Slimming down for bikini season

You can see it in the changing displays in all the stores, in fact, you cannot walk through the mall without it staring you down from every angle. You guessed right; bikini season is right around the corner. Are you ready to start slimming down for bikini season? With summer fast approaching it is time to start shedding that winter fluff. What is the best approach? Diet and exercise are key to successfully shaping up to get into that teeny-weeny bikini. However, even with diet and exercise sometimes you need an extra boost to melt away stubborn fat. If that is the case, visit with your board-certified plastic surgeon for the best surgical or nonsurgical body contouring options.

Slimming down with your diet

Everyone knows if you want to lose weight you need to watch what you eat and eat fewer calories than you burn during the day. Calculating your required daily calories is no easy task, I recommend using a calorie calculator online to figure out exactly how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. To lose a pound a week aim to eat 500 calories less a day than your average daily needs. There is a balance between cutting calories and starving yourself. Too much of a calorie deficit and your body will fight back by conserving as much fat as possible to fuel your daily body needs. We all have that one friend that tried to lose weight by just eating rice cakes and it backfired on him/her. Your body is smart, to lose weight you must be smarter than your body.

Exercising to tone and contour

It is a well-established fact that if you want to lose weight, you are going to have to put in some work. Cardio and weight training 3-5 times a week are a great way to tone down that flab and get you in shape for bikini season. You do not have to be a fitness expert or work out like Arnold Schwarzenegger to slim down and lose weight. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 150-250 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity if you want to lose weight: that is only 21-36 minutes a day. A brisk walk through the mall, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, dancing, or simply jogging in place are easy ways to hit your daily exercise goal without ever going to the gym.

The skinny on nonsurgical body contouring vs surgical body contouring

If you are eating healthy, exercising regularly and still have that last bit of fluff you want to eliminate, nonsurgical body contouring could be an option for you. Nonsurgical body contouring is not the best solution for everyone. If you want dramatic body contouring results then more drastic measures such as liposuction or abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) might be the better option. When considering the best options for either surgical or nonsurgical body contouring procedures, it is always best to visit your board-certified plastic surgeon who has expertise in this area to discuss options available to you.

There are several choices available when considering nonsurgical body contouring, from freezing away the fat, using a laser to zap the fat or even the use of radio frequency to rid the body area of stubborn fat. CoolSculpting is one of the more popular trends right now in nonsurgical body contouring. CoolSculpting is noninvasive, requires no downtime and is one of the only FDA-approved nonsurgical fat reduction treatments. Through a process called cryolipolysis, CoolSculpting freezes the fat cells in the treatment area. Then over the course of several weeks to months, the fat cells shrink and your body eliminates them.

Summer is fast approaching and it is time to rid yourself of that excess winter weight. Diet and exercise should be your starting point to help slim down to your perfect bikini body. In the event, you have localized, stubborn areas of fat that are resistant to your efforts, a nonsurgical body contouring procedure such as CoolSculpting might be right for you. Again, nonsurgical body contouring will not give you the dramatic results that traditional liposuction or abdominoplasty can achieve. It is always best to seek advice from your board-certified plastic surgeon to get an expert opinion on what method of body contouring is right for you.