The Big Difference Between Weight Loss and Fat Loss: Part One

Every once in a while, I tend to repeat things in these articles I write, not because I can’t think of anything else to write about, but to emphasize those points because they are of utmost importance. We strive to educate our customers as best we can and as often as we can to help ensure that they get as much out of their membership with us as possible, not only in the gym but through conversations with our staff, books that I’ve written and articles such as this one in our weekly newsletter.  So I’ve decided to write about the one thing that no matter how many times  I’ve preached about it over the last 38 years, there are many, many people who still need proper guidance in that respect. This will be the first of a three part series entitled:

THE BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEIGHT LOSS AND FAT LOSS

Part One: Your body and how it works

A bit of background is necessary here, in layman’s terms, in order for our readers to better understand how the human body works in regards to stimulus, whether it be heavy work, running, thinking, whatever it may be, physical or mental. Everything you do, whether consciously or unconsciously will cause a reaction from your body. Human bodies and even animals, all living creatures for that matter, have many natural mechanisms that manage how the body reacts to stimulus, good or bad. When it comes to weight reduction, there are many good things you can do which benefit you in your quest to reduce your body fat, and there are also many bad things that people usually do that can and will result in a bad situation down the road that most are not prepared for.

Once those attempts or actions one takes to try to reduce their body weight are separated into the good things and the bad things, and how your body reacts to them, you will better understand the proper and safe way to reduce your body fat.

Typically, the people that are members of our club, because they have our staff present in the club to answer questions and help them make sense of what they are doing in the gym and why, are certainly at an advantage, but those who are not members, and don’t know any better, are trying to reduce their body fat using all of the wrong methods, triggering defensive mechanisms in their bodies that “protect” them from themselves, and ultimately losing muscle mass because of it.

There are so many things on the market that claim to help you lose weight. There are more diet programs out there that you can count, exercise equipment that claims to transform your body and also many new drugs on the market that claim to help you lose weight. I’m not a fan of the drugs, but certainly a well planned eating system and some good equipment will certainly help you. But the one thing that I rarely if ever hear mentioned in the numerous diet plans available to the public is attention to how many total daily calories you require to safely lose the body fat that you want to lose while at the same time what to do to avoid losing any muscle. That’s the most important thing in my mind because if you are not eating the correct amount of calories, either your plan will not work or it will work but with consequences because the  biggest concern when trying to lose body fat is that you don’t lose any muscle mass in the process.

Loss of muscle mass will slowly and inevitably happen as a result of simply aging, so by doing things that compounds that can be detrimental to your health and well being. That is the message that I will try to get across to you in this series and how to prevent that from happening.

In Part Two of this series, I will dive deeper into what those things are that you should not do and what the consequences will be if you do. Stay tuned.

Gino