The Difference Between Weight Loss and Fat Loss

You hear people say ‘I want to lose weight and get toned.’ But weight loss and fat loss are not the same thing.

Yes ‘off the shelf’ weight loss plans will make you shift scale weight – but it comes at the expense of muscle loss, low energy and compromised body physiology / internal health. Which lets face it, isn’t great!.

Fat loss is what will get you a physique – you can say goodbye to those love handles, and hello to lean and defined muscles.

There’s more than just one way!
There’s never just one way to skin a cat, and fat loss to build your ideal physique is the same. Just following a diet and hoping for the best is only going to get you so far.
You have to be continuously assessing what works and making adjustments where necessary. As you get to know what works for your body and what doesn’t, the formula you use to get lean will change.
Everyone has a physique under their body fat, but you just need to work hard, smart and consistently to reveal it.

Eat well, not less
The whole weight loss diet fad has got people thinking they need to eat less to keep the weight down. But its actually the opposite that is true! Low calorie diets which are nutrient poor will hit your metabolic hormones, like the thyroid, so if you do increase calories you will gain weight fast.
To help increase the rate of your metabolism (which will help burn fat) you should eat more nutrient rich food. Not less (little and often).

Metabolism
As was said before, if you’ve been yo-yo dieting for years on various fad diets, or low calorie eating, your metabolism is probably on the floor.
You need to slowly build it back it so it’s running like a streamline machine. You need to re-sensitize your cells to efficiently deal with the carbohydrates you feed your body.
In order to get your metabolism (and fat burning furnace) firing again, you need to consume more food, but not by dumping an extra 2000 calories into your diet, add in good quality, clean foods slowly and surely. Depending on your diet aim to be consuming good, nutrient rich sources of protein, fats and carbs in your meals.

Why you need to eat good fats
The whole ‘low fat foods’ thing has got the world thinking fats are bad, but that’s far from the case. Essential fats (as the name suggests) are essential for energy, hormone balance, transporting fat-soluble vitamins and promoting healthy cells and overall body function.
Where fat loss is concerned, Omega 3s are great because they help keep your cells more fluid, which increases insulin sensitivity and gets that adipose tissue (fat) burned off.

Drink more water
Water has huge benefits for your body from improving muscle performance and stopping fluid retention to flushing out toxins. But it also helps speed up your metabolism and aid fat breakdown.
When you don’t consume enough water your kidneys fail to work optimally so some of their work is dumped on the liver.
The problem with this is a key liver function is metabolising stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if your liver is in use elsewhere then the fat metabolising process will slow down and therefore the rate of your fat loss is reduced.

Written by Mike Brookes PT – Facebook | Twitter