Your Healthy Lifestyle Might Be Causing Acne (Seriously)
Think you're doing everything right for your skin by living a super healthy lifestyle? From intense workouts to clean diets and trendy supplements, some surprising habits may actually be triggering your breakouts. Read on to uncover the hidden acne culprits in your wellness routine – and how to keep your skin clear without giving up the lifestyle you love.
Fitness & Sweat: A Double-Edged Sword
Intense Workouts: Hitting the gym is great for your health – but it can also contribute to breakouts. Heavy weightlifting and intense training sessions can temporarily spike testosterone, leading to increased oil production in acne-prone skin. This doesn’t mean you need to stop exercising, but you do need to upgrade your skincare routine:
Wash your face before and after workouts.
Use a cleanser with benzoyl peroxide and a toner with salicylic acid to help manage oil and bacteria.
Avoid touching your face with sweaty hands or towels.
Hot Yoga, Saunas & Sweat-Heavy Activities: Sweating is great for the soul, but it creates a warm, moist environment that can worsen bacterial or fungal acne (read more here) – especially if sweat is left sitting on the skin too long. Make sure to choose a cleanser with antibacterial and antifungal properties before and after high-heat workouts. Mandelic acid-based products are great options.
Supplements: Small Pills, Big Skin Reactions
Supplements are a staple in many wellness routines, but some may wreak havoc on your skin if you’re acne-prone. High levels of biotin, B12, iodine, and other vitamins can trigger acne breakouts.
If you're taking multiple supplements, it’s essential to:
Track what you're taking. Keep a list and note when you started each one.
Work with an acne-specialist aesthetician or other practitioner to spot patterns.
Introduce new supplements one by one to monitor your skin's response.
Keep in mind: Supplement-related breakouts typically appear about four weeks after starting something new.
Since both biotin and B12 are significant triggers for acne in many people, it's crucial to verify the levels of biotin in any supplements, gummies, energy drinks, and green powders. Biotin helps us create keratin, which leads to more dead skin that causes acne breakouts.
You can step up your cleansing and add a more targeted serum if you are breaking out. However, be warned that acne caused by a supplement is among the hardest to treat without removing the actual culprit, much like acne caused by a pore-clogging makeup product.
Electrolytes: Hydrating or Harming?
Electrolytes are crucial for body functions and electrolyte powders and drinks have become a go-to for hydration and muscle recovery – but they are high in iodine and salt, which can contribute to breakouts. If you’re using these daily and experiencing stubborn acne, consider switching to a DIY version made with:
Coconut water
Lemon juice
A pinch of non-iodized salt
This homemade mix hydrates without loading your system with acne-triggering minerals.
Healthy Diet… Acne?
Yes, even clean eating can be a source of breakouts – especially if you’re eating the same “healthy” foods daily. Common offenders are:
Eggs – Contain biotin, iodine, and natural hormones like progesterone. For some, they’re inflammatory or pore-clogging. Try cutting them for two weeks to test.
Sea-Based Superfoods – Seaweed, kelp, spirulina, algae, and shellfish are all high in iodine. If you consume them daily, reduce to weekly and watch for skin improvements.
Work to rotate your diet to avoid overload from any one trigger. Here are some additional common healthy foods that cause breakouts. It's easy to recognize the obvious acne food triggers like sweets, but as you're seeing, there are countless "healthy" triggers too.
When “Healthy” Isn’t Skin-Friendly
When you're eating clean, exercising regularly, and staying hydrated – but still breaking out, it's easy to feel defeated. But your breakouts don't mean your healthy lifestyle is failing you. Often, it's just about fine-tuning the details.
Acne doesn’t just come from junk food and dirty makeup brushes. Even wellness habits can be sneaky skin disruptors. The key is learning what your skin loves – and what it doesn’t. Take it day by day (or pimple by pimple), make small adjustments, and trust the process. Your skin can thrive – even while you're living your healthiest life.