Vegetarian Weight LossHow to Lose Weight Without Loose Skin
By Laura Ng
Are you worried about getting ugly loose, stretchy skin after weight loss? Especially after you've seen some super obese people who have lost 100, 200 or even 400 pounds having 7 - 40 pounds of excess skin dangling all over their body, it'll terrify you even more than anything else.
That's why quite a number of obese people would rather keep to their size than seeing themselves carrying lots of loose, saggy skin in the mirror. They can't accept their own body becoming like that.
Hey, let me ask you, fear of having loose skin after weight loss or, death... which is MORE important?
I'm asking you that because you're not in the right frame of mind and being so vanity-focused can easily make you forget that you're... dying, especially when you're weighing 250, 300 or even 400 pounds. Your health is deteriorating at a rate faster than anyone else. Don't you realize that?
Imagine this: If you care too much about having loose skin and let your condition aggravate, you won't live long to pursue what you want in life. You won't have a chance to get a date. You won't have a chance to start a family. You won't have a chance to build a career. You won't have a chance to make lots of money to live life on your terms. You won't have a chance to do lots of wonderful things in life.
That's the end of you!
But if you set your priority straight and start putting your focus and energy on losing weight to get healthy and become the most amazing ever, then I guarantee you'll get to live long to resolve your skin issue, and you'll get to enjoy for the rest of your life with a beautiful smile on your face each day, every day.
Controlling the Weight Loss Speed
There are several ways to go about making your skin go back, or you can do something in the process of your weight loss to minimize the impact.
Let's say you weigh 400 pounds and you need to lose 250 pounds in order to be healthy and look normal, my suggestion (based on my experience with a raw vegan friend who used to be a gelatinous blob weighing 405 pounds) is try to keep the speed of weight loss within 1 - 3 pound loss per week (on average). Meaning, for a 400-pounder, the ideal duration to undergo weight loss is about 21 - 30 months (about 2 to 2.5 years).
(I mentioned in other articles that I recommend a max of 4 pound loss, but that's only meant for normal overweight people who only have up to 50 pounds to lose. Your loose skin will not be as visible as the obese. For obese who needs to lose more than 100 pounds, I suggest a max of 3 pound loss per week to help their skin recover better.)
Of course, the slower the weight loss speed, the more time for your skin to rebuild and the better your skin will retract. However, you're still bound by the fact that you'll have certain degree of stretched skin when you purposely pinch and pull them. You'll also see some stretch marks here and there.
Here's how to control the speed of weight loss — when you find that you're losing 4 - 6 pounds per week (you should monitor your weight loss every 7 days), you can slow it down by gradually increasing your calorie intake by 50 calories per day (equivalent to half a medium banana) until it reaches the max of 3 pound loss per week. Or if you want to play even safer and look even better after weight loss, make it a 1 pound loss per week.
Slow is the key if you want to steer clear of ugly loose skin post weight loss. (However, it's not easy to regulate your weight loss speed via calorie management unless you have a well-designed vegetarian weight loss meal plans system at your disposal.)
Keep in mind that you should maintain your physical training because keeping an active metabolism improves the absorption of nutrients from the food you eat to help nourish your skin, and also help to grow new tender skin fast to replace the dead skin.
If you lose control over the rate at which you lose weight, you're very likely to have the excess skin hanging out. In other words, the faster you lose more pounds, the longer it'll take for the skin to go back without surgery.
What Food to Eat for Skin?
Obese people who continue to smoke, drink and consume meat tend to have their skin drooping more intensely (after losing lots of weight) due to the high level of toxic substances contain in them. Some naively thought that eating organic meat will be safe, but little do they know that whether organic or not, animals will produce in themselves lots of toxin when they get slaughtered, even though they may not have the extra chemicals fed to them when they're alive.
Here's an encouraging fact: Remember the raw vegan friend I mentioned early on? He doesn't seem to have visibly loose skin after he melted 220 pounds of weight by eating more raw fruits and vegetables (he didn't undergo any surgery). You'll still have stretchy skin though, only when you purposely pinch and pull (like I said earlier), otherwise, no one will ever realize even when you put on swimwear.
It's plain common sense that raw fruits and vegetables are good for skin, otherwise you wouldn't have seen so many skin-nourishing products emphasizing so much on their ingredients which are purely extracted from plants. However, researchers have found that eating raw fruits and vegetables will nourish your skin even much better than just simply applying them to your skin. Your skin will glow from inside out.
Also, you should couple your raw food intake with weight training, exercise and skin brushing.
For the type of weight training and exercises to do to tone up your skin, check out these free fat burning workouts.
For skin brushing, I suggest that you use Yerba Prima Tampico skin brush to perform dry skin brushing. It gently and effectively removes the top layer of dead skin cells with its buildup of dirt and acid, stimulating the circulation of blood and deeply cleanses the pores, which makes your skin appear youthful, firm and supple. Make sure to do it before shower.
Wait, one more... coconut oil. This is really a unique fat that'll effectively help improve the vibrancy of your skin. I have started taking it and applying on my skin since 2008 and it has given me a more radiant and bouncy skin that new friends always thought I was in my mid 20s (hee hee) but I'm in fact close to 40.
Coconut oil has been proven to have vast benefits for our health and skin thanks to its high content of MCFAs (medium-chain fatty acids) which are what contained in human breast milk. You can find out more about the health benefits of coconut oil and learn inside the article on how to choose the best quality coconut oil for your health and skin.
These altogether will make your skin alive, firm and young.
Age
Don't forget that your age plays a significant role in the healing of your skin. Our metabolism falls as we grow older, and so do the performance of other organs of our body. In other words, the older you get, the longer it takes for your skin to recover.
Therefore, do not procrastinate to seek weight loss solutions. Start losing weight now to avoid the ageing effect.
Surgery
Honestly, I really don't like the idea of undergoing surgery unless otherwise necessary. It's not just expensive, but very risky.
Your surgery can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. That's not too bad so long as you can recover and get into good shape. Having some cuts and scars everywhere on your body means nothing to you.
What if, like some people, you get into serious complications post surgery? It may impact your health, if not cost your life.
You don't have to burn a hole in your pocket, get scars everywhere on your body, suffer the next 12 - 24 months in recovery, and subject yourself to life-threatening complications post surgery, if you eat more raw plant food, control the speed at which you lose weight and other techniques I shared with you moments ago.
If you're not ready for a fully raw vegan diet yet, partially raw vegetarian diet proves effective as well. Just take a look at Kardena Pauza (below), from obese to slim, with snug skin, looking so young and radiant. She's a partially raw vegan sticking with her self-created healthy vegetarian meal plans that has helped herself and many others to lose weight without going through the agony of having loose skin.
With a proven healthy vegetarian meal plan, Kardena Pauza turns from obese to a svelte lady.
If you follow her meal plan system to the letter, I'm betting that not too long from now you'll look back on this decision as the turning point in your life.
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