Losing significant weight does not always end well at first because it leaves us with annoying loose skin that lingers for quite some time. It is not the only factor; aging also contributes to loose skin more than anything else. Your body gradually tightens the sagging skin when you are young, but nothing seems to work past 40. Is it so? No! autophagy may help you with your loose skin regardless of your age.
Autophagy is a systematic process by which the body recycles defective entities such as proteins, dead cells, DNA, and other parts. So, biologists believe that autophagy can also reduce the loose skin left after weight loss by breaking it down.
But, what will you do when your loose skin is not a result of weight loss but growing old? Fortunately, autophagy can still help you enhance the longevity of your skin against aging.
We have put together everything in this post to help you tighten your loose skin with autophagy.
What is Autophagy & Its Link With Loose Skin?
Autophagy is a very selective process that your body employs to break down its faulty cells, organelles, and other biomolecules. While autophagy is active throughout one’s life, it peaks when the body is under stress, such as nutrient deficit, heat, cold, or oxidative damage.
DNA, RNA, and proteins are constantly produced in large quantities in your body. When anything goes wrong with their production, they become crooked and potentially toxic. So, the body uses autophagy to recycle them and replenish nutrients.
But how can we link autophagy and loose skin? Does it help tighten the wobbly skin?
Scientists have made tremendous progress in understanding autophagy in the past few decades. They have come to know that it slows down with age. Therefore, if you try to accelerate it by putting the body under physical stress, autophagy may help tighten loose skin.
A few studies also showed that triggering autophagy can reduce the varicose veins.
How exactly can it work for loose skin? Let’s get to that!
How Autophagy May Reduce Loose Skin?
Elastin and collagen fibers are damaged when your skin is considerably stretched due to weight gain. Some of their capacity to retract is lost, causing loose skin. However, saggy skin appears with age because collagen production declines naturally with aging.
Triggering autophagy can reduce loose skin in both cases. It can boost collagen production by recycling old proteins or degrading dysfunctional ones due to weight gain.
Autophagy For Stretch Marks
No studies have examined the impact of accelerated autophagy on stretch marks. However, according to anecdotal evidence, autophagy can speed up the recycling of torn skin tissue contributing to the stretch marks. So, it can help reduce the appearance of stretched skin.
Do you know that resveratrol (organic ingredient) boosts autophagy naturally and has a lot of additional benefits?
There are two types of stretch marks regarding their age, fresh that mostly appear red or pink, and old which looks white. Autophagy acts differently for both kinds.
It should be clear that you can’t remove all of the stretch marks, some linger for a lifetime. However, you can reduce them to an extent that can’t be seen easily.
If you further want to know about the connection between autophagy and stretch marks, this post explains all of it.
Autophagy Loose Skin Results
Autophagy is a natural phenomenon, and it takes time when you employ it to tighten your loose skin. It may require five to six months to produce notable results. Therefore, you need to be patient and persistent about your diet and exercise regime that stirs up autophagy.
The following before and after picture demonstrates the difference between loose skin after employing autophagy for about six months. Further, you can visit her Instagram profile to follow her autophagy journey.
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Why You Should Induce It For Skin Tightening?
According to studies, autophagy recycles the biomolecules parts of cells and eliminates the chances of getting disorders that come into action with aging.
Therefore, along with helping to reduce excessive skin tissues, it may extend your life span as well.
How to Induce Autophagy?
Studies have demonstrated that by embracing the following means, disregarding your age, you can remarkably spur autophagy in your body. In addition to fastening the loose skin, autophagy will slow down aging and can prevent multiple diseases.
1. Autophagy through Fasting
Fasting is the best thing you can do with your body. And, it is much more than just burning the fat. Fasting ushers the body to use its fat reserves because there are insufficient carbohydrates to meet the energy needs. As a result, fat metabolism generates ketone bodies, which promotes autophagy.
Although the concept of caloric restriction varies a bit from fasting, it also has the same effects on autophagy. Let’s understand it more scientifically.
You may already be familiar with ATP, which stands for Adenosine triphosphate. It is the primary carrier of energy in the body, and every time your cell uses its energy, it is converted into AMP.
If your body has more AMPs, you need glucose to replenish the ATP levels so your cells can use their energy. And when you are on a fast, AMPs remain increasing.
As a result, your body produces an AMPK enzyme that initiates autophagy to recycle damaged proteins or parts of cells and replenish energy.
To promote autophagy for tightening loose skin or reducing stretch marks, you can follow intermittent fasting or other types of fasts (28 or 36 hours). Following a ketogenic diet in your cycles of fasting helps more.
2. Exercise to Induce Autophagy
According to studies, regular aerobic exercise in a particular fashion has a profound positive impact on health. And also, it is a potent autophagy inducer.
As mentioned above, autophagy plays a crucial role in maintaining energy balance inside the body. And when exercise speeds up your metabolism, the body consumes a lot of energy.
Eventually, the body whacks into an energy deficit situation and will induce autophagy to replenish the nutrients.
Therefore, it is now a fact that exercise-induced autophagy helps in tightening the loose skin around the face, arms, thighs, and belly. But wait! you will have to follow a particular type of exercise regime.
According to experts, 30 to 45 minutes of light exercise will be enough to initiate an autophagic response.
Exercise 4 times a week or on alternate days to give enough rest to your body because autophagy spurs and works during rest. Also, 7 to 8 hours of nap at night because sleep regulates autophagy.
3. Eat Veggies and Herbs
Green vegetables like broccoli contain a vital antioxidant called sulforaphane which spurs autophagy. So, you can add an ample amount of raw or partially cooked vegetables to your low-calorie diet to get more and more of this phytochemical.
Certain herbs like turmeric contain a phytopolylphenol pigment called curcumin. Studies have shown that it helps in regulating multiple bodily functions, including autophagy.
So, add a bit of turmeric to your diet regularly for accelerated and sustained autophagy against stretch marks and saggy skin.
4. Take Cold Showers
Vim Hoff and his students have done an experiment in which they observed their metabolism after having cold plunges. They concluded that cold showers significantly increase fatty acid and blood sugar metabolism.
Do you know that cold showers, fasting, and exercise put the body under physical stress? A study conducted showed that this stress induces autophagy in the body.
Therefore, according to Insider, the more one takes freezing baths, the more likely they are to undergo healthy levels of autophagy.
Studies have shown that Scandinavian people have higher autophagy than normal individuals because of the extreme cold. Also, they have a slower aging, low rates of cardiac arrest, and minimal cases of diabetes.
Taking cold showers regularly will develop an autophagic memory inside your body. Eventually, you will start experiencing more youthfulness, and your loose skin will go away.
Wrapping Up
Under certain conditions like rapid weight loss and gain, loose skin and stretch marks become inevitable. And people start feeling embarrassed and socially isolated. Including other anti-aging therapies, autophagy notably reduces loose skin by degenerating malformed collagen and elastin. It also reverberates collagen production to replenish the degenerated skin with a fresh and spry appearance.
