Can exercise help prevent crepey skin?

Exercise won’t help prevent crepey skin. But don’t take that as permission not to exercise. “Exercise will absolutely help health overall and increase muscle tone,” says Dr. Melissa Kanchanapoomi Levin, board-certified dermatologist and founder of Entière Dermatology in New York. “But no, it won’t do a ton for the skin itself.”

When people lose a considerable amount of weight in a short period of time they tend to experience skin sagginess and crepiness because the skin has stretched to accommodate the body. “There are noninvasive procedures, like ultherapy (radio-frequency ultrasound¹) that can help with that,” says Dr. Levin, by tightening the skin. But some people who lose a ton of weight may choose to see a plastic surgeon to cut out the excess skin.

References:
¹Ultrasound tightening of facial and neck skin: a rater-blinded prospective cohort study by Murad Alam et al. J Am Acad Dermatol.