What are the Body Fat Affects Your Skin

Body Fat Affects Your Skin In More Ways Than You Can Imagine

Obesity among women is on the rise as reports show.

Having those extra pounds not only affects your body shape but has an underlying impact on your skin health as well.

Excess body fat is a health risk on its own and for women, the risks are even higher. High body cholesterol is the major cause of obesity among women and paves the way for several other conditions like hypertension and cardiac arrest.

But a major impact of body fat which is often overlooked is on our skin that can be very hard to reverse.

It is found that after the age of 30, women start to gain about one dress size every 4 to 5 years. Furthermore, 50% of women are expected to suffer from obesity at one point in their lives.

Risks are high and this is why you need to know how body fat affects your skin.

Here we will be elaborating on how your skin is impacted by those extra pounds and what you can do to reduce the fat concentration.

Effect of excess fat on the skin

Stretch marks

This is a no-brainer. When our body starts to accumulate excess fat, our skin has to stretch to cover the increased body mass.

As a result, we get those reddened scars known as the striae caused because of skin cells stretching and multiplying to cover the increased girth of the body.

The most common parts to have striae include thighs, belly, buttocks, and breasts.

Under healthy conditions when we grow the collagen is produced correctly then allows the production of new skin cells. However, when we start gaining fat, collagen is not able to form the skin that causes the damage leading to stretch marks.

Stretch marks are pretty common among women who have gained and lost a significant amount of weight. Women who gain and lose weight many times over the years are the ones to suffer the most. Unplanned and extreme dieting is found to make stretch marks worse as skin loosens irreversibly.

Cellulite

Cellulite is another way of how excess fat can affect your skin.

Often occurring after the teenage years, cellulite is characterized by its textured skin growth that can appear anywhere on the body and deepens in color as you gain more weight. This appearance is because of the inability of the collagen fibers under the skin to contain the fatty adipose tissue beneath them.

Among women, this condition is seen forming a net-like mark on the skin.

The worse part is, it is very difficult to get rid of cellulite no matter how hard you train. You will find it hard to flaunt a swimwear again if you develop cellulite on your body.

What causes excess fat in women?

There can be many factors contributing to fat gain among women. While in most cases it is simply because women are consuming more calories than they can burn, in some women lowered growth hormone levels are found to because of fat gain.

The root cause, in either case, is the type of food we eat. Munching on snacks or devouring junk food is causing a steep rise in obesity among women. Such foods have very high calories and we are not able to burn all those calories without indulging in some kind of strenuous physical activity.

Other than high calories, some defect in body metabolism and how it deals with calories cause fat accumulation. Lowered growth hormone, which is a natural amino acid helps in burning the fat to produce muscle mass.

However, as we age the secretion of growth hormone declines to cause less immunity towards glucose production. This leaves scope for excess fat gain.

How to lose excess body fat

Start with a low-calorie diet, which is the obvious step. But do not try to consume empty calories, instead, focus on low-calorie and nutrient dense diet. There is entire research published on how you should maintain a nutrient-dense diet for weight loss. Avoid sugary drinks like soda and switch to unsweetened tea.

Including exercising especially aerobics and resistance training will help you to burn the extra calories.

Exercising improves blood circulation across the body including skin and carries nutrients to the skin making it healthier and younger. And as a woman, you don’t have to worry too much about getting bulkier or muscular as you don’t have enough testosterone in your body.

If a lowered growth hormone is the cause behind fat gain, then you need to boost it. Oral HGH pills are the advised dietary supplements to naturally increase the secretion of growth hormones. These pills have potent amino acids that stimulate the cells in the pituitary gland to increase the production of growth hormone.  

Excess body fat affects your skin and now in a good way. Taking care of those extra pounds early on will allow you to keep your skin healthier and younger for longer.