Collagen drink - for skin sag?

I love that show!

From what I'm reading, the only way to ingest collagen is through animal proteins, however there are certain plant foods that can help build the collagen already in your body.

Now that aside, there is no magical food, vitamin, cream or exercise that will predict, prevent or repair permanently damaged stretched skin.

Save your $$ for plastic surgery, and drink collagen for other health benefits if you must.

There's not much legit science to back any other (alleged) health benefits to collagen supplements.

"When we consume collagen, usually in the form of food, the long chain proteins are broken down during digestion to their original amino acids. Only then can they be absorbed. Once absorbed, these amino acids are available as building blocks to support collagen synthesis throughout the body. So from a dietary perspective, your body doesn't care (and can't tell) if you ate a collagen supplement, cheese, quinoa, beef, or chick peas -- they're all sources of protein, and indistinguishable by the time they hit the bloodstream. The body doesn't treat amino acids derived from collagen any differently than any other protein source. For this reason, the idea that collagen supplementation can be an effective treatment for joint pain, osteoarthritis, or any other condition, is highly implausible, if not impossible in principle."

Source

This!!! ^^^^^^^^

Ingesting collagen does basically...not much that I am aware of. Any benefits would probably be negligible, as the proteins are incomplete (no tryptophan for instance), and we break it down after ingesting. It turns into smaller peptides if hydrolyzed after we ingest it. There is much debate as to whether or not this helps bone and skin health to considerable degrees. That aside, many foods high in collagen are delicious and is a delicacy in many cultures, and provides what can best be described as a unique mouth feel to many foods, such as broth.

Your best bet to support and augment collagen is to avoid sugar, smoking, and UV rays of all sorts (artificial like nail curing as well as the sun) as these drastically break down collagen.

The other thing to do is to make sure to eat a wide array of nutrients needed for healthy collagen production. Here's some decent information.

As for skin sag, after having been obese for an extended period of time, nothing can repair the skin except two things: autophagy and plastic surgery. It's possible fasting helps with extra skin, as many people anecdotally have reported this, however for us who have lost massive weight, it will never reverse any of the sagging. Plastic surgery will almost always be required to restore a more typical appearance, as the cells are severely damaged beyond natural repair.

Now, when used in plastic surgery to reduce sagging, collagen works extremely well as a filler, but eventually gets absorbed by the body and must be re-injected.

Exactly! We cannot undo damage that has already done. It isn't weight loss that causes saggy skin it is the years of obesity. It only makes sense that the longer we were obese and stretched and damaged our skin cells, the less rebound we will have.

Also worth noting that collagen injected into the skin and absorbed also does not rejuvenate skin, so collagen we ingest is not likely to either.

There are several people in my hospital support group who swear by collagen to help skin elasticity. One has lost 170 lbs and has no skin sag. He attributes that to collagen.

I have no sag either. I attribute it to luck, genetics and even body fat distribution.

I've not heard of drinking collagen but I know Vital Protein as a Martin & Pleasance brand are very good. I may give this a go and let you know my results.

However I would not be doing this for skin sag as much as for overall skin elasticity. I found post surgery my skin became very dry and crepey. I would recommend you also invest in either a pure coconut oil or pure vitamin e oil (or even just johnsons baby oil if you aren't worried about parabens) and use it regularly for at least the first 6 months post surgery. This helped me a huge amount. You will still get skin sag that's inevitable but if you focus on doing toning/strengthening exercises this will help too.

Wishing you all the best :)