage can help promote your blood circulation. This can promote collagen synthesis and make your skin firmer and more elastic. However, if you’ve had a c-section delivery, make sure to consult your doctor before getting a massage to avoid the risk of infecting your c-section scar.

Keep A Healthy Mind

Do not panic or lose your calm if you are unable to firm your belly skin. It may take a little bit of mind to notice desired changes, and you need a healthy mind to keep you focused on your goal.

Hence, involve yourself in activities that keep you happy and uplift your mood.

Practice meditation and deep breathing
Spend quality time with your little one and partner
Listen to your favourite music
Start journaling to write down your thoughts
Indulge in some outdoor activities, such as gardening

Focusing on your mental and physical well-being contributes to physical wellness, which in turn helps enhance your overall health as well.

Get Plenty Of Sleep

Utilise your baby’s sleep time to take naps. A research study conducted by the Health University of Utah states that new mums who slept for less than five hours a night are less likely to lose their pregnancy weight as compared to those who get at least 7-8 hours of sleep throughout the day.

Moreover, the study also associated inadequate sleep with excess weight gain after pregnancy. Hence, make sure you are getting plenty of rest, and try to sleep when your baby sleeps.

Conclusion

Experiencing loosened belly skin is normal, and it takes some time for your body to return to its original shape. You can follow the helpful tips that we discussed above, such as eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and staying hydrated to tighten belly skin after pregnancy. In addition to this, you can also try exfoliating your skin and going for massages to firm your loose skin and tone your muscles.