Staying Toned After Weight Loss
Following significant weight loss, it is vital to have an exercise routine to keep your muscles firm and help to tighten the skin. One of the biggest drawbacks to significant weight loss is the flabby skin that is visible that often can take months to disappear.
First the pectoral muscles
First of all, we recommend performing any exercise that works the pectoral muscles will help tone the chest, but be careful not to do exercises that work the breasts directly. Breasts are not muscle tissue, they are fatty tissue, and therefore do not respond to weightlifting or resistance exercise of any type. In cases where the breasts are small, toning the pectoral muscles will lift the chest and possibly the breasts along with it, but if there is a lot of breast tissue, the exercises will not lift it. This tissue may disappear over time, or it may not. Your only option would be surgery.
How much will my skin tighten?
How much your skin will tighten depends on your age, length of time the skin was stretched and how much it was stretched, how much weight you lost (and to some degree how fast you lost it), the amount of elastin in your skin, and genetics. Exercise can help as it will tighten the skin, plus it will tighten and tone muscles under the skin, which can have an affect on your appearance. We generally ask people to wait 8-12 months to see how much the skin tightens. If after this time the skin is unacceptably loose, then surgery may need to be considered to correct it. In some of these cases, when it is deemed a health risk, insurance may cover the surgery. However, for those who are not using "Infrastructure Mode",
and are configured to communicate from machine to machine, or "Ad-Hoc", there are a few things you should be aware of.
What about my stomach?
For the stomach, the bottom line to weight loss is to burn more calories than you consume. If you eat 2,000 calories in a day and only burn 1,500, you're going to gain weight. On the other hand, if you eat 1,500 and burn 2,000, you'll be in caloric deficit by 500 calories. Given that scenario, at the end of the week, that would be 3,500 calories, and 3,500 calories equals one pound.
Diet and exercise
The combination of modifying your diet and exercise is a good plan. Aerobic exercise will burn lots of calories and help you stay healthy and fit (independent of body weight), and resistance exercise will tone, strengthen, and increase your muscle mass. More muscle mass is important for weight control because it is the engine on your body that burns calories. Not only that, but when you lose weight, you can lose up to 25% of your weight from muscle, so you want to keep as much of it as you can.
You can lose weight without exercise, but...
It is important to note that you can lose weight without exercise by modifying your diet. People lose weight all the time without exercise by reducing caloric intake. In fact, in virtually all studies of weight loss, people who diet ALWAYS lose more weight than people who exercise. If you ask those same people to diet AND exercise, they lose a little more weight than the dieters alone, but not that much. Why is this? This is due to muscle weights more than fat. With more muscle mass, your body will turn to fat as its energy source and burn the fat for energy. As a pound of fat can be five times the size of a pound of muscle, you can keep the same weight, yet look trimmer and healthier, as lean muscle gives you a sleek, toned physique.
People who are most active are most successful
In virtually every study of weight maintenance, the people who are most active are most successful in maintaining weight loss. Most scientists agree that exercise is the single best predictor of weight maintenance success.
So the bottom line is to burn more calories than you consume, by either reducing your caloric intake, and then increasing your activity as you lose weight so by the time you get to your goal weight you can keep it off because you are active.
One final point: Aerobic and resistance exercise are also both very important for health. In fact, you can be healthy and fit if you exercise independent of body weight. In one very important study, overweight, fit people were healthier and lived longer than lean, unfit people. That's a very important point because weight loss can be slow, frustrating, and not everyone gets to an "ideal" weight. So keep up the exercise, watch your caloric intake, and results will follow.
Michael Lewis has been collecting articles and information on Weight Loss and HGH (Human Growth Hormone and related health benefits. He has created and edits numerous web sites about this subject. Michael is a staff writer for http://www.ageforce.com and several other websites. If you would like to contact Michael you can e-mail him at Michael@AgeForce.com or if you would like to know more about Weight Loss, HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health topics please visit us at http://www.ageforce.com
In twenty years of consistant exercising, maintaining a low percentage... Read More
Fat burning exercise is not merely one that will burn... Read More
Compulsive eating is characterized mainly by periods of impulsive bingeing... Read More
Which diet is the best? ALL of them and NONE... Read More
Looking for Diet Programs on net is like looking for... Read More
Following recent reports of a South Dakota man weighing half... Read More
Everybody you know is on the latest weight loss bandwagon:... Read More
There are many factors responsible for abdominal fat like processed... Read More
We all know that losing weight and improving your overall... Read More
(Ailsa's Apple Crumble Diet)I'm Scottish, so it's not a big... Read More
Some of you will not like what I'm going to... Read More
Do You Sometimes Eat Because You're Afraid You'll "Miss Out"... Read More
So your neighbor, office mate, best friend, whoever just lost... Read More
Now that the temptations of the Holiday season have passed... Read More
Carnitine is simply the safest and healthiest supplement you can... Read More
On a little island half way in between Guam and... Read More
Are you just exploding with the presence of light all... Read More
Liposuction works best with people who are a normal weight... Read More
Close kept secrets to weight loss: Give me 9 days... Read More
You know you have will-power. You can change a diaper... Read More
Yes Virginia, the fail-safe weight loss formula exists.It's so simple,... Read More
To prepare ourselves for the Summer Sun we want to... Read More
A healthy pregnancy almost always involves weight gain. But now... Read More
Lose Weight - Grab A GlassIn childhood, we heard it:... Read More
Protein is an essential nutrient necessary for maintaining good health.... Read More
April 14, 2005 federal judge Tena Campbell of the federal... Read More
Am I missing something here? If I am, someone please... Read More
If your low carb diet is going nowhere, maybe its... Read More
A startling fact is that carbohydrates are not responsible for... Read More
First off, let me start by saying this list is... Read More
The story broke in the international press on October 4th,... Read More
Negative calorie foods are said to use more calories to... Read More
It is a fact that about 70% Americans are overweight.... Read More
There's one thing that most people forget about when it... Read More
This Article was originally Published in The July 2004 Issue... Read More
America's Obesity EpidemicAs the numbers of overweight Americans continue to... Read More
Some of you will not like what I have to... Read More
In this issue, I am going to focus more on... Read More
The human body is designed to run best on a... Read More
Dumping syndrome is an effective result of the gastric bypass... Read More
I learned about gaining weight when I heard the question... Read More
For some of us, food is warmth and love. We... Read More
We have missed the boat and your boat is sinking... Read More
Cellulite is a recent addition to the English language. In... Read More
Think for a moment about the highest mountain you ever... Read More
While it would be ideal to make all of our... Read More
It's been called the world's oldest medicine, the miracle fat... Read More
MYTH: Fad diets work for permanent weight loss.FACT: Fad diets... Read More
Adaptation is the most important concept I teach. The human... Read More
Dieters have long searched for secret paths to easy weight... Read More
Notice, if you would, that every diet out there only... Read More
An increasing trend over the last few years has been... Read More
One of the difficulties with dieting is the well known... Read More
Dieting is not easy. If it were, we would probably... Read More
It is well known that about two-thirds of the U.S.... Read More
I wrote this article back in the late fall when... Read More
Browsing one of the Russian websites I have recently found... Read More
Ever wondered why some people manage to keep their weight... Read More
Do You Sometimes Eat Because You're Afraid You'll "Miss Out"... Read More
First? establish realistic goals. Start with a target you can... Read More
Calorie burn can be really enhanced if you follow a... Read More
So your neighbor, office mate, best friend, whoever just lost... Read More
I have put off writing a motivation article because of... Read More
Ok... If you are reading this is because you do... Read More
Have you ever wondered how actors stay in such great... Read More
The South Beach Diet was not created by your typical... Read More
Weight Loss |