It’s never fun to wake up and realize that there are red lines running across your stomach that weren’t there the day before.
Thankfully, though, these red lines are not signs or symptoms of serious underlying medical conditions. Instead, they are commonly referred to as “stretch marks” – fresh stretch marks, at that (that’s why they are red) – and not all a risk to your health or well-being.
Below we dig a little deeper into what these red lines are, where they come from, why you’re getting them, and (maybe most importantly) how you can minimize and remove them going forward.
Why Do I Have Red Lines on My Stomach?
A relatively common skin condition, the red lines you might see start to spiderweb across your stomach are called stretch marks.
Created when your skin rapidly stretches (something that can be caused by rapid fluctuations in weight, either gaining or losing it), these red lines can come in a rainbow of different colors.
Sometimes they are pink, sometimes they are almost blue or purple, and – in very rare circumstances – they can be a dark maroon red that looks almost black in a certain light.
Each of these red lines represents a small, almost micro-injury to your skin. They pop out as an inflammatory response and are caused by your skin having to sort of “flex” in ways it wasn’t prepared for initially.
You will be glad to know, though, that these red lines are going to fade in time. They usually turn flesh toned in as little as six months or so, but can sometimes fade away even faster.
Why Am I Getting Stretch Marks on My Stomach?
As highlighted a moment ago, the reason you’re getting stretch marks on your stomach is because the skin in that area is being stretched further than it was prepared to stretch initially.
Our skin is really something pretty remarkable. The largest organ on the body, it’s easy to forget that our skin is alive – constantly growing, sloughing off dead skin cells, and regenerating. As our weight changes, our skin changes to adapt as well.
When these changes happen quite quickly, though, we actually outpace our skin’s ability to stretch and break through skin’s otherwise very impressive elasticity.
That’s where these red marks come from.
Rapid weight gain and weight loss, pregnancy, growth spurts, breast augmentation surgery, and even just using corticosteroids for an extended amount of time can lead to stretch marks popping up all over your stomach (and the rest of your body, for that matter).
What Do Red Stretch Marks Mean?
The stretch marks do not mean that your skin is going to burst, and it’s not usually a sign of more serious underlying medical conditions.
These red marks are just an indication that you grew a little faster than your body was prepared to handle, and this is how it responded to that stress and shock to the system.
Red stretch marks can be an indicator of excessive weight gain in a short block of time, though – and sometimes that can be a sign of obesity.
Obese people are higher risk for all host of serious underlying health conditions, so if you start to see these red marks spread across your stomach it might be an indicator to make some healthier changes.
How Do I Get Rid of Red Fat Lines on My Stomach?
Now that we’ve covered “why do I have red lines on my stomach”, we can get into how you can get rid of these lines as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Left to their own devices (so to speak), your red stretch marks are going to fade to flesh toned stretch marks in about six months or so. Sometimes it’ll take a little bit longer, sometimes a little less.
As a general rule, though, all those red marks are going to fade and become nearly invisible in about six month’s time.
If you’d like to accelerate that process, or help make sure that these marks fade evenly into the rest of your skin tone, there are a couple of solutions you can leverage:
Retinoid Creams – There are a number of products available on the market today (most as over-the-counter solutions, but some are prescription grade) that can be used as a topical solution to erase red stretch marks quite quickly. It’s worth checking these retinoid options out if you want to give your body a jumpstart on removing these red streaks.
Laser Therapy – Laser and light therapy skincare solutions have come a long way in the last 15 years or so. These procedures can be used to brighten, lighten, and even out your skin over a couple of sessions. Laser therapy can even be used to eliminate redness almost overnight while calming down the inflammation left behind in the wake of your skin tearing, too.
Microdermabrasion – The idea behind this stretch marks solution is to basically buff out your skin, abrading the uppermost layer to reveal healthier, fresher skin below. This isn’t going to banish stretch marks from your body forever, but it does do a great job at removing the redness and better blending your stretch marks in.
Chemical Treatments – Similar to microdermabrasion, chemical peel treatments are a little more intense and a little more invasive. You essentially melt off upper layers of skin, stimulating healthy skin cell regeneration. When applied by professionals, though, the end results are spectacular.
Closing Thoughts
Red marks stretching across your stomach (or anywhere else on your body, for that matter) can really put your self-confidence and self-esteem in a nosedive.
Thankfully, though, these red marks are only temporary.
They’ll fade away all on their own in a couple of months (maybe a year) – but you can also use some of the solutions we mentioned above to speed up the healing process and disappear them all on your own a little faster.
It’s tough to eliminate those marks completely after they have manifested. But with a little work and a little time you can make them almost invisible!
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