10 ways to prevent body protein breakdown, loose skin and cellulite - Part 1
Why is protein so important for cellulite prevention and skin firmness?
All the body tissues that give you shape and make you look young and firm are made of protein. Your skin and other connective tissues are made of proteins such as elastin and collagen. Elastin offers elasticity whilst collagen provides firmness. A high protein skin level keeps you toned and fit, whilst a high water and fat level makes your skin look and feel loose, puffy and "cellulite-y" (loose skin, excess fat and water retention are the three hallmarks of cellulite).
Several lifestyle factors can degrade your skin and connective tissue proteins, both in terms of quality and quantity, creating skin looseness and cellulite in the process. The list below outlines the 10 most important things to avoid in order to maintain your skin and connective tissue protein integrity and consequently keep your skin firm and cellulite-free.
1. Keep very active - even if you do not consume excessive calories
You may already know that your body is very economical with fat: it does everything possible in it's power to maintain it's fat levels in order to be able to cope with starvation in the future. This is what helped us survive over the millennia and this is also what makes it so difficult to lose fat these days of plenty.
However, your body is not frugal with fat only, it is economical with protein too: maintaining protein tissue is metabolically very expensive for the body and if your body does not need a specific tissue it slowly breaks it down in order to reduce maintenance costs. A business might call this "downsizing". In layman's terms this is called "if you don't use it you lose it", and it applies not just to muscle but also to capillaries and skin.
So every time you sit on your bum in the office, or lie on the couch watching TV, you send a signal to your body to downsize: being immobile you need less muscle tissue, less skin tissue, less ligament tissue, less tendon tissue, less blood capillary tissue, less lymphatic capillary tissue and less bone tissue tissue. Who needs firmness and strong bones if there is no movement-induced vibration to utilise this firmness against? And who needs strong blood vessels if they are hardly ever used in a vigorous way? You might as well be a "blob": that would be very economical for your body and that's what it actually becomes after chronic immobilisation.
So as you understand, general physical activity and exercise are not important just to burn excess calories, they are also important because they send the right messages to your body to build new protein tissue and repair the existing one, thereby stimulating your body to maintain a firm skin, tones muscles, strong bones and an effective capillary network.
2. Avoid alcohol
However, it's not only inactivity that make you lose protein form your tissues. Alcohol stimulates the production of cortisol, the stress hormone, a catabolic hormone that stimulates the removal of protein from the body. In addition, cortisol stimulates the creation of new fat cells in your abdominal area - hence the "beer belly".
Continue to: 10 ways to prevent body protein breakdown, loose skin and cellulite - Part 2













