Would Exercise Help Tighten Loose Chest Skin After Weight Loss? (photo)

Thanks for your question and photo. Congrats on the weight loss. I do not think that exercise will help your breast skin to shrink. I think you will need at least a peri-areolar skin reduction for decent results. Make sure you see someone who performs gynecomastia surgery frequently. Goo luck.

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Exercising to increase the bulk of your pectoralis muscles can help take up some of the loose skin.  It may never completely resolve the loose skin issue.  Only surgery will do that.  Good luck and be safe.John T.
Nguyen, MD, FACS, FICSDouble Board
Certified Plastic Surgeon

Nice job on losing so much weight! Unfortunately, this loose skin can only be dramatically and effectively improved with surgery. 

Congratulations on your 80 pound weight loss this is a significant accomplishment. Congratulations also on undergoing reconstructive plastic surgery after your weight loss. I think it will be very difficult to exercise your chest and tighten your chest skin. Your chest skin has been distended and then has attempted to recoil. I think it will be very difficult to exercise or coax the skin into contracting more. Also, I think if you developed pectoralis major muscles comparable to bodybuilders, that your breast skin would still hang. Therefore, unfortunately, I would suggest a formal male breast reduction. For the excess breast skin and fat you have shown in your pictures, I would suggest breast skin and fat excision and relocation of the nipple areolar complex. Typically, male breast reduction scars heal very well over time. Compression, silica gel and silicon strips all contribute to a final healthy scar. Congratulations on your weight-loss and good luck on your reconstructive plastic surgery journey.
Sincerely,
Dr. Katzen

Exercise indirectly and to a small degree by increasing underlying muscle bulk. You can not exercise skin or return its lost elasticity and therefore you will need to reduce the excess skin for best results. I use a technique as do other plastic surgeons so that the final scar is at the junction of the brown/white border of your areola to camouflage your scars

Thank you for your question.  Based on your photos, skin reduction will be necessary to improve the contour of the chest.  This will require scars on the chest.  With careful scar placement, the natural fading of scars and hair growth on the chest, these scars do well in the long term.  You will feel much better about your hard earned weight loss with improvement in the chest region. Best wishes.

Weight lifting will help build muscles but not enough to take up all the loose skin from your weight loss. See a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who specializes in Gynecomastia surgery and ask to see before and after pictures. The scars would not be noticeable as the incisions are around the areola. Good luck.

       I would say that this would be unlikely unless you gained a significant amount of muscle mass, and it may not be possible anyway.  You age will play a factor in this as well.  If you decide to start a rigorous weight program for about a year and there is not a noticeable change, then you could opt for surgery.

Hi MacbookproYo,Thank you for the post and the photos. Congratulations on losing the weight. Based on the photos, I do not think you will get noticeable skin tightening with exercise alone. Even though you can increase the bulk of your pectoralis muscles with exercise, it would not be enough.  That being said, a physical exam would be necessary to confirm this. Sincerely,Dr. Dadvand