How to Tighten Skin Naturally (Bio-Hack It)

So… how do you tighten skin naturally? There are lots of things you can do, on many different levels.

The very best way is, of course, taking a preventative approach and starting as early as possible in life. But regardless of when you start, you want to adopt lifestyle choices that will slow down the natural aging process, as well as take good physical care of your skin.

Now, like I said, there are a lot of things you can do to tighten skin naturally, so I’ve decided to divide them into two major categories, in two different posts.

This first post (this one) will go over the best lifestyle choices and bio-hacks you can adopt to improve the quality and health of your skin, specifically as it relates to anti-aging, from the inside out. And the next post will cover the actual skincare aspect.

But first…

Table of Contents

What makes skin firm and taut?

In order to understand how you can tighten skin naturally, you first need to know what makes it firm in the first place.

Very generally speaking, skin has two main layers:

the epidermis (outer layer): provides the barrier function, shielding from mechanical and chemical threats, pathogens, ultraviolet radiation and even dehydration.
the dermis (inner layer): provides strength, elasticity, and nutritional support to the epidermis, being composed of about 75% of collagen fibers, and includes vascular (blood vessels) and lymphatic system.

Between them there is a dermal-epidermal junction membrane, connecting the two.

Regardless of your genetic inheritance, there are two important proteins that give young skin its firmness and tautness – collagen and elastin.

Collagen (the most abundant protein in the body and also found in bone, joints and tendons) helps with the structure and firmness of the skin.
Elastin, as the name indicates, makes the skin elastic and able to snap easily back into place.

As we age we produce less and less of these two proteins. On top of that, as a cumulative result of our lifestyle choices and physical environment, those same proteins might be “attacked” and become more rapidly deteriorated over time.

What causes sagging skin?

The top culprits in skin aging and sagging are:

exposure to too much UV radiation – sun damage (by far the biggest of the environmental factors)
exposure to toxins, like smoking or pollution
general oxidative stress (brought on by stress levels, diet, as well as actual toxins)
poor nutrition, drinking too much, or a high sugar diet and low protein intake
rapid weight loss
aging (lower production of collagen and elastin, lower estrogen and growth hormone levels, reduced blood flow to tissues)

Related content: How To Increase Growth Hormone Naturally

How to tighten skin naturally the smart way

We can’t do much about the chronological aging part, but we can optimize our lifestyle choices to make that process go as slowly as possible. We can do this by getting a handle on those external aging factors we do have some control over.

Like with most things, the best way to tighten skin naturally is to come at it from multiple levels in a holistic approach. That means making some lifestyle choices that will support the health and youth of your skin, as well as treating it with the appropriate ingredients or products topically (skincare).

Like I said earlier, this post will go over the lifestyle choices and the next post will cover the skincare angle.

How to tighten skin naturally – The steps

1 – Hydrate

People talk so much about this one that it’s starting to sound very old, but it IS one of the most important things you can do for the health of your skin (and body). Elastic skin is well hydrated skin! So, to tighten skin naturally, water up!

Water is not only a nutrient, it’s also a solvent, carrier, and it maintains body volume and helps regulate body temperature. It also helps the body to dispose of toxins.

When you’re not drinking enough water, it can lead to dehydration and functional disorders, like inflammation, which also causes premature aging.

Drinking at least 2 liters per day has been shown to positively affect skin physiology and increase skin hydration, on a superficial and deep level.

2 – Follow a skin-tightening (anti-aging) diet

When it comes to an anti-aging diet, there are things you want to eat more of and things you should try to avoid as much as possible.

Any effort to tighten skin naturally should always start with (and take into account) your diet.

Eat more:

Dark leafy greens

Among other great things, like fiber and antioxidant content, they’re very rich in chlorophyll, which has been shown to improve facial wrinkles and elasticity in skin.

You can find chlorophyll in sea vegetables as well, a lot of times in even higher amounts. So it would definitely benefit you to introduce some of the blue-green algae, like chlorella, hijiki, sea lettuce, to name a few.

Fresh fruits and vegetables

They’re very high in antioxidants, among them vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols.

Antioxidants will help protect the skin of UV damage from the inside (particularly vitamin A, C, E and selenium) – internal sunscreen!
They also scavenge for free-radicals in the body, fighting the oxidative stress caused by environmental pollutants and UV radiation that speed up aging.
They help to prevent collagen breakdown and increase collagen synthesis. Vitamin A and C are both well known for helping to create new collagen as well.

The best way to make sure you’re getting a good variety of antioxidants is to include an assortment of colors – greens, oranges, reds, purples. Those different colors are usually a result of the concentration of one antioxidant or other. For instance, orange and reddish fruits and vegetables are typically very high in Vitamin A.

Green tea, dark chocolate, herbs and spices

All have very high amounts of polyphenols and other antioxidants that will fight the overall aging process of the body, or oxidative stress that accumulates and leads to disease and premature aging.

Some of the best to add to your diet for anti-aging purposes are turmeric, cinnamon, clove, thyme, oregano, basil, ginger, parsley and sage.

Omega 3s

Omega 3s are powerful anti-inflammatory agents that fight the overall aging process of the body, also reducing oxidative stress.

In fact, inflammation of the body (caused by poor diet, lifestyle habits or environment) is at the root of many acute and chronic diseases and, in the same way, will cause premature aging.

They also protect the brain, the cardiovascular system (blood supply to the whole body) and help balance hormones. (*)

There are multiple food sources, such as fatty fish (salmon is a great source for it) and shellfish, seeds (like flax, hemp, chia, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame), also leafy vegetables, walnuts, and avocados.

Quality protein and gelatins

Proteins are a vital part of body tissues and organs. Their main job is to build and repair tissues, mediate other body functions, and supply energy. They’re absolutely essential to tighten skin naturally.

Consuming food-derived collagen also increases the elasticity of the skin.

So get good quality meat and fish. If you don’t want to consume animal products, try tofu/tempeh/seitan, or chickpeas, and buckwheat.

And consume collagen-rich foods, like bone and fish broth, as well as animal gelatins.

Avoid (like the plague):

Dietary A.G.E (Advanced Glycation End products)

These are highly oxidative compounds that are formed when fat or protein combine with sugars in the bloodstream.

They accumulate with age and are part of a normal metabolism. However, if the levels are excessive, they will increase oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.

AGEs also exist in certain foods and new ones are created when we use heat to cook them, especially grilling, broiling, roasting, searing, and frying.

Excess sugar intake also leads to AGE accumulation in the body. There have been several animal and human studies linking high food-derived AGEs in the bloodstream to an increase in markers for oxidative stress (aging). (*)

Besides that, avoiding dietary AGEs helps delay chronic diseases (like atherosclerosis, kidney disease, diabetes type 1 or type 2). It improves insulin sensitivity, and accelerates wound healing.

Processed foods and refined carbohydrates

Just like sugary foods, they produce a very high glycemic (sugar) response and over time cause insulin resistance and even diabetes.

They’re also very well known to cause excessive inflammation in the body and have been linked to premature or accelerated skin aging. (*)

Tobacco and alcohol

Tobacco damages the blood vessels, hinders skin healing, accelerates AGE buildup in the body, and interferes with collagen synthesis. Over time it also gives the skin a sallow tone, increases wrinkling, loss of moisture and elasticity.

Smoking and drinking alcohol is directly related to the degree of facial aging and an excess of either one will deplete the body of vitamins and minerals. This is especially the case for vitamin A and C, which are so important for collagen synthesis.

It’ll also damage the integrity of the blood vessels that are so important for the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the tissues.

3 – Don’t lose weight too quickly

Whenever there is an increase in body fat and volume, the skin will stretch to accommodate it. Depending on the amount of extra weight, and how long you’re carrying it around, it might cause damage to the collagen and elastin.

If you then lose that weight too quickly, the skin does not have time to recuperate and adjust gradually, which is when you get sagging skin. This is more of a problem, of course, the older you get.

So, “easy-does-it” and try to avoid extreme or crash diets, as much as possible. They’re not very healthy for you anyway!

4 – Exercise and build muscle

Regular moderate exercise improves circulation and therefore skin oxygenation and nutrition. This is one of the most high-impact things you can do for your whole body and health, and definitely to tighten skin naturally.

It’ll keep your skin well feed and toned, as well as give you a boost of natural growth hormone – a natural anti-aging hormone. It will also reduce the AGE load in the body.

Besides that, actual muscle building will help “perk up” the body and create definition, especially in those areas where sagging tends to occur (underarm, butt, thighs).

This is also true for the face (generally speaking), although you might want to avoid “exercising” the fatty parts of the face (cheeks and the area around your mouth). This is because fat loss in this area actually “ages” you. This part isn’t “rock hard” science – it’s tied to the whole controversies of facial exercises and whether or not they’re actually good in maintaining a youthful appearance.

Basically, you find experts on both sides of the matter. I personally prefer to err on the side of caution and not exercise the cheek areas. Especially after listening to this interview by the founder of Adipeau cream (at around minute 8:20).

His cream is supposed to help rebuild the fat pads of the face to enhance the rejuvenated effect (which may or may not work – I have no idea), but he also talks about things that speed up the fat loss, which causes that “old” appearance. And yoga-like face exercises are one of them. I recommend you check it out and decide for yourself.

Tighten skin naturally with facial exercises

So in general, I’m not much of a fan of facial exercises, for the reason I just explained. Also because most of them seem to attempt to tone the face by dragging parts of it down with your hands, or directly scrunching up the skin into a million furrows.

This to me just seems counterintuitive, to say the least, although there are people who swear by them.

There is however one facial exercise that I do perform and find beneficial. I feel completely comfortable in doing it, because it does not involve furrowing the skin or pulling at it. And because the muscles involved are all in the top part and “frame” of the face.

Try to wiggle your ears. Really. Now, I barely get any wiggle at all! But you do feel “the burn” and pull on several muscles, including the area behind and around your ears (which pulls up your sides), your forehead, eye area and cheekbones.

It feels like quite a workout just doing it a few minutes. It might take you a while to be able to isolate the muscles and get better at moving them, but it’s totally worth it!

If facial exercises are not your thing, you also have microcurrent devices that stimulate facial muscles to lift the face. There is no “rock hard” science for these either.

They tend to be a bit pricy, but some people say they produce very good results. If you’re curious, it might be worth checking out.

5 – Practice inversion therapy

The gravitational pull over time also affects our body and it definitely plays a role in a droopping facial expression.

Now, we all have to live upright, so there’s not much we can do about that. However, we can introduce 5, 10, or 15 minutes of inversion therapy into our daily routine to help keep the face looking “fresh”.

When we’re upside down more blood will concentrate in the top part of the body, meaning the head. This is beneficial not only because our facial tissues will hang “up” for a little while, but mostly because they’ll receive more nutrients and oxygen, improving the skin’s tone and health.

Some people do this with inversion tables, but you can also just sit upside down on a couch or hang your head out of a bed.
Start out with just a few minutes a day and see if you can comfortably increase to 10 or 15. You can also divide it and do 5 in the morning and another 5 at night.

It’s actually one of those beauty “secrets” that you hear professional models mention from time to time. It falls under the “quirky” category of how to tighten skin naturally, but sometimes those dark horses…

Inversion therapy supposedly also helps your hair grow faster, which makes sense considering the increase in blood flow to he hair follicles.

6 – Get enough sleep

Good quality sleep is VITAL for your body. Period.

If you’re not getting it, your body (and mind) will suffer. The skin is no different – you need it to be able to repair, which is essential to tighten skin naturally.

Poor quality sleep is related to not only cardiovascular diseases, but also obesity, depression, and general inflammation. All are linked with accelerated aging.

Sleeping well is crucial for cellular growth and tissue renovation, which you absolutely need for youthful looking skin.

7 – Use cold water therapy

Exposure to cold, either through cold water showers or ice baths has many known benefits.

When it comes to skin, it improves tone and skin health through an increase in blood flow and oxygenation. This, of course, keeps the skin well fed and better able to regenerate and synthesize collagen properly.

Cold water also has a tightening effect on the pores and, therefore, on skin tissue.

8 – Manage stress

I won’t waste too much time explaining this one – I think most people are aware by now.

Elevated, especially chronic, stress levels wreak havoc with the body. It’s a risk factor in most modern chronic illnesses and it’s known for causing excess inflammation.

For this reason, it also affects the skin’s barrier function and triggers premature aging through elevated oxidative stress.

So, breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, walks in nature, laughing, journaling, playing, enjoying life! Find out what works for you and just do it!

So these are some of the best (high impact) lifestyle changes and hacks that you can do to slow down the aging process and rejuvenate your skin.

Focusing on these will give you the best ROI (return on investment) and set you up with the strongest foundations with which to build on with your skincare routine.

On my next post will will go over the actual skincare side of how to tighten skin naturally and what has been scientifically proven to actually help turn back the clock and slow down skin aging!

How to Tighten Skin Naturally (Bio-Hack It)

What makes skin firm and taut?

What causes sagging skin?

How to tighten skin naturally the smart way