Welcome to another Tuesday's Ultra Beauty Tips! This week I'm switching things up by asking lifestyle and fitness supersleuth Shawn Stevenson to give us a special Tuesday tip about weight loss and aging. I intuitively knew Shawn would lend an excellent expert explanation about aging attributed to weight loss since he is one of the few faces in fitness that has not gone sallow or gaunt like most of the pros in the fitness industry. Thank you for your expertise Shawn!
by Shawn Stevenson
Your weight loss plan may have you losing weight on the scale, but it might also be adding years to your appearance. All weight loss approaches are not equal, and the wrong approach can make you age quicker.
For starters, stem cells are required to create new tissues for you. This includes your skin, hair, nails, muscle, and organ cells as well. Weight loss plans that are heavy on the exercise can steal away a large supply of your stem cells. This is because stem cells act on inflammation as a priority. Breaking your body down by doing absurd amounts of exercise can burn away a ton of calories, but also burn away your body's ability to regenerate itself.
The biggest culprit to watch out for is long-duration, moderate intensity cardio. This is an extremely catabolic activity. If you love to run, go for it. But for the sake of weight loss focus on lifting weights instead. Building lean, beautiful muscle has a side benefit of being a reservoir for anti-aging hormones. You can actually create a buffer against aging by lifting weights and exercising smarter!
Another problem to watch out for with weight loss programs is haphazardly cutting calories. Aggressively reducing calories will slow your metabolism and become a systemic stress. Nothing will age you faster than stress will. A Finnish study published in 2012 showed that high stress levels correlated with shortened telomeres (our cellular biological clock) which resulted in accelerated DNA damage.
Randomly cutting calories can also land you with a mineral deficiency. Minerals are one of the things that people see when they see you. They are a huge component of external beauty and internal health, and you need to get them from real food.
So instead of cutting calories, increase your nutrition. Eat more of the naturally lower calorie foods that provide a ton of nutrition for your cells. Organic vegetables, high water content fruits, and properly raised animal foods are by far the ideal source to find your minerals. In addition to that you'll also receive the vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and antioxidants to help you stay young and fit.
This article was written by Shawn Stevenson, Author of Sleep Smarter and creator of The Fat Loss Code program. Visit http://www.thefatlosscode.com/free-plan for a free copy of his Waist Reduction Quick Start Plan.
