Looking visibly aged now, more than expected. page 12

[magnolia1973]

I'm 26 and my fat loss was more on the lines of 20 lbs of fat lost (while adding 15 lbs of muscle back on)

You losing 20 lbs at 26 is FAR different from someone over 35 losing 50 plus lbs. Your skin loses elasticity... it can be a mess. I don't look haggard or anything, but my face and neck is looser and the skin on my arms is awful. I agree that you need to lose slowly and easily, but at some point, you skin just does not rebound. In my 20's I went from 300 lbs to 220 or so and there was no issue with sagging skin. 210 to 175 has been FAR worse to the point that my arms will need surgery for excess skin. I think a lot relates to sun damage- good about sunscreen on my face and areas that don't get the sun are tightening up, but my arms are just not good skin anymore. It even looks different than the skin on say, my legs.

I was at a party yesterday and saw 2 HCG weightloss people and I will say I looked better than both of those people. My friends husband has put back on weight and looks better (he looked deflated for a while). The other woman is also putting weight back on and it is headed right to her tummy.

As for aging, stress is killer- be it from kids or work. I refuse to stress myself out over work. Fuck that. But it's really hard in today's environment to refuse to work so hard that you can't care for yourself. I don't think the employer gets that the upside of allowing someone to work 40 hours a week is a rested, healthy employee..... but I digress.

[YogaBare]

I have to say, I only know one Paleo guy in reality, and the first time I met him I was shocked by how sick he looked. He's totally ripped, but his face is gaunt and no colour. I also don't think that Mark looks that healthy...!

I'm still experimenting with this diet, and I recently went through a phase where I was doing high protein. I felt great for about a week, and then my stomach started making really crazy noises, and I started looking like crap - pale, drawn face etc.

I think all that protein is pretty hard on the system, and I actually think Choco's 33:33:33 is probably the healthiest model. It's literally balanced, and "in moderation". Unless you've got specific health complaints and need to avoid certain food stuffs.

And yeah, sleep is the most vital thing, but the quality of it is completely impacted by diet.

[paleo-bunny]

My experience is the same as choco's.

Skin looks younger, clearer, healthier with no sagging.

Haven't had to cut calories or even count them. Feels like I am averaging more calories now than I was at my highest weight. That's because I've lost the excess fat slowly and patiently while gaining a load of muscle and strength and haven't had to resort to a fad low-carb diet. I've focused more on optimising micronutrient intake and fixing my endocrine system and chronobiology.

I've also continued to experiment around what I'd discovered worked best for me before I'd even heard of the paleo-diet.

Mark looks haggard to me.

[richard]

I don't go low carb. I eat enough carbs to maintain my glycogen stores but not to get fat. That translates into one potato or yam, maybe a little chocolate (white in my case) for dessert, a few pieces of fruit, that's it.

I find it very taxing and a bad idea to get low in carbs. I think that primal is great but there is no reason to go ultra low carb and it can be a problem in your mood, mental ability, and fast twitch muscles.

Also, I think that the key to staying young is to have a lot of healthy sex and enjoy a lot of healthy touch with your partner. This makes you look younger and feel younger. Especially if the sex emphasizes the love between you and isn't aimed at achieving orgasm. The more touch and sex you have and the less orgasm, the younger you feel, act and look. Strange but true.

[Zach]

I think most low carb, high protein/fat proponents look visibly aged in the face even if their physiques look good.

[Gorbag]

The body will not give up bodyfat without elevating stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine and lower leptin etc. All weightloss implicates additional stress for the body and it takes time to reset hormonal levels when finishing a diet. I have read some estimates that this takes almost as long time as the period of dieting! Low levels of carbs will be bad especially for leptin, and this is much more relevant than focusing on high protein which is in fact a good thing when in a calorie deficit. When starting on a diet - especially low on carbohydrates - the body also loses a lot of water, and this will be especially noticeable in the face, and more noticeable when leaner…

[Louisa655]

It's my observation that most individuals over 40 look unhealthy. I find that the face carries more fat making facial cheeks looking soft and pudgy. As soon as someone loses the weight, the face tones up --- almost like a painter's canvass stretched over nice bone structure. I find the flabby, tired, look of most people very sad. Add to that someone's stress, or a job they hate, or relationship issues and the whole situation is a ticking time bomb. One of the thing I notice on the 'post your success photo' here on PB, is that once the weight is lost, most persons easily look 10 years more youthful. I find the face the most interesting part of the transformations. Society, as a whole just seem to look like a bunch of zombies with pudgy faces and waistlines. I'm sure my comments won't make me a hero, but those are just some of my personal thoughts.

[JesseJe]

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

It's the shift work. Shift work will kill you.

My partner is 62. His job isn't shift work but it is stressful. It's killing him. He sleeps with an ice pack on his back from all that sitting. His hand is all curled up with arthritis. He takes drugs to sleep at night. He, of course, thinks this is all normal, but when he got laid off a while ago he was so happy and healthy, like a totally different person.

I have a friend who retired a couple years ago after a lifetime at a stressful job in law enforcement. He didn't even realize the job had been killing him until the withdrawl symptoms hit him. He was very ill for a while. He had the shakes and all kinds of mood problems. He totally fell apart for a while. He feels lucky to have gotten out when he did, soon enough he could recover from the stress and enjoy the rest of his life as a healthy person.

You don't notice how your shift work and job stress can kill you at your age. Let me tell you, it does a lot of damage. Messing up your circadian rhythm messes up your hormones and this will affect all your organs including your skin.

[jo]

I was reading a very interesting article recently about NOT washing your face. Some pretty stunning looking women were saying that they lightly washed their face at night but not in the morning. Overnight your skin produces natural oils that moisturise your skin perfectly. When you wash it off in the morning you wash off the skin's natural protection. I haven't tried this, but I've often wondered how useful the cleanse, tone, moisturise routine us women are advised to do really is. My skin is best when I'm staying in an area with soft water and I lightly clean my skin with soap and water. Hard water dries my skin badly.

I'm often assumed to be 5-7 years younger than I am. I think it is because:

1. Genetics - my aunt, who I look like, looks young for her age too.
2. Eating plenty of food - i.e. not dieting restrictively
3. Some sun, but not too much
4. No smoking or drinking (my aunt drinks a bit, me not at all)

Things I think are aging: High sugar diet (some is ok), vegetable oils, excess sun, alcohol and smoking, and stress.

About sunshine: Many people will sit in the sun at the beginning or end of the day to avoid sunburn. If the sun is below 45% from the horizon you will not be getting the UVB that produces Vit D in your skin, but you will be getting the UVA which doesn't burn the skin, but doesn't produce Vit D. In fact it causes deep tissue damage that is very aging and is thought to be linked to melanoma. If you are going out in the sun, make sure the sun is above 45% from the horizon.

Edited to add: Might be relevant to say here that I'm 50.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

I was reading a very interesting article recently about NOT washing your face. Some pretty stunning looking women were saying that they lightly washed their face at night but not in the morning. Overnight your skin produces natural oils that moisturise your skin perfectly. When you wash it off in the morning you wash off the skin's natural protection. I haven't tried this, but I've often wondered how useful the cleanse, tone, moisturise routine us women are advised to do really is. My skin is best when I'm staying in an area with soft water and I lightly clean my skin with soap and water. Hard water dries my skin badly.

+1
I agree with the above. I never use anything other than water to clean my face, sorry I lie, sometimes soap gets on my face - but very rarely. I don't cleanse, tone or moisturize - just use water and a clean flannel.
I have great skin - and am often told so. I'm not sure whether I look my 49 years or younger. Happy and healthy shows !!!!!