Monday 16 April 2007

Loosening Up

Last month on a trip to the GP, my son, who is obsessed with gadgets asked if we could get a body fat monitor. At £2.99, I have to say I was intrigued.

Taking it home and entering in my weight details, I was mortified to get a reading of 54%. Surely this just isn't possible...but hey ho, I'll go with it. Re-taking the test and updating my details, it gave a reading of 47.1% on Monday. At least I know I am losing something!

While I am determined to lose my excess weight and am aware that it WILL happen, one of my fears is that of loose abdominal skin and excess skin on my arms. While I know stretchmarks are unavoidable - they can be reduced in appearance with regular applications of cocoa butter. However, one of my little fantasies is to wear a bikini one day in the not-so-distant future...how could I do that with an apron of loose skin hanging beneath my bust?

My answer? Tummy Tuck. Perhaps I've seen far too many Extreme Makeovers, but it seemed to be the only choice.

However, fitness instructor Ron Brown believes that such extreme measures are not necessary. The author of the Body Fat Guide feels that natural weight loss may be the solution.

Ron asks: "Is "loose skin" really unavoidable and inevitable after substantial weight loss? I believe the answer is no!The human integumentary system (skin) is not a passive layer of tissue that remains stretched out like an empty plastic bag after losing large amounts of bodyweight. Rather, it is a living organ, actively adapting to the body's internal and external environments."

While many resort to the surgeon's knife to remove these folds of what they consider only skin, Brown believes that the skin is not so much loose as it is flabby due to excess body fat.

As for the drooping folds, Ron adds: "In my opinion the droopy appearance of folds of skin is most probably caused by crash diets that sacrifice large amounts of supporting lean body mass. Even less severe diets can result in a substantial amount of muscle loss over time. "

By improving your body's composition and increasing lean muscle mass, Brown believes that it is possible to non-surgically remove this "loose" skin. He writes: "What is required to assist one in doing all this is an easy method to measure changes in one's body composition (muscle and body fat levels), and a method to monitor and modify one's energy balance, which is the balance between the calories one eats and burns each day."

Reading information like this makes me realise just how much we are manipulated into believing that the surgeon's knife can easily replace hard work. So rather than looking forward to a tummy tuck and its scarring in two years, I'll try a more natural option and grab an exercise dvd and work on replacing lean muscle mass while on my weight loss journey.

Who knows, I may get on the beach in that bikini much sooner than expected!

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