Metabolic Health
Here’s Why It So Hard to Get Rid of Loose Skin and What We Can Do About It.
I introduce practical ways to speed up the elimination process.
Eliminating stubborn loose skin is a hard job.
I put as much effort as I put into gaining my doctoral degree.
Removing loose skin has been one of the most challenging tasks for me. It required much effort and persistence, but I finally achieved it. Achieving any problematic task can take us under a lot of pressure and boost our dopamine level as we keep enjoying them.
Eliminating loose skin was one of the joyful outcomes of my health and fitness journey.
I posted an article titled How Can We Get Rid of Loose Skin? last year. This article received significant views on multiple platforms and went viral on one of them. Since then, many readers have asked for more information.
So, this article is an extension and enhancement of the previous one. Let me introduce my approach in more detail this time.
I was excited to lose significant belly fat after years of effort. However, like any good thing, this achievement resulted in a complex problem.
Initially, it was not a big deal and did not bother me much but living with large hanging skin for a long time started troubling me subconsciously.
After a while, it slowly affected my self-esteem. For example, I hesitated to go to swimming pools or to take my top off in the gym.
This psychological problem inspired me to search for and find solutions. I read numerous articles and scientific papers about eliminating baggy and unfastened skin in the abdominal area. Unfortunately, all materials that I reviewed showed difficulty. Some resources pointed out that it was impossible.
I suspected the pessimistic views because our bodies could adapt to biological and environmental conditions. In my opinion, it is not a genetic determination. Most likely, it must be a lifestyle factor, I thought. Skin is another organ. In fact, it is the largest organ in our body.
According to this paper on NIH, “our skin is made up of three layers, the epidermis, dermis, and the hypodermis, all three of which vary significantly in their anatomy and function. The skin’s structure is made up of an intricate network that serves as the body’s initial barrier against pathogens, UV light, chemicals, and mechanical injury. It also regulates temperature and the amount of water released into the environment.”
Many fitness experts managed to eliminate baggy skin. Fitness magazines are full of them. But we know that it can be more complicated as we get older due to hormonal weakness and imbalances.
There is no shortcut to eliminating baggy skin apart from surgery. I never considered surgery. Many people are not interested in surgical removal because of the high price and health risks.
I tried many traditional methods from textbooks, self-help articles, blogs, YouTube videos, and podcasts. None of them had any effect on me. However, a few mavericks were talking about fasting. I was open-minded, determined, and committed to achieving my goal. I studied molecular mechanisms and clinical applications of fasting from multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Intermittent fasting is a diet regime that I used for losing fat and gaining lean muscle. It was a panacea to my fat loss, as explained in this article: Why & How Eliza Lost 30 Pounds of Fat in Six Months? She fired her nutritionist and hired a qualified fat-loss coach. This fasting regime balanced my hormones.
So even though fasting helped with fat loss, I was wondering why my fasting regime did not help me eliminate my unfettered skin. I learned that “Nutritional restriction is a promising protocol to modulate autophagy and enhance the efficacy of anticancer therapies while protecting normal cells”, as mentioned in this study titled Autophagy and intermittent fasting: the connection for cancer therapy?
As mentioned in this study, the main changes in dietary restriction (fasting) include decreased blood glucose levels, growth factor signaling, and the activation of stress resistance pathways. The process affects cell growth, energy metabolism, and protection against oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell death. Another study mentioned that fasting inhibits colorectal cancer growth by reducing M2 polarization of tumor-associated macrophages.
So with the guidance of these knowledge constructs, I started reading more about fasting. I heard about long-term fastings such as 3, 5, 7, 21, and even 40 days. These long days scared me initially. Three, five, or seven days looked doable to me.
How to speed up the elimination process
From my experience, the only viable way was to initiate autophagy and keep it long-term. Here is my experience with relevant references.
I started with three-day fasting once every fortnight. It gave me a lot of pleasure. After three months, my waistline shrank an inch. However, I did not lose any weight even though I gained some muscles as I increased my protein intake during fasting and weight training on non-fasting days.
Suddenly there was a sign. Then I tried five and even seven days of fasting. These long-term fasting practices made significant progress in tightening my sagging skin. My waistline shrank. Saggy skins under my arms disappeared. Moreover, during these long fasting periods, within six months, my body fat percentage lowered further, from 11% to 7%, according to the DEXA scan.
After many trials and errors, the solution looked crystal clear to me. I must keep activating autophagy using several natural methods. The most effective and easiest one was long-term fasting. It means consuming no caloric food for an extended period of time. It was only possible for me to drink salty bone broth, which has negligible calories but essential minerals.
Bone broth was a godsend helping me in two ways. First, it kept me satisfied when minor hunger pangs happened in earlier days of fasting, like in the first two days, as after that, I did not feel any discomfort from hunger. Secondly, it provided my body required collagen, which helped to tighten the skin.
I shared my experience with bone broth and collagen in the form of gelatin. So, gelatin became my hot drink and also my ice cream. How I Naturally & Easily Fixed My Leaky Gut: After severely suffering from digestive discomfort, allergies, inflammation, and autoimmune disorders over a decade
By leveraging acquired knowledge from credible sources, getting guidance from healthcare professionals, and using the outcomes of my experiments, I developed my health and fitness regime. My goal was not only to eliminate loose skin but also to improve my fitness and health holistically. Thus, this new regime transformed into a lifestyle for me.
Impact of Autophagy on Floating and Damaged Skin
Let me give you some information about autophagy based on what I learned from the literature research, as it is the central point of my article. Autophagy research started in the 1950s. I started reading a lot about autophagy in the early 1990s. However, most of my learning doubled or even tripled in 2016 when Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology. This prize inspired many scientists and skyrocketed research in the field.
Intra-cellular damaged organelles, mutant proteins, misfolded proteins, bacteria, and viruses can be degraded and recycled using the natural autophagy process. In simple terms, our body is capable of metabolizing and converting these undesirable substances and zombie cells to energy when it is in a long-term fasted state.
I came across many papers and want to share only three exciting ones to keep my article at a reasonable size. I provide more citations in the reference section for interested readers.
This remarkable paper, titled “Eaten alive: a history of macroautophagy” published in Nature Cell Biology, points out that “macroautophagy, or ‘self-eating, is a conserved cellular pathway that controls protein and organelle degradation, and has essential roles in survival, development, and homeostasis. Autophagy is also integral to human health and is involved in physiology, development, lifespan and a wide range of diseases, including cancer, neurodegeneration and microbial infection.”
Another outstanding paper titled “Autophagy in Skin Diseases”, published in Dermatology, mentions that “autophagy plays an important role in maintaining cellular homeostasis under physiological and pathophysiological conditions, and the upregulation of autophagy may serve as an adaptive process to provide nutrients and energy when under stresses.”
One of the most interesting animal studies which proved my theory of caffeine’s effect on autophagy was published in Theranostics. The paper is titled “Caffeine Protects Skin from Oxidative Stress-Induced Senescence through the Activation of Autophagy”. It is an open-access paper, so you can read it free. As I couldn’t drink coffee, I used a different method.
The paper reports that
“AAPH induced senescence in both transformed skin cells and in NHEKs. Similarly, UV irradiation-induced senescence in mouse skin tissues. Remarkably, a low dose of caffeine (<10 μM) suppressed cellular senescence and skin damage induced by AAPH or UV. Mechanistically, caffeine facilitated the elimination of ROS by activating autophagy. Using a combination of RNAi and chemical treatment, we demonstrate that caffeine activates autophagy through a series of sequential events, starting from the inhibition of its primary cellular target adenosine A2a receptor (A2AR) to an increase in the protein level of Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) and to the activation of 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)”.
Effective ways to initiate autophagy
I discovered several ways to initiate autophagy. As mentioned before, the most important one was long-term fasting.
I also found out about other autophagy-activating mechanisms. The most frequently mentioned ones in the literature were exercise, detoxification methods, extreme cold, and heat exposure.
An animal study in the Autophagy journal mentions that exercise can induce autophagy in peripheral tissues and the brain. The study used exercise-induced autophagy in multiple organs involved in metabolic regulation, such as muscle, liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue.
When I saw the word “adipose tissue” in scientific papers, I got excited because adipose tissue also relates to the belly. The study was not conclusive as it was not tested on humans, but it inspired me and gave me the idea to redesign my exercise regime.
Let me start with natural detoxification methods. The best detoxifier for our body is our liver. And the most potent antioxidant is glutathione. And the dirtiest organ with billions of non-human cells in our gut. As these two pieces of knowledge are validated by science, I used them as my guiding posts.
My methods have nothing to do with celery juice, lemon juice, or any exotic herbal juices. Long ago, when I was on plant-based diets, I tried those so-called detoxifiers, which even toxified my body more. Consuming large amounts of many harmful non-nutrients in plants caused my digestive problems. The most prominent one was oxalates which triggered an autoimmune response.
So, I used much better and easier detoxification methods.
One of the most effective ways for me was taking a dry sauna. I shared my experience with dry sauna in detail in an article, so I won’t repeat the details here. Wonders of Dry Sauna: Reduce stress, improve sleep quality, speed up recovery from exercise, increase energy, reduce inflammation, and more
However, I want to point out that sauna heat is an autophagy initiating tool especially activating the pathway for SIRT2 genes.
Another effective detoxification method was activated charcoal. This one is particularly important to remove heavy metals as proven scientifically. I posted a comprehensive article with multiple scientific references. So you can find the article via this link: Why Is Activated Charcoal in My Emergency Bag? Is It Hype or Hope? Scientifically proven benefits of charcoal, testimonials, and personal experience.
Exercise also helps with detoxification, as mentioned in a study titled exercise induces autophagy in peripheral tissues and in the brain. Conscious movement of cells and perspiration can remove toxins via the lymphatic system. My best tool was my beloved trampoline. Jumping on a trampoline activated my lymphatic system naturally.
The next effective tool was the vibration machine. I shared my experiences with an indoor trampoline and vibration machine in an article titled Powerful Life-Changing Hacks That Truly Transformed My Life: Joyful Workouts. This article is the summary of one of my best-selling books reflecting my transformation progress.
Summary of Approaches
In addition to intermittent fasting in the form of one meal a day (OMAD), a keto-carnivore diet, I also used long-term fasting with medical supervision. For me, three, five, and seven-day fasting periods worked optimally.
Resistance training in the form of weightlifting and calisthenics has been instrumental in toning my muscles. However, adding 30 minutes of fasted cardio on a trampoline with 200 mg caffeine tablets for three months produced noticeable results.
To leverage the thermal effect of autophagy, I used a dry sauna three times a week for six months during the initial autophagy activating period. In addition, I took three minutes of cold showers three times a day. Over a decade, I still practice both regimes to benefit from both cold water and hot air.
To increase my glutathione, I supplemented with N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) with a daily dose of 600 mg. I provided a comprehensive review of NAC in this article recently: What If There’s Hope to Improve Immunity: Why NAC is a Critical Molecule for Health: An independent review of N-Acetyl Cysteine with support of recent scientific and medical studies.
To keep my skin hydrated and healthy, I used Epsom Salts which is a form of magnesium. Epsom salts not only hydrated my skin but also relieved my sore muscles and improved my sleep quality. And I also use activated charcoal to eliminate some toxins, particularly heavy metals.
In addition to physical activities, I also considered psychological aspects such as managing my stress and anxiety. I increased meditation time and effort and embedded mindfulness into my lifestyle. I refrained from events triggering emotional stress.
These activities may sound daunting, but once they are made habits with fun, they are doable. Eliminating loose skin was the inspiration, however, considering other health and fitness benefits also motivated me. For example, lowering body fat, clearing inflammations, reducing stress hormones, and as a bonus gaining six-pack abs after 50 were the best motivators for me.
We are all unique. Something working for me might not work for others. However, we can learn the principles from the body of knowledge and gain perspectives from other people’s experiences. Nothing is brand new in this world.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Many adults experience loose skin after shedding significant fat, especially from the abdominal area. Loose skin can be very stubborn.
However, as skin is a living organism, it is possible to make some required changes. Diet, exercise, quality sleep, and effective stress management play fundamental roles.
However, to expedite eliminating baggy skin from the abdominal area, we need to initiate the autophagy process for a long time. This process can be activated using various methods such as long-term fasting, moderate fasted-cardio, and a few effective supplements, as I mentioned above.
To conclude, eliminating wobbly skin is exceptionally challenging, but it is possible with knowledge, experimentation, a customized lifestyle, and commitment to goals. If you have a low-fat percentage and lean muscles, your magical abs start appearing after eliminating loose skin.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I’d love to obtain your feedback.
Disclaimer: Please note that this story is not health advice. I shared my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives for information purposes only.
Three Tips to Eliminate Loose Skin
Besides aiming to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.
I aim to educate, create awareness, and empower my readers to take control of their health and well-being.
To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.
Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
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