Weight Loss vs Fat Loss: What should you Aim For ??
If you're trying to lose weight, there are a few different goals that you may have. Some people want to lose weight to fit into clothes better, while others want to do it for their health or to feel more confident. Another major goal is to lose fat. When most people mention fat loss, they mean that they want to shrink the amount of body fat on their body without losing mass elsewhere.
But do you know that Weight Loss and Fat Loss is not the same thing!! Let’s understand the difference between Fat Loss and Weight Loss
- Reducing portion size
- Reducing Calories
In short Weight Loss = Fat Loss + Glycogen + Muscles + Water
Fat Loss means that the you are losing weight from fat and this is healthier goal to aim for. “The lesser the body fat, the healthier the body”
This helps you to preserve as much muscle as possible and while helping to decrease the risks associated with chronic diseases, inflammation while reducing muscle mass loss.
Fat loss also allows to maintain muscle mass thus leading to toned and fit look physique.
In short Fat loss = Reduction or burning of stored body fat.
What’s the Difference?
In weight loss we tend to loose muscle & water. This can have detrimental effect on overall health because a healthy muscle percentage has benefits like
- Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
- Maintains triglycerides and cholesterol
- Controls Inflammation
Fat Loss on the other hand helps to reduce factors like :
- Chronic Diseases
- Inflammation
- Reduce muscle mass loss
You can reduce body fat or lose weight by keeping a check on your calories and quality of food but for Fat loss the focus has to be on food along with exercise
So what’s the better option for You?
We can measure weight loss through weighing machine but how do we calculate fat loss or know if we have gained healthy lean muscle mass or fat mass.
A lot of talk is also around the concept of Body mass index (BMI), a factor of height and weight to predict the overall health status.
Body Mass Index is a simple calculation using a person's height and weight. The formula is BMI = kg/m2 where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m2 is their height in meters squared. A BMI of 25.0 or more is overweight implies more body fat stored in the form of visceral fat which leads to higher risk of diseases, while the healthy range is 18.5 to 24.9
But there are several studies point to the fact that people who are normal in weight but have more fat are at risk of developing diseases and also those who are overweight with decent fat might be healthy. There is no way to translate BMI values into body fat percent. Hence, instead of relying on weight, aiming to reduce the fat mass is an accurate way to get healthy. However a decent amount of essential fat should be present in the body to support the metabolic functions, particularly in women compared to men.
Hence Fat Loss is preferred way to go ahead as compared to weight loss
Signs that you are losing muscles not fat!
- Your regular workouts feel harder instead of becoming smooth overtime
- You feel sluggish while performing regular activities
- Lower endurance and poor sense of balance
- Your weight is stuck
- Protein is important for maintaining the muscle you have and supporting new muscle growth, especially when losing weight.
- Consume eggs, lean meat, cottage cheese, nuts, seeds or a teaspoon of ghee
- As muscle cells tend to shed protein every day so you need to do the replacement as well
Strength Training
- Helps with fat loss
- Helps to build muscle mass and increases strength over time usually involves lifting weights
Get more sleep
Replace your cold and hard drinks with Water or Green or Herbal Tea
Increase Fiber Content in food
- It helps to absorb water & protects against weight gain
- Helps to train heart & lungs
- Helps with fat burning & weight loss
Workout recommendations for Fat Loss:
Walking...
- Convenient & Easy
- No stress on joints
- Help to reduce weight
Cycling...
- Less Stress on joints
- Lowers heart disease risk
Weight Training...
- Helps build strength
- Promotes Muscle Growth
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)...
- Burns more calories in short span of time
Swimming...
- Helps to get in shape
Yoga...
- Helps with stress management
- Develops strength
Exercises help with weight loss. Some great choices for burning
calories include walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, weight training,
interval training, yoga, and Pilates.
It’s very important to identify an exercise that you will enjoy doing. This will not only ensure that you spent adequate time with this but also shows long term results.
