By Dr. Spencer Baron

While in private practice several years ago, a couple of our youthful staff members would brag about being able to eat anything and not exercise much. The, not so fortunate, members of the healthcare team would grumble as they chewed on tasteless, low cal lunch and desperately try to factor some sort of exercise into their already busy schedule.

Until I amusingly informed the cocky crew that all they had was well-formed-fat!

Yup, that’s right; the youthful skin is adhering tightly around your adipose. We technically refer to the firmness as having good skin turgor which happens to be efficiently holding in all the flab, like the body’s natural girdle.

This comes with a WARNING:

You will become out of shape rather quick based on the fact that skin begins to break down and lose its elasticity, kinda like an old pair of support hose. The results are an expansion of tissue and an ever-increasing chin, upper arm, waistline, buttock and thigh.

Solutions:

• Support the skin! Form fitting, skin hugging clothing provides support and fights the inevitable gravitational forces that make your stuff sag.
• Resistance exercise firms the muscle (lean body mass) and gives your body the shape it needs and is less vulnerable to gravity as fat is. Ever see someone lose weight, yet look shapeless due to the absence of muscle mass? Someone should have been weight training!
• Aerobic conditioning (cardiovascular training) is a must! Not just from the calorie burning perspective, but the mere fact that it takes hundreds of miles of blood vessels to keep your fat alive. This is seriously wasted energy! Are you doing enough conditioning? Apparently not, as heart disease is the #1 KILLER of women.

Eat better and more antioxidants, vitamins and biotin, which are known to improve elasticity and promote collagen production. Ideal foods are blue berries, soy products, strawberries, blackberries and artichokes.

So, do you look in shape or are you in shape? Continue (or implement) these health savvy tips for a leaner, fine tuned, million dollar machine … your body! What do you do to stay firm?

Share these healthy guidelines so your friends can do what you do to improve the quality of your life.

Stay fit.

Doc B