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Humans shed skin constantly throughout their whole lifetime—from newborns to young adults and all the way to old age. How much skin do we shed in a lifetime?
According to studies at Arizona State University, an average adult sheds an average of 600,000 particles of skin every hour. This works out to about 1.50 pounds of skin particles per year. In a lifetime, by about age 70, we have shed approximately 105 pounds (35 kg) of skin.
Read on to learn more about how much skin we shed in a lifetime and why our skin sheds.
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On average, a person lives until the age of 79. The amount of skin shed within the average lifetime is roughly 118.50 pounds. This amount varies based on a number of different factors., including gender.
There’s a difference between the average life expectancy of men and women. Let’s further expound on this.
If you’re female, then your average life expectancy is 81.20 years. That means that the skin you shed is about 121.80 pounds. That’s more or less the weight of a teenager.
For some, it can b enough shed skin to equal the weight of an adult. This only goes to show that you shed a lot of skin during your lifetime.
If you’re male, then your average life expectancy is 76.40 years. In which case, the skin you shed through your whole life is more or less 114.60 pounds. Again, it’s almost as heavy as the weight of a teenager.
How Much Skin Is Shed by People Based on Their Nationality
To get even more specific, let’s look at the estimated skin shed by people based on their nationality. Many studies have shown that life expectancy rates differ in every country. This means that the amount of skin we shed depends on the following factors:
Where we were born;
Where we permanently live; and
The environment we’re exposed to.
The following information is based on 2019 data gathered from various sources. They include:
Online sources such as Geoba.se, Google and Yahoo
The World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
The World Bank
The U.S. Census
Geonames. Org
The U.S. National Weather Service
United States of America
On average, an American man lives until the age of 76.99. If you’re an American man, then the skin you shed is 115.48 pounds within your lifetime. That’s roughly 52.38 in kilograms.
For American women, the average lifespan is until the age of 81.88. If you’re an American lady, then the skin you shed through your whole life is 122.82 pounds. That’s about 55.71 kilograms.
In general, Americans live until age 79.44. This means that each American sheds skin of about 119.15 pounds or 54.04 kilograms.
Canada
The life expectancy for Canadians is 82.18 years. A Canadian man is expected to live for more or less 79.46 years, whereas a Canadian woman is expected to live for 84.90 years, in general.
If you’re a Canadian man, then the skin you shed through your lifetime is roughly 119.19 pounds. If you’re a Canadian lady, you shed a lot of skin in your lifetime at 127.35 pounds.
Australia
In Australia, men live until age 79.96 while women live until age 85.09. If you’re an Australian woman, then the skin you shed is greater than that of men. But that’s because you have a higher chance of living longer.
An Australian man will most likely shed skin of about 119.94 pounds (54.40 kgs) in his lifetime. An Australian woman will most likely shed skin of about 127.64 pounds (57.90 kgs) throughout her entire life. In other words, each Australian will more or less shed 123.79 pounds (56.15 kgs) of skin until he dies.
Italy
If you’re an Italian woman, then you shed a lot of skin in your lifetime. It’s possible for you to shed skin of about 127.88 pounds. That is if you live until age 85.25 — which is the average life expectancy for Italian women.
If you’re an Italian man, then you don’t shed as much skin as an Italian woman does. That’s because Italian men live until age 79.77 only on average. In which case, the skin you shed is 119.66 pounds (54.28 kgs).
In general, Italians shed skin of about 123.77 pounds (56.14 kgs) until they die.
France
If you’re a French woman, then you shed a lot of skin during your lifetime too. Your average lifespan is 85.24 years — pretty much the same as that of Italian women. This means that the skin you shed amounts to an estimate of 127.86 pounds (58.00 kgs).
If you’re a French man, then the skin you shed is more or less 118.22 pounds (53.62 kgs). This is based on your average life expectancy of 78.81 years.
In essence, the average amount of skin shed by every French person is 123.04 pounds (55.81 kgs).
Monaco
Monaco has interesting statistics on life expectancy. A man can live until age 85.48. Whereas a woman can amazingly live until age 93.32!
This means that the skin you shed is 128.22 pounds (55.16 kgs) if you’re a man from Monaco. If you’re a woman, the skin you shed throughout your whole life is 139.98 pounds. That’s 63.49 in kilograms!
Japan
The average lifespan of Japanese men is 82.44 years. This means that a Japanese man can shed skin of up to 123.66 pounds (56.09 kgs) in his lifetime.
Japanese women can live until age 89.29. This translates to 133.94 pounds (60.75 kgs) of skin shed by each Japanese woman.
In general, the average lifespan of Japanese people is 85.87 years. If they reach that age, they can shed skin of about 128.80 pounds (58.42 kgs).
Singapore
In Singapore, men can most likely reach the age of 83.06. Whereas women can most likely reach the age of 88.59. On average, a Singaporean’s lifespan can reach 85.82 years.
Let’s relate such statistics to the ability of Singaporeans to shed skin.
If you’re a Singaporean, then you shed a lot of skin in your lifetime too. Males have the ability to shed 124.59 pounds (56.51 kgs) of skin in 83 years. Females have the ability to shed 132.88 pounds (60.27 kgs) of skin in 88 years.
Macau
If you’re from Macau, it’s possible for you to reach the age of 84.67. To be more specific, men’s lifespan is 81.65 years. Whereas women’s lifespan is 87.69 years.
This means that if you’re male, the skin you shed is roughly 122.48 pounds (55.56 kgs) by age 82. If you’re female, the skin you shed throughout your whole life is 131.55 pounds (59.67 kgs).
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, women’s average lifespan is 85.60 years. If you’re one of them, you can shed skin of about 128.40 pounds (58.24 kgs). This means you shed a lot of skin during your lifetime too.
If you’re a man from Hong Kong, then you can shed skin of about 119.84 pounds (54.36 kgs). This is based on men’s average lifespan of 79.89 years.
In essence, the average lifespan of people in Hong Kong is 82.75 years. Suffice it to say that the average skin they shed in their lifetime is 124.12 pounds (56.30 kgs).
The Benefits of Shedding Skin
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You might be wondering if the shedding of the skin has any importance to our health. Well, yes, it has! In fact, it provides us a lot of benefits. Some of which are the following:
Allows us to maintain healthy skin;
Prevents us from being prone to infections;
Minimizes indoor air pollution;
Prevents us from having damaged skin caused by the sun’s ultraviolet light; and
Helps our body maintain a constant and normal temperature level.
To shed dead skin, it is important to exfoliate. The following products are some of the best exfoliation products I’ve used and recommend:
The Michael Todd Beauty – Soniclear Elite – Facial Cleansing Brush System gently exfoliates and sheds dead skin cells, clears the skin, clears clogged pores, and helps prevent breakouts:
The Erno Laszlo Brightening Dual Phase Peel is one of my favorite products as it does so much. It is purified with high-potency-grade lactic acid that exfoliates pore-clogging, dull, dead skin cells, leaving fresher, younger-looking skin.
Conclusion – How Much Skin Do We Shed in a Lifetime?
How much skin do we shed in a lifetime?
An average adult can shed approximately 600,000 particles of skin per hour. This translates to about 1.5 pounds of skin particles on an annual basis. By age 70, we have shed around 105 pounds — or 35 kilograms — of skin. This is based on research findings released by Arizona State University.
Shedding of skin is healthy for us. It has many benefits, which include the following:
Allows us to maintain healthy skin;
Prevents us from being prone to infections;
Minimizes indoor air pollution;
Prevents us from having damaged skin caused by the sun’s ultraviolet light; and
Helps our body maintain a constant and normal temperature level.
The thought of how much skin we shed in a lifetime can be shocking, but it has a good purpose. We shed so many pounds of skin to allow us to be healthy throughout our lifetime.
