Stretch marks, which is also known as striae are streaking lines on the skin which has different color tone with its surrounding. The texture of these stretch marks are also distinguishable from the rest of the unaffected skin. Stretch marks’ texture resembles the fruit orange peel structure. Thus, this skin disorder is also known as orange peel skin. Most stretch marks do not affect someone’s health in any ways. However, certain people might experience itching with the occurrence of stretch marks. Physically, stretch marks are really disturbing. It deteriorates self-esteem and confidence, especially when it occurs on some visible areas such as thighs and legs. There are various causes which trigger stretch marks formation. Most of these causes concern about skin tissues’ inability of supporting or covering expanding skin, which cause them to tear. Hence, stretch marks is one physical and health phenomenon which has a close relation with weight fluctuation.
Do you get stretch marks from gaining weight or losing it?
As stated, stretch marks formation is commonly—although not always, triggered by sudden change in body weight. Someone might develop stretch marks anywhere in the body. However, some body parts are more susceptible to it. This includes breasts, abdomen, upper arms, thighs, buttocks, and legs. These body areas are the areas where fats are mostly accumulated. Therefore, those are the area which are mainly affected by the changes in weight which contributes to these fat deposits. Most of the time, people think that gaining weight causes stretch marks, while losing weight has no contribution to it. In fact, both phases do contribute to the occurrence of this pinkish or silvery white lines on the skin. Yet, gaining and losing weight are not merely the causes of stretch marks formation. There are some other triggering reasons, such as gender, hereditary, certain medications, and specific health problems.
Why does weight gain cause stretch marks?
Weight fluctuation has a significant role to the formation of stretch marks. Weight gain, especially which happens rapidly, contributes a major possibility of stretch marks development. When someone is gaining weight, the skin expands to support all growing body parts. However, the tissues beneath this expanding skin might be unable to support this expanding dermis. As the result, those tissues tear, leaving some scars on the skin surface. Initially, these scars are pinkish-colored, caused by showing off blood vessels beneath. When finally blood flow is blocked and unable to get through these blood vessels, stretch marks turn into silvery white color. Thus, it is important to maintain your weight and make sure you are not gaining too much weight in a short period of time. This will give the connective tissues sufficient ability to support your expanding skin properly.
Why does losing weight cause stretch marks?
Losing weight might also contribute to your stretch marks formation. Quite different from gaining weight, losing weight does not cause any skin tissues tears. Most of the time, losing weight causes stretch marks because these marks have actually been there before you are losing some pounds. Due to your previous firm skin, these stretch marks may not be much visible. However, when you are losing weight, your skin loses its weight and pressure on certain areas. This can be a “hanging” area which make your scars more noticeably. To sum up, it is not the weight loss itself which causes stretch marks. Instead, the loose skin on the affected area does. Thus, if you notice a lot of stretch marks before weight loss, these marks will be more visible after you lose some weight rapidly.