Exercise & Nutrition Q&A - 10/4/2013

Been getting some great questions. Let's see what we can help out with today!

Yes!

Is it possible to reduce the excess hanging skin as a result of quick weight lost with exercise and if so what is the best suggestion exercise?    I know lots of people have plastic surgery ..tummy tucks etc. but is it possible to do with exercise along thanks

The short answer is no. BUT...

Exercise will tighten the muscles under the skin which is important even if you go the plastics route. Also eating the right whole and healthy foods helps a lot. Me for example, I started out at 384 lbs and 58 inches around my gut. I am now 208 and about 36 inches around the waist. But the execess skin I have is minimal. I will likely have to have plastics if I want it perfect but it doesn't look that bad. It grosses me out but when I look in the mirror objectively it doesn't look much worse than a middle aged guy with love handles. In fact I don't actually have love handles on the sides.

So here is what I do.

- I brush my skin regularly with a skin brush. I do this at least 2 times a week and I probably should do it every day. I am not saying this does anything but it does slough off dead skin and encourages your skin to regenerate.

- I eat a lot of extra vitamins a, e, d and biotin. 

- I massage the fat area regularly. Basically stimulating not only the fat but the skin as well.

- I drink tons of water

As a result I will not need a major tummy tuck, I do not have bat wings, my ass might be a different story, it looks like an unhappy shar pei, but it may come back in time.

I plan to wait for 1 year after I reach goal to get plastics to see if my skin will recover on its own.

Muscle and exercise certainly help, so make sure to get out there and do lots of core exercises and ab work.

Thanks, your weight loss is impressive. How soon after your surgery did you start exercising? Surely you had to work up to the level you are at now. Did having your surgery make you focus more on vitamins

I started walking 2 hours after surgery and walked pretty much every day. 3 weeks postop I stepped up the cardio and added in the bike and elliptical machines. 6 weeks post op I added weights although I wish/should have waited 8 weeks.

I have always been good about taking vitamins but which specific ones and how they benefit has been more of my focus since surgery.

When starting back into the gym should you be doing high reps at a lower weight for endurance or lower reps and more sets at a higher weight for strength?  Or is it dependent on your goals?  I have been doing 3 sets of 15 just getting back into it and also being mindful that I just became 8 weeks out last Tuesday and didn't want to attempt too heavy stuff...plan on deadlifting, benching and squats with doctor approval that should hopefully come Monday...

lower weight with more reps will strengthen the muscles you have. higher weight with less reps will tear small muscle fibers and help you to build new muscles. Don't worry you will not bulk up though. At 8 weeks out you are good to go with whatever you can handle so don't be afraid to step it up when you are ready. But yes it is all based on your goals.

Your plan looks good those are great exercises that work your biggest muscles. Just remember if you are doing weights and cardio in the same day/session do weights first and cardio last.

Just out of curiosity, why the weights first and cardio last?  I am doing about 20 minutes of cardio to 30 minutes before weights and light stretching, then weights.  After weights I am doing usually 20 minutes of cardio and then a longer period of stretching. 

But maybe I should do 5-10 to warm up and then stretch, do weights, cardio 30, then stretch?  I guess that is closer to what the trainer said, I didn't know about the cardio last though, I was just trying to push myself to get as much into my workout while I had childcare and push myself as much as I could during that time.  Eeck.

It has more to do with the the most efficient use of the energy source (glycogen) available in your muscles. The stronger and bigger muscles you have, the more calories you burn at rest. So when doing weights you don't want to end your workout with exhausted glycogen stores and having a less than complete workout. When glycogen is exhausted your body turns to muscles for fuel. Cardio, while it still uses or in this case exhausts glycogen, cardio effectiveness is based on heart rate. So the strategy that I am employing here is to effectively use the readily available energy to do the hardest and most impactful part of my workout and then exhausting any remaining energy stores with the cardio.