If you’re looking slim when dressed, but have flabby jelly on your upper arms, legs or belly as well as have cellulite, there’s a chance you are what is known as ‘skinny fat’.
It’s medically known as ‘metabolically obese normal weight’. Often a result of lack of exercise, past excessive dieting (without eating enough protein) and/or poor diet. It can not only influence how you look, but effect your health as well. Despite a low or average BMI, it brings on the same health problems as diabetic or obese patients: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, vitamins deficiencies – all leading to fatigue and problems with concentration etc.
What matters most is body composition, not necessarily your size. When you look at some skinny supermodels, you can see despite being tiny, when they walk they still have lots of wobbly bits. Smaller size doesn’t mean better or a healthier body; what you want is a toned body with a good ratio of fat to muscle at a healthy weight.
How to achieve that:
The answer is to work on both decreasing the body fat percentage and increasing your muscle mass at the same time.
- Get enough protein – watch your eating habits. What you eat and how often. Don’t focus on calories, but what nutrients they are made of. Watch out for sugar, man-made carbs, focus on protein, good fat, good carbs.
Cut down on the obvious carbs such as chips, pasta and bread. Eat more eggs, nuts, seeds, fish and chicken. These will not only keep you fuller and for longer, but help you maintain healthy metabolism. - Don’t starve yourself. Harsh dieting without exercising isn’t going to cut it; you will only get skinnier, and potentially even decrease the muscle mass more, but the cellulite and Jelly-O will not disappear!
- Focus on resistance training. Start general exercising to begin with. Run, work on your strength, and don’t be afraid of weights. Avoid endurance exercising and focus on interval/sprint training (hard/easier/hard again). Eat a healthy, protein-rich snack after your workout to aid muscle recovery – Formulite is perfect!
