Posted by: Twentyonepointthree
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[–] 6402184? ago
Skin is elastic, so the stretch will eventually tighten up, but skin under continuous pressure WILL grow new cells and expand. The expansion is permanent, the cells never go away, they will just be replaced when they die.
Evolution did not plan for the human body to expand to such dimensions, and then shrink. The expansion mechanism is there for growth into adulthood (which never reverses) and the stretch is there to accommodate movement and seasonal weight fluctuations and pregnancy. If humans were expected to go through such changes, we would have a mechanism to slough off our old skins, like some organisms do.
[–] tin_has_ten_isotopes ago
That's plausible, but it just feels like it is not the whole story. People can lose a lot of weight and the skin will recover. For them to have not have grown new cells while fat, the old cells would have had to stayed expanded for years even during normal turnover and replacement.