Think Fat Loss Not Weight Loss
What’s the difference between Fat Loss and Weight loss?
Fat Loss means reducing your body-fat percentage – the amount of fat you carry. There are three different types of fat cells in the body: white, brown, and beige. Fat cells can be stored in three ways: essential, subcutaneous, or visceral fat. Essential fat is necessary for a healthy, functional body. Subcutaneous fat makes up most of our bodily fat and is found under the skin. This is the body’s method of storing energy for later use. Visceral fat is found in the abdomen amongst the major organs. It can be very dangerous in high levels. A high body fat percentage, and in particular the presence of visceral fat, can increase your risk for a number of diseases.
Weight loss means reducing your overall body-weight. This includes everything – fat mass, muscle mass, bones, organs, water weight, bowel content, etc. Two people can be the same body-weight, the same height, the same age. But they can look completely different based on their fat level and muscle mass.
Both guys are 6 foot tall, 250lb, and 33.9 BMI. But the guy on the left has less fat and more muscle mass. The average person who wants to lose weight, does it to look better and most importantly lower fat % also contributes to better health. Lowering your body-weight can be done by just dieting alone, without doing exercise. But a low body-weight with little or no muscle mass is not going to make you stronger & look better, it’s just going to make you weak and look skinny. So it’s not how much you weight that matters. It’s how much muscle mass and fat you carry. That’s why it’s better to focus on fat loss.
Body Composition is very important. Your body will function best with an appropriate overall fat percentage. Having a healthy body fat percentage provides many benefits, such as: temperature regulation; balanced hormone levels; better reproductive health; adequate vitamin storage; good neurological function; healthy metabolism; balanced blood sugar etc.
Body Fat percentage (BFP) is a more important Health Indicator. The BFP is Total Fat Mass /Total Body Mass, *100; Body Fat includes essential & Storage Body Fat. It is the Only Body Measurement which directly calculates a person’s relative Body composition without regard to Height or Weight. However, it is not healthy to have too much or too little fat. If your BFP is too low, your resistance to diseases and energy levels are lower, and you are at risk of health issues. If your BFP is too high, you have a higher risk of diabetes obesity etc.
Fat Loss is Better Than Weight Loss!
There – we said it!
The goal to successful fat loss is to preserve as much muscle as possible, or possibly even gain some, while at the same time lose as much body fat as possible. Your body fat % is a key indicator of your success, not the scales. In this blog we will name 3 reasons why we don’t need to weigh ourselves unless we are really overweight.
1. HEALTHY PEOPLE WEIGH MORE THAN AN UNHEALTHY PERSON! Why is this so? When a person exercises daily and builds up dense muscle mass, body fat reduces and thus the body becomes stronger and heavier – fact! Ask someone who exercises regularly how much they actually weigh…you will be surprised!
2. BODY FAT/MEASURING TAPE IS A BETTER INDICATOR OF HEALTH! When a person eats healthily and exercises regularly body fat begins to decrease. Body fat or measuring tape is the method top athletes and healthy people use to monitor progress. It’s much more accurate and gives a better picture of how unhealthy a person is.
3. WEIGHING SCALES ARE PREHISTORIC! The Scale is a misguided and ill-informed system of measurement. We can use the DXA scan, Body fat callipers, tape measures, pictures, clothes sizes which are more useful for you. If you are looking better and feeling healthier, your weight doesn’t really matter. Scales only tell you one thing – a number.
Thus the goal should always be Fat Loss , an Improved Body Composition not necessarily Weight Loss.
Kketan Sanghvi – Parent, D Y Patil International School Worli
