How to Get Rid of Your Unsightly Cankles for Good!
Cankles are the bane of many women's existence. They can make your legs look full and puffy instead of lean and shapely. So if you're tired of hiding behind long pants to avoid showing off your cankles, it might be time to take action!
Cankles can be embarrassing and unattractive, but luckily there are several treatments to get rid of them. You can start with simple at-home exercises, but you may need to go in for a medical procedure if they don't work.
There are many ways to get rid of cankles, and this article will discuss them all. You will have all the information you need when making an important decision about your health and beauty regimen.
What are cankles?
"Cankles" is a term that combines "calf" and "ankles." It's used to describe legs with a calf that doesn't end at the ankle. Cankles aren't an issue if you don't have a swelling-causing disease.
What causes ankle swelling?
Poor blood circulation in the legs
Poor blood circulation is the most common cause of swollen ankles and feet. This problem usually occurs in pregnant women or older adults.
If you have poor blood circulation, it might make your feet feel heavier or like they are filled with fluid.
Blood circulation in your legs happens because the veins get old and can't push blood back to your heart.
What to do:
To reduce swelling, you should lie down and raise your legs. You can also massage lightly from the ankles to the hips.
If you stand or walk a lot, you might get the problem again. But you can buy elastic compression stockings at pharmacies to prevent it. You have to wrap your lower leg and feet in the stockings, and they can reduce swelling.
Venous insufficiency
Swelling in your feet and ankles can happen when blood from the calves has a hard time going to the heart.
Inside your body, there are tiny valves in the veins. These valves help the blood to go up against gravity. But when these valves are weak, they cannot do their job very well, so the blood accumulates in your legs and feet.
In addition, during venous insufficiency, there is a problem with the vessels that allow fluids to leak out and accumulate in the lower limbs.
What to do:
If you have venous insufficiency, you need to treat it. Otherwise, the skin may get wounds and infections. In addition, doctors may tell you to get compression stockings or take medications if they think your veins are not working well.
Fluid retention
Another common cause of ankle swelling is fluid retention, especially during warm weather. This problem happens when the body can't get rid of excess fluid, often due to congestive heart failure, kidney disease, or liver disease.
If you have fluid retention, you might feel it in your ankles first because the large veins there are closer to the skin's surface than those in your feet.
What to do:
Doctors usually recommend a low-sodium healthy diet and diuretic medication to treat it.
Liver or kidney disease
Kidney and liver failure, among other things, can produce swelling in the body, particularly in the legs, feet, and ankles.
If you have a decrease in albumin, this will cause blood to leak out of your vessels. That happens because albumin helps blood stay inside the vessels. If you have swelling in your kidneys, fluids are not being eliminated by urine properly.
What to do:
If swelling is frequent, you should talk to a doctor. Other symptoms might appear like decreased urine output or yellow skin and eyes. They might come from the kidneys or liver.
Lymphedema
Lymphedema is when there is an accumulation of fluid between the tissues. Lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels can cause this.
If someone has cancer, they might have fluid in their body. This issue can happen after removing lymph nodes from their groin.
What to do:
A doctor will help you figure out what's wrong. In the case of lymphedema, you need to take care of it with physical therapy sessions. You can also use compression stockings and make certain habits.
Thrombosis
Blood clots in the legs can cause thrombosis. That means that blood flow is slowed or stopped.
When the blood flow slows, it can cause a build-up of pressure and fluid in the vessels. And this causes problems, like when there is too much blood in the leg and ankle (cankles.)
In these situations, the ankle becomes swollen, but additional symptoms include pain, tingling sensation, intense redness, and low fever.
What to do:
When there is suspicion of a clot, go to the hospital right away. That way, you will start treatment with blood thinners.
Lipoedema
Lipedema is a disease that affects almost exclusively women. It causes the body to store fat in the arms and legs.
Because lipedema is a little-known illness globally, it's easy to be confused about what it is.
What to do:
There are conservative measures that can mitigate the discomfort. However, the most definitive treatment for lipedema is to remove the diseased fat cells. For this purpose, the most advanced and tissue-sensitive technique is ankle liposuction.
Heart Failure
Heart failure is more common in older people because the heart muscle becomes weaker. That happens because you get older.
The blood flow slows down and accumulates in the legs, ankles, and feet due to the action of gravity.
You may have heart problems. You might feel tired and short of breath. You might also see this: swelling in your ankle and a feeling of pressure in the chest, tiredness, and shortness of breath.
What to do:
It is critical to consult a cardiologist as soon as possible because they have to treat heart failure with drugs provided by a physician.
How to get rid of cankles
Losing fat in the ankle area is challenging. It might be common fat, or it might be because of an illness called lipedema.
It is a tiny area. Sometimes exercise does not give satisfactory results, though it is always important to practice it.
Can you cure cankles without surgery? Fortunately yes. To fix this problem, aesthetic medicine's many different techniques to slim down swollen ankles come in handy.
Carboxytherapy
We will start with carboxytherapy. This procedure can help people by taking away fat and blood. It also helps with the lymphatic system, like a giant water pump for your body.
That is why we recommend this procedure for the skin; it involves injecting carbon dioxide gas under the skin and around the body. Then, Carboxytherapy makes the cells move and gives them oxygen.
We will need to evaluate your case and see how many sessions you will need for the fat in your ankles. Our clinic is one of the best places to get carboxytherapy, but we offer more than that.
Mesotherapy
A third option is body mesotherapy. This treatment is a way to improve local circulation and allow us to sculpt the regions of the body on which we are going to focus.
The technique involves practicing with a set of drugs tailored to each patient and dependent on the desired outcomes.
It's a non-invasive treatment that encourages the body to metabolize more through fat dissolution and elimination stimulation.
It's critical to stay hydrated throughout therapy to be more successful. So if you want to know how to slim your ankles with cold or laser therapy, keep reading!
Coolsculpting
Coolsculpting is another approach to get rid of fat deposits. It's done by freezing specific fatty cells without harming the skin. The body eliminates it naturally through the lymphatic system as in mesotherapy when exposed to the cold.
This method reduces volume, not weight. However, it is good if you want your ankles to be thinner.
Low-level laser therapy
Aesthetic medicine can help you get rid of excess fat. For example, you can use laser therapy to make your ankles thinner.
Laser treatments are a less invasive way to lose unwanted fat. They also help us fight fat that is difficult to get rid of with exercise.
The laser body contouring reduces fat cells without damaging the surrounding tissues to access areas with small fat accumulations and more complicated.
It may also minimize cellulite and shape the body contour. It is done under local or general anesthesia, depending on the patient's preference.
Recovery is quick; you will only have to wear the recommended pressotherapy garment for the first weeks and avoid certain strenuous activities.
Related: "The magic of shaping your body with body contouring!"
How to get rid of cankles with surgery
Cankle liposuction
Cankle or calf and ankle liposuction is a type of surgery. Doctors do it under local or general anesthesia.
Doctors use a suction system of microcannulas to get the excess fat out. Then, the surgeon put them inside the ankle area through small incisions.
Home exercises to reduce cankles
We have seen several options offered by aesthetic medicine, but we cannot forget to avoid weight gain. If we do not maintain a balanced diet and exercise, the results will not be permanent.
It is hard to find something specific about the ankles, but we can still do it. If you want to work on your ankles, there are some exercises you can do. You can start with these exercises. They are not complicated.
Calf stretching
- Stand about 50 centimeters from a wall. Bring your right leg back and rest your elbows on the wall. You will perceive a tightness in your right calf.
- Hold this pose for 30 seconds before returning to the start position.
- Repeat at least three times with each leg.
Tiptoe
You can slim your wide ankles by standing on your tiptoes and lowering yourself to the ground. Your calf muscles will contract when you do this. Repeat the exercise for five minutes, two or three times a day.
As you can imagine, this move is inspired by ballet, and those who do it look like they have toned legs and slender ankles.
Cardio exercise
If you want to lose weight on your ankles, I recommend cardiovascular exercises. For example, you can go to the treadmill and walk for 30 minutes at a pace of 5 mph.
You will reduce body fat and, in this way, will also be able to slim your ankles and your entire body.
Related: "How to get slimmer legs, secrets to getting long and beautiful legs."
The bottom line
We've provided you with a lot of information on the causes and treatments for cankles.
If you are looking for information on how to get rid of weight loss, physical and health problems, then read our articles that provide the causes and treatments. In addition, we have compiled some great resources here with all sorts of ways to help you feel better about your body again!
DISCLAIMER: buildyourbody.org does not provide medical advice, examination, and diagnosis.
Medically reviewed and approved by Nataniel Josue M D.