62 pounds lost, not retouched or significantly edited.
I’ve been wanting to write about looking younger after dieting for quite some time. However, cursory research revealed that most people believe that losing weight makes you look older, not younger. And there are few articles on feeling younger, as opposed to looking younger.
At this point, I began to believe that it’s the way you lose weight that affects how old you look and feel.
If you do a search, you’ll find that the majority of sources claim that dieting will age your appearance. The latest news stories have popularized a new term, “Ozempic Face” (1). While crash diets have always been with us, new medications that were originally prescribed for diabetes have made weight loss even quicker. Facial wasting is generally caused by rapid weight loss of 40-50 pounds or more (1).
But by digging a bit deeper, you will come across articles that claim that eating certain wholesome foods can cause you to look younger. These include many components of healthy diets:
- Lose weight slowly, about 1 pound weekly, to decrease loose skin (2).
- Exercise to improve muscle tone (2).
- I find that exercise also improves posture, which needs added work as we age – poor posture ages appearance.
- Exercise may actually decrease aging on a cellular level (3).
- Exercise generally improves sleep – and we all know that you don’t look your best when your sleep is disrupted (3).
- Exercise improves blood flow which improves the appearance of your skin (3).
- Include olive oil in your diet as monounsaturated fats may reduce skin aging (4).
- Green tea is another great addition to your diet if you’re concerned about premature aging (4).
- Foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids, like fatty fish, flax seeds, and nuts, can help (5).
- Supplement with cocoa flavanol based beverages, according to a study in Korea (5).
- Increase your consumption of vegetables, particularly carrots, pumpkins, leafy greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet potatoes (4).
- Increase your consumption of fruits (4).
Are you noticing the same pattern here that I did? Losing weight slowly with a healthy diet and more exercise may help with aging. Losing weight quickly through extreme dieting and drugs can lead to more loose skin and wrinkles (2) (6).
If you are maintaining your healthy weight by decreasing your consumption of highly processed foods, you are doing even more to slow the aging process! Eating three or more servings of these foods can lead to premature aging (7).
What have you found on your weight maintenance journey? I’m guessing that you feel younger, but on the whole, do you look younger too?
(1). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/style/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs-aging.html
(2). https://www.livestrong.com/article/420401-does-losing-weight-make-you-look-younger/
(3). https://www.health.com/fitness/15-ways-exercise-makes-you-look-and-feel-younger
(4). https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods-that-support-healthy-aging#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2
(6). https://www.eatthis.com/worst-exercise-habits-aging-you-faster/
(7). https://www.insider.com/processed-foods-could-speed-up-cell-aging-according-to-science-2020-9?amp
Maintain Weight Loss 