Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss: Learn Why Your Scale May Be Your Worst Enemy   by Randy Baker

in Health / Weight Loss    (submitted 2011-09-07)

In your quest of a leaner body, you know doubt utilized a bathroom scale to record your progress. However, you may have been doing yourself a grave disservice. As you know, a scale measures how much weight you have lost, but it will never tell you where this weight was lost from. This is where the problem lies. When dieting, your total weight loss could potentially come from fat loss, water loss, or muscle loss. Evidently, the former is what we all want to attain, and the latter two are what we need to try and avoid whenever dieting. Regrettably, many of the fad diets claiming speedy weight loss are often achieving this at the expense of water loss and/or muscle loss. Generally speaking, if you are losing greater than two pounds per week you are probably losing muscle as well.

The best way to monitor your progress when embarking on a new diet is to monitor your body fat percentage and your lean body mass. Lean body mass is your weight excluding fat. Lean body mass includes bone, muscle, and other fat free tissues with the majority of this being muscle. By measuring these two items, you will be able to specify how much fat you are losing and whether or not you are losing any muscle. The easiest way to measure your body fat percentage is through skinfold testing. If you know a personal trainer or other fitness professional in your area, they will probably be able to take these measurements for you. Still, self skinfold testing is available with the utilization of the "Accu-Mesure", which can by found easily online.

Once you have determined your body fat percentage, you are ready to compute your fat weight and lean body mass. To figure your fat weight, multiply your total weight by your body fat percentage. Remember to convert your body fat percentage to decimal form before multiplying. I.e. 11% body fat would be converted to .11 Once you have measured your pounds of fat, subtract your pounds of fat from your total weight in pounds, which will render you your lean body mass.

Armed with these easy equations, you will be able to follow your weight loss much more accurately than by merely using a scale alone. You will know exactly where your weight loss is coming from, so you can quickly make adjustments to your caloric intake to maximize your results. For instance, if your lean body mass decreases and your body fat decreases, this should tell you there is too much of a calorie deficit and you should increase your daily calorie intake slightly to prevent the loss in lean body mass. Whenever you're on a calorie restricted diet, some loss in lean body mass and muscle is hard to fend off. However, this loss in lean body mass should be limited to a few tenths of a pound per week. Initially, when first starting a diet program, you will probably notice a larger drop in lean body mass due to water loss. Don't get alarmed by this. An obvious downward trend in your lean body mass over time is unquestionably a concern.

It is beyond the scope of this article to talk about proper nutrition and how to estimate daily caloric needs for weight loss; however, I will mention an easy formula that can be used to get you in the ballpark if you have average or better body fat percentages. To compute your total daily calories needed for fat loss, multiply your total weight by 12-13. This will give you a good beginning point. I will also mention that spreading your calories out over 5-6 meals per day with each meal consisting of approximately 55% complex carbohydrate, 30% lean protein, and 15% fat will give you the best chance of permanent fat loss. Plainly, these percentages may not work for everyone, but they are a good place to start. If you want to maintain your hard earned muscle, it is also important you keep up a weight lifting routine, while dieting.

I hope this information will help you accomplish all your weight loss goals and help you understand exactly how your nutrition and diet program is affecting your body. There is certainly still a place for the bathroom scale, but unless you're also measuring the items above, you will never in full achieve the affect of your diet program and reaching your full potential may be difficult. I wish you the best of luck.

About the Author

Randy Baker
http://allnaturalhealthandfitness.yolasite.com

http://ems.EatLessFeelFull.com

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