Do you have loose skin, following rapid or significant weight loss? Don't let this problem get you down. You can tighten that baggy skin and restore your skin to the size that fits your new body rather than your old, fat one.

Curing "loose skin syndrome" after a significant loss of subcutaneous bodyfat requires a three-pronged approach:

1. Building new muscle under the skin, to make up for much of the volume formerly taken up by fat. The muscle, in addition to taking up the slack, will provide the beautiful curves the body is meant to have. It is impossible to build an unappealing amount of muscle, unless you are taking steroids. Even then, doing so is not easy.
    
2. Providing the body with the nutrients it needs to improve cell elasticity so the skin can shrink, and the nutrients it needs to build new muscle. When you build new muscle, you also build new bone to go with it. Building muscle improves your posture and your cardiovascular system. A final benefit of building muscle you reach a higher level of metabolism. This allows you to keep the fat off, and it makes you less sensitive to temperature variations. If you feel cold while others feel warm, your metabolism is too low.
    
3. Providing adequate mechanical support, so the skin doesn't stretch due to gravity.

New Muscle

Let's look at how to build new muscle. Most people approach this all wrong. Building new muscle involves three main principles:

1. Load the major muscles heavily, in as "natural" a manner as possible. Lifting free weights accomplishes this, while "working out" on gym machines does not. The four most productive exercise are the squat, the deadlift, the pullup, and the bench press. Any variation of these will produce results, with or without weights. Gardening (with feet, not knees) on the ground and bicycling are variations of the squat.
2. Get adequate rest, so muscles can grow. This means getting on a schedule where you work only one major muscle group in any given day, and allow several days of rest before heavily working that group again. If, for example, you plant your garden on Tuesday, use kneepads in any subsequent work for the next week to ten days. Listen to your body-it will tell you when your muscles just don't have any juice.
3. Eat a carbohydrate and a protein within two hours of working out. Examples include a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple with peanut butter on it, eggs on toast, or a protein shake with fruit.