Weight loss tips, foods, and programs are everywhere; all promising you will lose weight and look great. Often many of these programs will help you achieve weight loss initially, but result in weight gain once you stop following the program. The weight loss achieved in many of these programs is not a true weight loss in the form of fat, but rather a combination of water, muscle, and body fat.
There is a big difference between losing weight and losing body fat. The goal should never be to lose weight, but always to lose fat! You want weight loss to come from fat, not water or muscle. The scale may reflect a smaller number, but you may be losing beneficial muscle, which will result in long-term weight gain, meaning fat-gain.
Body Fat Testing
It is important to determine whether you are losing fat or muscle, water, and fat. For example if you are a woman who weighs 150 pounds, with 35 percent fat, you’re carrying around more than 52 pounds of fat. Ideally, a healthy woman will be around 25 percent body fat, or about 37 pounds of fat. To reach a healthier level would require 15 pounds of fat loss not weight loss. Say you lost 20 pounds total, but only 10 pounds of it came from fat stores. You would still be at an unhealthy 32 percent fat. To reach the 25 percent body fat level, all 20 pounds must come fat. Body fat testing through body composition analysis is an effective method to measure body fat loss. Below is a body fat chart outlining body fat percentages for men and women.
Dehydration is Not Weight Loss
Often water or dehydration appears as weight loss changing the numbers on the scale. This is often one of the quickest weight loss tricks used by many programs and products in the market. If you lose weight it is because you’re dehydrated, you’ve only lost water, and the pounds will return in the blink of an eye. Don’t fool yourself into thinking those pounds are really gone. You still have just as much fat on your body as before. In fact, without hydration, the muscles will shrivel up because water keeps them plump and vital, leaving you lighter, but without any energy or strength.
Muscle Loss Slows the Metabolism
Losing weight other than fat is unavoidable, but the loss of muscle mass will cause a rebound effect that leads to weight gain. Muscle is metabolically active and lights your furnace, keeping your metabolism brisk and burning calories. Even when you’re sitting on the couch, you burn more calories if you have more muscle mass on your frame. So losing muscle means your furnace slows down, your metabolism gets sluggish and the weight keeps on coming.
Weight Loss Targeting Fat Loss
The new and latest weight loss programs will continue to emerge with promises of making you lose weight. Indeed, many of these programs will help you achieve weight loss, but likely only temporarily and possibly putting your health at risk. A medication, pill, shot or eating only a small selection of food that tastes like grass is simply unsustainable.
To specifically target fat loss, while maintaining lean body mass and hydration, the carbohydrate intake must be modified. All carbohydrates, good or bad raise blood sugar levels. As a result, too many carbohydrates significantly raise insulin levels, which act as a fat storage hormone, increase the production of cholesterol and increase arterial wall thickness, which induces high blood pressure. While targeting fat loss you must measure water mass/hydration, lean body mass, and body fat percentage to ensure you are achieving true fat weight loss. These measurements can be done through a body composition analysis device or at one of our Solstice Health clinics.
Solstice Health Weight Loss Program
Our weight loss program was designed to target fat. To date, we have helped our clients achieve over 13,500 pounds of targeted fat weight loss. The Solstice Health weight loss program is four-phase plan where women can expect o lose an average of 2-4 pounds per week and men, an average of 4-7 pounds per week. Our goal is to help our clients achieve weight loss and keep the weight off. If you are interested in learning more about our program, please feel free to reach out and schedule a free weight loss consultation today.
Solstice Health offers 3 convenient locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin.
Oconomowoc Wisconsin Location:
1020 Oconomowoc Parkway, Suite B
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin 53066
New Berlin Wisconsin Location:
17043 West Greenfield Avenue
New Berlin, Wisconsin 53151
Mequon Wisconsin Location: (Opening Fall 2016)
10945 N. Port Washington Road
Mequon, Wisconsin 53092
Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/78702-difference-between-losing-weight-losing/