One of the biggest cosmetic issues associated with massive weight loss is loose skin. Apparently, excess skin doesn’t respond to any form of diet. When you gain weight, your skin tissue grows to accommodate greater adipose tissue underneath it. When you lose weight, however, you lose fat but not the excess tissue, which sags. How can you prevent this from happening?
Build muscle.
People think that weight loss is all about fat loss. In many cases, unmanaged weight loss means losing fat and muscle at the same time. This is what happens when you combine serious calorie restriction and cardio. The result, your mass underneath your skin shrinks, and what was once taut skin becomes loose.
You can prevent this from happening by incorporating strength training in your weight loss regimen. Most people think weight loss means hitting the treadmill in the gym. What they’re missing is that muscle building is the better weight loss and toning strategy in the long run.
Strength training is recommended for people who want to lose weight, men and women alike. Women, however, cringe at the idea because lifting weights gives them a picture of bursting muscles. Women don’t usually want to look like a bodybuilder.
The thing is, women don’t typically build huge muscles on a strength training regimen like men do. So if you’re a woman who wishes to lose weight, don’t be scared to lift weights. You lose fat along the way and keep your muscle.
Don’t crash diet.
Everyone wants to lose weight fast. However, if you think eating less than 1200 calories a day and cranking out intense cardio sessions to lose weight fast, your body is going to give up on you. Not to mention this is the perfect way to lose muscle fast.
A slow and controlled weight loss process is ideal. Consume 15% less calories than your total daily energy expenditure. This is a good way to lose fat and minimize muscle loss.
Stay lean.
Once you’re within your healthy weight range and you notice flabbiness, one thing you can do to at least improve the appearance of your skin and reduce the sagging to some extent is to lower your body fat. Sagging skin may be due to remaining fat underneath that causes the appearance of skin folds.
Lowering your body fat is a function of a smart diet and workout plan. For men, this means lowering the body fat to around 10%. For women, this means a body fat percentage of 20%.
However, once you’re out of the overweight territory, you’ll realize how challenging it is to torch the remaining fat. Your body will cling to this fat as hard as it could. Many fitness buffs employ alternating clean bulking and cutting to achieve lean figures.