Losing weight in a healthy manner is an amazing feeling. When you set a goal and achieve it, you open up a new world of possibilities. If you’ve recently lost a lot of weight, congratulations! You’ve likely felt the benefits of weight loss in your daily life — moving easier, feeling better, more confidence.
However, as you know, significant weight loss can also create new challenges. One of the most common is volume loss in your face and even to the buttocks. After you’ve worked hard to reach your goal weight, skin laxity or sagging skin in these areas can leave you feeling less enthusiastic about the changes in your body. Skin laxity, especially in the face, can leave you looking tired and older than before.
Modern aesthetic treatments have come to the rescue, and weight loss is already driving aesthetic interventions countrywide. You can combat face changes after weight loss with treatments like Sculptra Aesthetic, designed to trigger collagen production and restore your natural, healthy glow.
What Causes Facial Volume Loss?
The fat in our faces gives us a youthful, fresh appearance, but as we age, we lose some of that volume which causes the skin overlying it to sag. Take this study as an example — participants received two CT scans of their heads at least a decade apart. The results show the natural effects of gravity on our skin. Facial fat volume decreased by 11.3% on average in the superficial area just under the skin. In the deep fat compartment, the fat reduction averaged 18.4%.
Weight loss — especially rapid weight loss — can speed up the sagging of the skin by speeding up the loss of volume to the fat pads under it. Skin stretches to accommodate a higher body mass, which sometimes damages the skin’s collagen and elastin. So, after significant weight loss, the skin may have difficulty adjusting.
Sun damage can also contribute to facial volume loss. When these elements combine, the effects can compound causing significant skin laxity, hollowing of the face, and early jowling.
Can Collagen Reverse Sagging Skin?
As we age, our collagen production decreases, and our skin loses elasticity. This reduction in collagen means that our skin can’t “bounce back” and readjust to significant weight loss. Collagen treatments can help your skin regain the structural support lost during weight loss, providing a fuller, tighter look to areas with sagging skin, like your face and butt. It may only partially reverse the skin laxity, but it gives excellent results alongside a good skincare routine.
Collagen gives more than the appearance of fullness and youthfulness. It helps you maintain your skin health as you lose weight.
Using Sculptra to Build Collagen After Weight Loss
Natural collagen starts depleting around your mid-to-late 20s. When you’re on a weight loss journey, your natural collagen production may not keep up with the fat loss in your face. As collagen is a support structure for your skin, these building blocks often need extra help once you’ve lost weight.
Thanks to Sculptra, you no longer need to choose between losing weight and looking older. Sculptra stimulates natural collagen production, providing clinically proven, lasting results. It’s formulated to restore and rejuvenate your skin, your butt, and the areas most affected by fat loss, such as your face. Once injected, it increases skin thickness and adds volume to the targeted area. Sculptra degrades after the injection, but the collagen you produce lasts for a long time.
Sculptra consists of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), which is injected deep into the skin tissue. Its effects occur below the skin’s surface, so it plumps your skin from the inside out. The treatment involves a series of injections with time for your skin to rejuvenate in between. The number of treatments you receive depends on the volume lost on your weight loss journey and your personal goals. Each injection stimulates collagen production and replaces the volume you lost over the next 3-6 months, with peak results at 6 months. Once the treatment is complete, Sculptra can last up to two years.
Can You Have a Sculptra Butt Lift After Weight Loss?
While you may notice weight loss in your face, your buttocks is another area that might sag or lose volume. Weight loss also means you may not be a candidate for a Brazilian butt lift (BBL), as the procedure involves transferring fat from another area of your body. Luckily, Sculptra collagen butt injections are an excellent option for those enjoying a new, lean physique who still want some extra volume.
The Benefits of Sculptra to Restore Volume After Weight Loss
Several treatments exist to combat the side effects of rapid weight loss. Sculptra is among the most effective and provides many benefits, including:
- Limited downtime: Sculptra gives you lasting results with a high success rate and without a lengthy recovery. It’s a nonsurgical procedure, which means fewer side effects. You’ll be out of the doctor’s office in less than an hour, and you can get back to living your life within a day.
- Natural results: Your Sculptra treatments are several weeks apart, and results appear gradually as new collagen forms in the targeted area. This gradual growth makes your results more natural.
- Low maintenance: Once you’ve achieved the desired result over the course of your personalized treatments, there’s little maintenance. You may want to touch up every few years, but you can achieve lasting changes with minimal appointments.
- Wrinkle reduction: Besides restoring the volume in your face, Sculptra also addresses wrinkles and fine lines. It boosts skin firmness and elasticity over time, reducing the signs of aging.
- Improved texture: Sculptra also makes your skin smoother and more uniform, improving its all-around texture.
- Hypoallergenic properties: Sculptra’s composition occurs naturally in your body, which reduces the risk of allergic reactions.
Address Volume Loss the Right Way With Face Forward Aesthetics
Losing weight is life-changing. If you want to address butt and facial volume loss that accompanies weight loss, Sculptra is an excellent option. It can help you combat skin sagging so that you can embrace your new life and revel in newfound confidence.
Your choice of provider shapes your experience. You want a provider you can trust so you can walk into your treatment feeling calm and confident.
Face Forward Aesthetics is here to provide that service. As an injectable specialty medspa, we have the skills and experience to combat volume loss to the face and buttocks. We only employ advanced nurse practitioners, and we are passionate about providing affordable access to the latest aesthetic procedures without compromising quality. Trust the professionals. Book an appointment with us and embrace your weight loss today!
Brandi Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C
Brandi is the Nurse Practitioner at our Toledo office with a background in Emergency and Urgent Care and extensive training in aesthetics/injectables. She received her Associate of Science in Nursing at Mercy College of Northwest Ohio in 2010, her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2018, and her Master of Science in Nursing in 2021, both from the University of Toledo. She spends each day working with her patients to help them look and feel amazing and loves every minute of it!
She is married to her high school sweetheart and they have two beautiful daughters together. When she isn’t injecting or spending time with her family, you can usually find her blowing glass at the TMA or playing recreational volleyball.
Her favorite treatment to give is peri-oral (smoker’s lines) filler or mid-face filler because they instantly transform the face, and her favorite treatment to receive is full-face Dysport with a Nefertiti Neck Lift
