Improve Fitness

Thanks in part to shows like Biggest Loser, a huge amount of focus is placed on “Weight Loss”.

Fast Loss should be your goal, not weight loss.  Keep firmly in sight the reality of achieving a Healthy, lean body.

Some people get upset at me because I keep saying fat loss, but if I had my way, they would remove “Weight Loss” from the dictionary.

You DON’T want to set weight loss as a goal.

First thing we know is that you are reading this article, so there is a darn good chance that you are looking to reach at least one of these goals:
1 - Feel better and have more energy while improving your mood.
2 - Live longer and improve the quality of your life by improving your health
3 - Improve your appearance and feel more confident and attractive.

Some of you might have different goals but I bet that one of the above or all of the above play some part in you overall long term goals.

It is imperative that you have a complete understanding of the following concepts.

You will not obtain your goals by losing scale weight.  You can become obsessed with the scale and what it shows you each week. You will begin to dream of seeing that one week weight loss of 12 pounds like you see on Biggest Loser.  You should be focused and dreaming of the way you are going to look, not the scale.

Why?

Different elements of your body structure figure into your weight and your appearance, as well as your health.

There are people that weight 250 pounds that are extremely lean and cut, with fantastic health.  At the same time there are people that only weigh 160 pounds that are soft and flabby, with poor conditioning and health.

You body weight is the total of Muscle, fat, water and glycogen.  When you only focus on you body weight, you are making a very harmful mistake because you are not taking all of these parts into consideration.

If your goal is to get lean and healthy, then you must focus on losing what is not healthy and attractive and keeping or adding what is healthy and attractive.  Your real goal should be as simple as this…

Maintain Muscle Mass and Burn the Fat

Stop being obsessed with the scale, this is the only way you will really reach your goal.  If you continue to obsessed with the scale, then you are doomed to just become a smaller fat person.  You will not be healthy, you will not be lean, you will not be attractive.

What should you do?

Make up your mind and set a goal to slowly lose fat while keeping or even adding muscle mass.

Here are some reasons that you should focus on this goal.

The starting point to consider is your basal metabolic rate, the amount of calories your body burns when you are at rest.  The more lean muscle mass you have, the quicker your metabolism operates, allowing you to burn more calories.

Next consideration is the reality that the more lean muscle mass you have, the better you will look.  This muscle mass will give you the athletic looking body that most of you are working for.

Just having a low body fat percentage will not give you the cuts and definition that most everyone finds desirable.  You know those six pack abs.  This is only accomplished if you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass.  This does not mean that you are bulky looking or have the appearance of Mr. Olympia.

Crash diets are every place you look these days, from television commercials, internet hype to the Biggest Loser television show.  These types of diets will stop you dead in your tracks and doom you to failure in the long run.

Your body will decide its starving and program itself to store body fat and then use muscle mass for energy, resulting in a  change in the production of hormones that actually stop fat loss.

What you will end up with is an unhealthy, out of shape body that might be lighter than when you began, but now it is programmed to store fat and will in the long run, end up going back to your original weight and even more because of the lower metabolism and the ability to burn calories at rest.

There is a simple way to avoid this potential physical disaster.

Set your fat loss goals to aim at slowly reducing your bodies fat stores, while increasing or keeping your current lean muscle mass.  Before someone jumps all over this statement with “you can not add muscle while losing fat”, you are right, sort of.  Remember that lean muscle mass is bone density, muscle fiber, glycogen stores and muscle hydration.  For the first few weeks if you have never worked out or have not worked out for a good period of time, your muscle mass will in fact increase even on a diet to lose body fat.

This goal and approach to fat loss is the only way to get the type of lean, athletic appearance that you are working toward and dreaming of.

I hope by this time you have realized that the weight shown on your scale is only a small piece of the puzzle. Fat loss versus weight loss which one do you want?