Last Updated on September 30, 2020 by Martin
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
Not everything is always that perfect in the world of weight loss, especially not when it comes to weight loss vs. fat loss!
Back in my days as a personal trainer, one of the most frequent questions I got from potential clients was something like this!
“I have a wedding to attend in a month! Can you make me lose 20 pounds in the next month or so? As a minimum, of course?”
Or a more threatened question such as.
“If I am not losing at least 15 pounds in the next month? I want my money back, and I will NOT recommend you to my friends!”
The Truth About Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
The truth about weight loss is that everyone can lose 20 pounds in a month or so. Some may even be able to do it faster.
To reach that goal? All you have to do is to stop eating. Starve yourself, and you will get there!
If you want to do it more extreme, you can ramp up your cardio sessions doing an hour in the mornings and another one in the evening. Remember, to have an energizer drink close by if you feel like fainting.
And the results? You might be happy in the first couple of days until you start to worry about whether you are going to gain weight again, like the last time you tried to lose weight?
Even worse, you may also have ended up developing unhealthy patterns that can lead to eating disorders that can haunt for years to come.
The Downside
The truth about this type of weight loss diet is that 19 of the 20 pounds you have lost will be fluids and pure lean muscles. Congratulation, you have lost one pound of body fat on your extreme one month diet!
So, my point is, don’t fire your trainer if he cannot help you lose 20 pounds in a month. If he is certified, he is doing the right thing, helping you lose weight correctly and healthily. A way where you are losing fluids and lean muscles but pure body fat.
Fat Loss And Not Weight Loss Is The Main Goal Of Your Diet
When going on a healthy fat loss diet, your main goal is always to burn as much body fat as possible and maintain or build lean muscles. Remember, you must stay hydrated during the whole process, so don’t cut down on your water intake because you want to achieve a quick weight loss gain.
The issue with body fat is that it can be quite challenging to burn off. It doesn’t just disappear the same way as fluids and lean muscles. Starting to starve yourself by not eating doesn’t trigger your body to burn fat either.
Remember, you have a lazy body; it prefers to burn off the source of energy that is the easiest to get a hold on. In this case, first glucose and then your lean muscles before it starts to burn off fat.
Burning Body Fat
So when you want to promote a fat loss and not an unhealthy weight loss, you will have to sneak the fat off. You will have to be more patient and forget all about one-month extreme diets where you are starving yourself.
To burn fat optimally, you must trigger your body to do so, and the best way to do that is to lower your calorie intake around 500 daily. But remember, these numbers must be withdrawn from your average daily requirements and not what you are currently eating.
Your Daily Calorie Requirements
According to the U.S. Department of Health, women’s daily calorie set point is between 1,600 and 2,000 daily. Men’s are between 2,000 and 3,000 calories daily. The more active you are, the more calories you will need.
To be able to lose body fat, women will have to consume between 1,100 and 1,500 calories daily to promote a fat burn. For men, the numbers will be around 1,500 to 2,500 calories daily.
If you currently are gaining weight, you must also withdraw the calories you are overeating from your calorie set point. So, if you are a woman and you are consuming 2,800 calories daily, it is not enough just to lower your calorie intake by 500. You must reduce your daily calorie intake between 1,300 and 1,800 calories. Not considering that is a mistake many dieters are doing.
Therefore when starting your diet, it is essential to get all these numbers right! How much are you currently eating, and how many calories you need to drop?
To help you, there are plenty of different apps you can use online. I highly recommend you to use MyFitnessPal to count your calories because it comes with a complete database of almost all foods, meals, and dishes.
What About Exercising When It Comes To Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss?
You should complement with regular exercising and workouts to burn additional calories as you wish. But the most effective calorie burn you will get from cutting calories in your diet.
Depending on the type of workouts you are doing, each session can give you an additional calorie burn of between 400 and 800 calories. So 3 or 4 sessions weekly will add up helping you burning extra layers of fat.
Also, check this article: What Is The Best Type Of Cardio For Weight Loss And Fat Burn?
With that being said, it is essential to the point that working out frequently will also make you eat a little bit more. A natural cause of working out is that you will get hungry and want to eat something.
Don’t see it as a problem, but a window of opportunities. Having a healthy protein-rich diet will do you good and help you build lean muscles. In return, more lean muscles will raise your metabolism so you will increase your calorie set point and burn more fat daily.
It means you will not end up gaining weight again but will maintain or lose additional weight, depending on your goals.
Why You Don’t Want To Burn Lean Muscles Doing A Weight Loss Diet
As we said at the beginning of this article, fast-paced starvation diets will lead to a drop in body fluids and muscle loss.
It means your metabolism will drop, and you will burn fewer calories. You will either reach a point where it comes almost impossible to lose any additional weight, or to maintain the weight you have lost.
What often happens to dieters using this approach is that their weight loss is only temporary; after a few months, their weight will be up again, some even higher than when they started.
How Many Calories Do Lean Muscles Burn?
There is a lot of controversies on how many calories lean muscles are burning. Some experts claim that it can be as high as 50 calories per one pound of lean muscle. Others are more conservative, saying the burn is anywhere between 7 and 20 calories per pound of lean muscles.
It is unrealistic to believe that an additional 10 pounds of lean muscles will increase your resting metabolic rate by 500. If that were the case, all obesity problems would be solved by putting dieters on a bodybuilding program.
I prefer to put it differently. According to Christopher Wharton, Ph.D. certified personal trainer and researcher says in this WebMD article, 10 pounds of lean muscles burns roughly 50 calories a day.
If you are losing 20 pounds of lean muscles on your diet, you will lower your daily calorie setpoint by 100 calories or around 3000 calories every month.
Keep in mind that between 60 and 90% of your total body weight is lean muscles.
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Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss – The Take-Away
Let’s do a quick sum up and see what we so far have learned from this article.
- The faster you want to lose weight, the more it will backfire on you.
- Muscles lose not a real fat loss and may lead to a weight gain in the long run.
- When losing weight, you must focus on burning and losing fat, a genuine weight loss
- To make your diet a success, you must “sneak off” the body fat.
- You should only lower your daily calorie intake by 500 when it comes to your diet.
- If you are gaining weight, first subtract the calorie you are having too much and then the 500 calories from your setpoint.
- Feel free to burn additional calories by exercising
- Muscle loss leads to a lower metabolic rate.
What If I Want To Get Faster Results?
You can get faster results by taking a closer look at your diet. Not only by lowering your calorie intake but also by making it healthier and more nutritious.
To maintain and build lean muscles, make sure to plenty of protein in your diet. If you are not happy about eating meat, there are plenty of plant-based protein sources to choose from as well.
If you are not losing any weight at all, Make sure none of these 13 weight loss barriers are holding you back.
What About The Keto Diet?
The keto diet is very beneficial when you want to sneak the fat off. If you manage to stay in ketosis, you can accelerate your fat burn and get faster results. Check out our Keto Advanced review and see how you can lose weight doing the keto diet most efficiently.
Also, supplements like Pure Cut Keto and the Slimphoria Keto pills can be great choices.
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