Is It Loose Skin Or Just Stubborn Fat
In general, immediately after weight loss, the majority of loose skin is actually just excess subcutaneous body fat covered by skin. So even if you have hit your goal weight, you may actually still have some of this body fat hanging around.
Subcutaneous fat is referred to as “soft fat,” which can be easily confused with plain old skin. This type of fat can be very stubborn, which means it can take a long time to disappear after you’ve lost weight. And before you ask, yes, “stubborn fat” is a real thing!
Our adipose tissue is full of alpha-2 and beta-2 receptors. A-2 and b-2 receptors interact with the catecholamines to cause stored body fat to be set free. Without getting too biological, B-2 receptors are associated with easy fat that we can lose, well, easily. A-2 receptors are associated with stubborn fat, which can be harder to lose. In particular, the fat around our belly has a notoriously low b-2:a-2 ratio, which is one reason why the spare tire is often the last part of the body to lean up.
If the area of loose skin that you are focused on is more than a few millimeters thick, that’s a good sign that it is actually residual body fat.
But if the skin you pinch is quite thin , or you’ve already been dealing with loose skin for quite some time with little or no change, this may not be the case. You are likely dealing with loose skin, not stubborn fat.
Perfect Poses Reduce Paunch
Along with abdominal exercises, certain types of yoga poses and stretches can step up your saggy belly reduction workout routine. The plank and boat poses are an intense tummy workout.
For the plank pose, start on your elbows and knees and place your feet out behind you in a plank position so your body is parallel to the floor. Hold this position for as long as you can, breathing normally throughout and try to increase the amount of time each time you do this exercise.
Begin the boat pose by sitting on the floor with your feet stretched out in front of you. Slowly tip your upper body back while you raise your feet and legs off the floor. Stretch your arms toward your legs. Your ultimate aim is to make a V-shape with your torso and legs. You might feel a bit wobbly, but your abdominal muscles will tighten as they help keep you in place. Breathe normally as you stay in boat for up to one minute, and don’t worry about falling out of it. Keep trying until you can nail the pose.
Natural Skin Tightening Home Remedies
Now that you have heard a little bit about the active ingredients/essential oils to help with tightening skin, now lets look at the base of our balm, the other natural remedies for firm skin. These ingredients are natural sources of powerful antioxidants, which the skin is in drastic need of to undergo reconstruction and formation of new skin cells. The best part? These are all items that can be easily found at your local natural grocer or online shop and dont cost a fortune!
It would be wrong of me if I didnt also add the fact that while this balm, and these ingredients help to tighten skin, to have the greatest success you should also consider other home remedies such as sticking to clean eating and exercise to strengthen your core muscles. Also be sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated. When you are dehydrated the skin naturally becomes wrinkly and sagging due to loss of moisture, be sure to be getting at minimum 64 ounces per day. Natural products can certainly be helpful but when it comes to great results there is usually more to the picture. Okay, now on to those other ingredients:
Avocado Oil Due to its high potency of vitamin E and healthy fats, avocado oil is one of the most moisturizing natural oils out there. This moisture helps to replenish elasticity to your skin while helping to promote collagen formation and strengthening.
Interested in knowing what essential oil brand/s I use and why? Head to my essential oils page
References
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Things To Consider Before Buying The Best Skin Tightening Creams For Your Stomach
There are thousands of skin tightening creams, so how do you know which is the right one for you? Weâve made a list of things for you to keep in mind when hunting for an effective product. These items will further explore in our summary of the best skin tightening creams for your stomach below.
Ingredients
As with anything youâre putting on your skin, ingredients are of utmost importance. Your skin does not need the added stress of toxins and chemicals. The right ingredients will contribute to the health and healing of your skin. But the wrong ingredients will be ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Poorly made creams can clog pores, cause breakouts, and lead to irritation. Overall, they are a waste of time and money. When it comes to the best skin tightening creams for your stomach, you want to look for certain healthy ingredients. Natural ingredients like aloe, green tea extract, caffeine, and retinol are all good places to start. These natural elements firm, tone, lift, and plump the skin.
Skin Type
UV Protection
Cost
As with all skincare products, the cost of tightening creams varies greatly. When deciding how much you want to spend, take a look at your needs. If youâre dealing with very stubborn stomach issues like stretch marks, itâs going to be worth it to spend more. If youâre just looking to hydrate and tighten the skin a bit, you might find good results with cream even though itâs not on the high end price-wise.
Workout Or No Workout
What Causes Loose Skin
Loose skin after weight loss is a result of several contributing factors. Our skin is partially made up of proteins called collagen and elastin fibers. These proteins give skin its firmness and allow it to snap back in place after being stretched. When the skin is stretched for an extended period of time, the collagen and elastin fibers become damaged. After weight loss, your skin may lack the necessary proteins to return to its original shape. The skin loses its firmness and tends to just hang on the body.
In addition to losing elastin and collagen, the makeup of the collagen left in the skin changes as well. After losing weight, our skin contains less collagen and its composition is different than the collagen in young, healthy skin. The makeup of your skin is also determined by other factors like age, history of smoking, general health, and family history.
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Get Massages To Reduce Loose Skin After Weight Loss
Who doesnt love a massage? Head to your favorite masseuse to get weekly or biweekly massages, as they are known to help increase blood circulation that is helpful to tighten loose skin.
One medical study showed that a combination of massage, infrared light and radiofrequency helped to reduce loose skin.
You dont necessarily need a massage therapist to massage your skin, as you can do it yourself or have your partner do this for you. You can add to the massage your favorite essential oils diluted in a carrier oil and inhale them to reach new levels of calmness.
If you are interested to learn more about essential oils you can find useful information in my e-book Magical Aromatherapy. This book will help you to discover the power of essential oils and the most effective ways to use them.
Surgery To Tighten Abdominal Skin
If the amount of loose skin is minimal, it will likely retract on its own. However, if you have loose abdominal skin from multiple pregnancies or years of weight loss and weight gain, lifestyle factors may not be enough to tighten everything up.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck, which is a procedure that removes extra fat and skin and tightens the muscles in your abdominal wall, should be the last resort in your quest to get rid of loose abdominal skin.
In fact, Greer recommends waiting at least six months after a significant weight loss before even considering surgery. But once you’ve hit this mark, and often waited even longer, she says the most effective way to tighten loose abdominal skin is surgery.
“Skin removal over the abdomen takes the form of either a full tummy tuck or a mini-tummy tuck,” explains Greer. In a mini-tummy tuck, Greer says the excess skin over the lower abdomen is removed. “This is good for people with just a little loose skin, whose abdominal muscles are still tight,” she explains.
But if you’ve had kids or lost 50 pounds or more, Greer says you probably have loose skin above your belly button as well, and your abdominal rectus muscles are likely stretched apart. In this case, a full tummy tuck is needed. “The difference is that the abdominal muscles are tightened and loose skin is removed both above and below the belly button,” she adds.
Read more:The Safest Way to Approach Exercise After a Tummy Tuck
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Minimize Stretch Marks While Youre Pregnant
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thats certainly true when it comes to rejuvenating loose skin after pregnancy.
Following the same steps that will help you minimize the appearance of stretch marks during the first nine months of your pregnancy will go a long way toward keeping your skin tight after your baby is born.
We recommend a product like Mustela’s Stretch Marks Cream or Stretch Marks Oil. Both products work to nourish the skin on your hips, thighs, stomach, and bust so that your skin can naturally expand and stretch without scarring.
The increased elasticity these products provide makes it much easier for the skin to regain its normal shape after your baby is born.
Years Of Sun Exposure
The sun plays a huge role in premature signs of aging.
A including 298 Caucasian women from the ages 30 to 78 found that ultraviolet exposure is responsible for 80 percent of visible facial aging signs.
This includes wrinkles, vascular disorders, and sagging skin.
These rays both damage and break down the skins elastin over time, leading to premature sagging.
Years of sun exposure can even cause thinning of the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin.
Besides the sun, the skin is exposed to other free radicals outside that can deteriorate the collagen and elastin fibers. This includes toxins, pollutants, and even the food youre consuming.
Combating sagging doesnt have to take place in a doctors office. There are many things you can try at home.
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This exercise will tone your upper abs effectively. You can perform it by using a dumbbell to make it much more challenging.
- Lie flat on your back, legs up at a 90-degree angle
- Arms straight, then curl the shoulders along with upper back off the floor by using your abs
- At the same time, pull the arms up straight ahead
- Maintain this pose for a second before lowering the shoulders and back down the floor
Remember to keep your legs up and arms straight while practicing this exercise.
Exercise 2: Lying leg raise
This exercise will tighten and tone the skin around lower abdominal muscles.
- Lie flat on the floor with your chest up, legs straight and raise up at an angle of 90 degree from the floor
- Maintain legs straight, lower them slowly down till they are nearly touching the floor
- Repeat this routine a few times again
Exercise 3: Pelvic thrusts
The exercise will tone your lower abs.
- Lie on your back with your legs raised up in the air of 90 degree from the ground
- Keep your legs up and lift your pelvis off the ground and raise upwards by using your lower abdominal muscles
- Lower the body back down to the ground
- Repeat this routine a few times again
4. Weight Resistance Training
5. Limit Your Sun Expose
6. Drink More Water
7. Exfoliate Your Skin Regularly
8. Add Protein To Your Diet
9. Avoid Smoking
10. Changes In Diet Plan And Lifestyle
11. Coconut Oil
Dont Use Strict Diets
By torturing yourself with strict diets you wont be able to get your skin to firm up again. The body needs nutrition, including healthy fats. Experts say that crash diets like only eating carrots and celery for 30 days, or following a tea and toast diet consisting of 800 calories per day, etc can be detrimental for your skin.
What tips do you have that help you to improve the quality of your skin? How much water do you drink per day?
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Increase Your Water Intake To Improve Skin Elasticity
Drinking a lot of water not only improves your overall health, it also will help your skin to become tighter, smoother, and look more radiant. One scientific study found that increasing the daily water intake caused significant improvements in skin hydration and function.
Be sure to drink at least 6 glasses of water per day. If you can drink more than that, even better. Hydration is wonderful for your skin and certainly helps to improve skin elasticity which can help to tighten it after weight loss.
You can also drink flat tummy water to help you burn belly fat.
What Exercises Can Someone Do To Firm Up Sagging Skin On The Lower Abdomen
The satisfaction of achieving significant weight loss can soon turn to frustration with the appearance of loose skin, especially in the lower abdominal area. With weight gain, skin stretches to accommodate excess body fat 1. As body fat is reduced, your skin loses elasticity, causing the skin to sag. This is more prevalent with aging and rapid weight loss. While the excess skin will not completely disappear, exercise helps firm the lower abdominal area.
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Tightening Loose Belly Skin Without Surgery Depends On
Loose belly skin may impact your self-esteem. It could be very frustrating since its hard to reverse. The bad news, there are many ways we can have the problem. Apart from aging process that can affect anyone, other factors can also a play a role make it more likely. These include weight loss /weight fluctuations, genetics, and even probably sun exposure.
The good news, there are many ways to deal with. Even sometimes treatment is not necessary, depending on how severe it is. If its mild and there is no redundant skin , some lifestyle measures are probably enough to help ease and improve the appearance of your belly skin.
Exercise
When you have excess abdominal fat for a long time, this could be strong enough to extend your belly skin. Unfortunately, its difficult for the skin to shrink back with weight loss. But building more abdominal muscle mass can help improve how it looks.
Abdominal exercise is safe for most people. But if youre recently giving a birth, talk a doctor first to keep safe. Certain exercises and movements are probably not recommended if your loos belly skin associated with a recent pregnancy.
There are a number of exercises to help strengthen and ease loose belly skin. Here are a few examples.
Eat Healthy To Improve Skin Elasticity
Your skin gets the nutrients it needs to maintain its elasticity from the foods you eat.
Unfortunately for your skin, its one of the last organs to receive vitamins and minerals. If you dont get enough nutrients, your skin will become deprived of what it needs to stay soft and resilient.
To promote elasticity and tighten loose skin after pregnancy, eat a healthy diet including plenty of fruits, vegetables, fats, and lean protein. The vitamins and minerals in a well-balanced diet will contribute to the flexibility and health of your skin. This flexibility can help your skin return to normal after your baby is born.
Fruits and vegetables like broccoli, strawberries, and spinach provide vitamins C and A along with other healthy nutrients and minerals.
Vitamin C is essential for collagen production which gives your skin its firmness. Vitamin A acts as a humectant, drawing water to the surface where the moisture helps your skin remain supple.
Healthy fats like sunflower seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts contribute vitamin E and other antioxidants that work to eradicate toxins and free radicals. Lean protein like fish, chicken, and turkey supplies your body with vitamin D, which contributes to your skins ability to stretch.
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Add Strength Training To Your Exercise Routine
Losing weight slowly and repairing elasticity are great ways to reduce loose skin after pregnancy. But removing fat and tightening skin only go so far. You also need to add muscle mass to fill up the space in your skin.To maintain muscle tone while losing weight, we suggest incorporating weight training into your exercise routine.Dont worry, you wont bulk up like the boys do! For women, weight training has more of a tightening effect, which is exactly what youre looking for when dealing with loose skin.There are plenty of effective options for strength training including dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, and even bodyweight exercises so find a method that you enjoy and get to lifting.When youre first starting out, resist the urge to go heavy right away. Your body has been through a trauma of sorts and needs time to recover. Use light weights at first or even just your own body weight and increase gradually over several months.Its better to play it safe than to risk an injury that might prevent you from losing the weight you want and rejuvenating your loose skin after pregnancy.