What exactly causes stretch marks? Stretch marks are formed when the skin is stretched rapidly with muscle growth or pregnancy. They are not only common on your stomach, but can also appear on buttocks, arms, hips, thighs, and breasts. However, given the right treatment and care, you can prevent them from starting.

One treatment that helps some people is the administration of cocoa butter or other moisturizing creams to the area. It is believed that the moisture helps the skin to stretch and prevent stretch marks from appearing. These lotions contain alpha hydroxy acid and remove the top layer of cells, thus lessening the visibility of the stretch marks.

Overall, though, it hasn’t been proven that creams will actually prevent them. There are some lotions that can be obtained from dermatologists to lessen your stretch marks, but they must be used only after delivery if you are pregnant.

Another possible treatment, if you can afford it, is surgery. Chemical peels or lasers can remove stretch marks, but these can only be used to a certain depth so they won’t cause scarring themselves.

One drawback of the aforementioned procedures is that they can’t be done on dark-skinned people. If the stretch marks are on the tummy, then a tummy tuck can permanently remove them since the lower region of the stomach are removed.

Nutrition and diet also have a lot to do with the prevention of stretch marks. A diet rich in zinc, vitamins A, D, & C, and protein can help improve your skin’s quality and prevent stretch marks. It is also important to drink plenty of water, at least 8 to 10 glasses a day.

You should reduce the amount of tea, coffee, and soda you drink. Adequate water intake will make your skin soft and pliable which will prevent it from tearing and causing stretch marks.

And last, but certainly not least, good old fashioned genes help prevent stretch marks. The elasticity of your skin has a lot to do with your genetics.

If you are a woman and your mother didn’t get stretch marks when she was pregnant, then chances are you won’t either. If she had them, then you might want to take note of some of the above treatments because you will most likely get them, too.

More on Stretch Marks.

To tone arms, legs, thighs or abs, some muscle gain is necessary. You just want to be sure to gain the right amount, so that any flab is replaced with smoothness, but not huge bulges of muscle. Keeping this muscle is the key to keeping toned – muscle will burn calories faster than fat, and will look tighter and better under your skin.

While weight training, keep the weights at a level that is not too light for you (you should still be working out), but do not push yourself to increase the weight you are lifting. Instead, you might increase either the number of repetitions or the number of sets as you feel that your workout is getting easier.

When weight training, bodybuilders often focus on a different group of muscles each day, and really work these hard. To tone, instead of doing just one body part per day, have several weight lifting routines which each work several body parts, and do one of these per day.

You might simply do an entire circuit each day that you workout. If training at home, you might just do a few repetitions of each exercise on your universal gym.

Do each exercise carefully – no clanging of the weights or grunting. You are not trying to gain muscle or push your body, instead try to keep all of your movements very controlled and slow.

Athletes who are toning rather than building their muscles may also want to do more cardio. Instead of the quick warm up a weight trainer does, using their cardio routine to get their body temperature up, try going for a longer run or jog to burn fat.

A diet lower in protein than a bodybuilder’s diet is also necessary. Someone who is toning may wish to focus more on supplements which lower calorie intake, or which increase calcium, iron, and potassium – still replenishing minerals needed, without adding protein or fat to keep the body smooth and sleek.

Like bodybuilders, small meals throughout the day will keep your body using energy efficiently; however, your diet may have less protein.