Abdominal or belly fat is the best indicator of one’s overall fitness and health. Abdominal fat cells are important because they are in close proximity to the heart and the liver. Extra abdominal fat can make you a soft target for a number of heart and digestive ailments.
Abdominal fat can be a precursor to a number of cancers and deadly diseases. This happens because abdominal fat cells start to mutate and become cancerous.
Also Read: How to Lose Belly Fat Quickly
Powerful and fit abdominal muscles, on the other hand, give you a strong core that prevent a lot of injuries and make you less susceptible to subsequent risks. A flat and toned belly does not only look good, but is a good indicator of your overall health and well being.
Belly fat around the abdomen is a cause of major health risks like sleep apnea and diabetes. Studies have shown that people with an unfit belly, tend to stop breathing while sleeping or suffer from sleep disorders and ailments like excessive snoring.
As your girth increases, your body starts to absorb even more fat and a layer of unhealthy fat starts to form in between your important organs, impeding their function as well. With an increase in belly fat and overall fat percentage, organs start to fail and day-to-day activities which were easy, like walking and standing, become difficult.
Causes of loose belly skin- Extreme weight loss and skin elasticity:
Loose belly skin is a side effect of excessive belly fat and a wide girth. Following years of bad eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle, your belly starts to increase in size, as it starts to accumulate a lot of visceral body fat. This fat always tends to cluster around the belly and causes large deposits in and around the area. Your girth starts to increase and as a result sport a big paunch.
Any weight loss regime that you may undertake targets the belly and this is the first area that starts to drop fat. As a result of this, the skin in the body does not get enough time to contract to your thinner body version. Many factors such as your age, gender and diet start to work on the elasticity of skin and as you drop those kilos off, you are stuck with loose, droopy belly skin that not only looks bad, but also starts to cause lots of problems like rashes and itching. So how to get tighten loose belly skin? Let’s have a look:
How to Tighten Loose Belly Skin?
The main factor to keep in mind while trying to figure out how to tighten loose belly skin is that your skin is very elastic but tightening loose skin is a slow process. To prevent this, do not loose excessive weight very fast. Apart from this, in order to tighten loose belly skin, you need to start tightening the abdominal muscles right under the skin. As your muscles start to develop, the skin above it contracts and starts to tighten too. Here are some ways of how to tighten loose belly skin:
1. Resistance training:
Add resistance and strength training to your exercise regime or start a new resistance training regime that will help develop abdominal muscles. Include exercises such as crunches and leg stands in your workout that will work on your muscles. These exercises not only help in tightening muscles but give you good core strength that will prevent further loose belly skin. You can use resistance bands and weights in your abs workout regime for the same and how many squats a day to lose belly fat.
2. Diet:
Increase foods rich in vitamin C in your diet as they help cut out belly fat and tighten the skin, by contracting abdominal muscles. Reduce the intake of white foods such as white bread and rice. If you want to continue with carb rich food, start counting your carbs. For a person consuming 2000 calories a day, the maximum limit of carbohydrates should be 200 grams.
3. Limit exposure to sun:
Sun and chlorinated water adversely affect your attempt to tighten loose belly skin and increased exposure to these will loosen your skin even more. Limit exposure of your skin to the sun and harmful rays.
4. Mineral and sea salt scrubs:
Studies have shown that using sea salt and mineral scrubs help increase the blood flow in the body and as you start to use these regularly, the skin on your belly starts to tighten. This also promotes healthy, elastic skin. Use these scrubs three times a week for best results.
5. Regular massages:
Regular massages around your belly area will promote good blood flow and elasticity of the skin. The direction of the massage matters, as with proper direction and pressure, your skin learns to contract itself and starts to tighten the loose skin around your belly. Try going for regular massages, at least once a week.
6. Stay hydrated:
Drink at least eight glasses of water. A good hydrated body will have positive effects on your skin. Water also helps flush out all the toxins and prevents you from overeating. This will help tighten your loose belly skin naturally.
7. Include raw foods:
Add raw foods like, fresh fruits and vegetables and even raw fish in your diet. Eliminating spices and fats in from your diet, even in one meal will help tighten your loose belly skin, as spices and fats sometimes cause problems in your digestive system and bloat the skin and belly.
Also Read: 5 Foods You Must Not Eat When Trying To Reduce Belly Fat
8. Add Calisthenics:
Calisthenics exercises, like push-ups and jumping jacks help build lean muscle mass in your body. Crunches and abs exercises will help tighten loose belly skin and promote elasticity of the skin.
9. Eat more lean protein:
Increase the amount of lean protein in your diet. Foods such as chicken and fish increase lean muscle mass in your body, this not only helps build muscle and tighten skin but, they also contain collagen that helps promote elasticity in the skin and helps tighten loose belly skin.
10. Exfoliate:
Use exfoliating scrubs and body washes on your belly to help tighten loose belly skin. These scrubs promote good blood flow and when applied regularly, help with the elasticity of the skin by contracting it and tightening the skin around your abdomen.
While trying to tighten loose belly skin it is important to understand your bodily tendencies as well. Women tend to accumulate body fat around their bellies as a reproductive mechanism and find it hard to get rid of this fat, while men tend to sport beer bellies more often than not.
These factors cause a lot of fluctuation in weight and even if they don’t affect your overall weight, there will be loose belly skin, as this is the part that react the most to any kind of weight fluctuations.
The only foolproof way to get rid of loose belly skin is to tighten your abdominal muscles and to improve the elasticity of your skin.
Keep a close check on the kind of food you consume and forego junk food. Follow a skin care regime and take care not to expose your skin to harmful sun rays. Start developing healthy habits as tightening loose belly skin will be a slow process but your skin will definitely shrink back to its original size and you will no longer have that annoying, loose belly fat to worry about.