Wannabeskinny45, according to the research I've done, loose skin happens when you lose lean mass as well as fat mass when you lose weight.
Could be, but for people who have dropped a ton of weight, I'd guess most of it ( that matters in terms of loose skin ) is due to the fat that is resting under your skin and on top of your muscles...it's what's called "
subcutaneous fat " So, you might be at 34% body fat and have a very ambitious long germ goal to get to 15% body fat. With some close monitoring patience, sound training and diet the bulk of your weight loss to get to 15% can come primarily from fat with little or no loss from muscle mass.
If you are still trying to lose weight, you need to make sure you are doing aerobic exercises and not anaerobic ones. I don't mean just "aerobics" either, just exercises that use energy aerobically (for example: walking, cycling, aerobics). The reason for this is that anaerobic exercise fuels the exercise directly from the muscle. During anaerobic exercise you will feel a burning sensation in the muscle, thats the muscle itself being used for energy
If you get this feeling a lot, it means you are burning all your muscle off! This will definitely cause loose skin.
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Well, usually a " burning sensation " during cardio is simply due to a build-up of lactic acid...so, it's not a sign you're losing muscle mass.
I won't get into all the bio-chemistry behind it, but the " lactic acid burn " you feel in a given muscle just means you are likely exercising so hard you are out of breath. So it means you are exercising VERY anaerobically ( just as you said ) - burning very little ( if any ) fat. In other words, you aren't getting the oxygen you need to burn your muscle glucose properly, and as a result, lactic acid builds up in your muscles. It " burns " because lactic acid lowers the pH level of your muscles, but it since blood in your muscles flush it out, it doesn't last long.
So, the sensation of ' burning ' is just a sign sugars aren't being burned completely...it doesn't mean you're actually using your muscle tissue for energy...i.e "
you are burning all your muscle off! ".
This is a very simple example, but one of the more typical ways you CAN lose muscle mass when doing a frequent exercise regimen, is when your body has inadequate glucose ( sugars ) to exercise / function - i.e you don't have enough glucose cause you have cut too many calories or you have burned too many off during repeated bouts of exercise , or both. When that happens, your body resorts to converting amino acids ( i.e protein normally needed to sustain your muscle tissue ) into fuel for your muscles / organs to use. So, over time, your muscle tissue suffers ( i.e loses mass ) as it doesn't have the right amount of nutrients ( amino acids ) it needs to sustain itself properly.
The solutions I've found involve increasing lean mass in your body. The main problem with this is, you can't lose fat mass and increase lean mass at the same time. To increase lean mass, you have to take in more calories than you use per day, along with proper exercise and nutrition to stimulate lean mass growth. To decrease fat mass, you have to take in less calories than you use per day, along with proper exercise and nutrition as well. If you don't diet and exercise properly trying to do either of these things, its easy to decrease lean mass or increase fat mass when you aren't intending to.
Good summary !
So, wether you are trying to lose fat or increase your lean mass, you should do aerobic exercises. Also, if you can, monitor your body fat %. For men a healthy % is around 15% and it goes up or down a few % based on a few factors. I am not sure for women.
If you keep your energy stores topped up - i.e in other words you are eating the correct amount of carbs / calories etc. etc. - and you do some form of resistance training as well , you can do aerobic AND anaerobic exercise without putting your muscle mass in a significant jeopardy.
