In our society the topic of weight/fat loss is a common theme in many of our day-to-day lives and is often swapped, interchanged or exchanged with no clarification of difference. This begs the question; do we really know the difference?
If someone was to ask you what’s the difference between weight loss and fat loss could you tell him or her? What if they asked which one is best for you, could you also answer that?
The simple reality is, many of us couldn’t answer it. We have been successfully bombarded with clever marketing and advertising to blur the definition between fat loss and weight loss. For what reason has the fitness industry done this? Easy money. By blurring the definition you can market weight loss as fat loss that seem to positively affect your health, but are ultimately superficial, increase risk of reoccurring weight gain, and negatively impact health by severely decreasing your muscle mass and metabolic rate.
So, what is the difference between fat loss and weight loss?
Fat loss – Is the process of utilizing fat as energy and at the same time maintaining or increasing muscle tissue.
Weight loss – Occurs when the body is in a calorie deficit and breaks down its own muscle tissue (our most energy demanding tissue) in order to quickly adapt to the lower caloric diet. This process rapidly breaks down muscle tissue in order to reach energy equilibrium. Some fatty tissue is also utilized in the process, however it is mainly muscle tissue and water from the deteriorated muscle cells that is lost.
Just from reading the two definitions you can see how highly beneficial it would be from a business perspective to market weight loss as fat loss as it is quick and easy to achieve and requires little dietary knowledge and programming skills. Simply put, a client on a diet with fewer calories than their BMR and they will ‘see their weight loss dreams come true’. But is this healthy? No. Not at all.
When you’re on a low calorie diet your body will reduce its energy demanding muscle tissue in order to adapt to the low energy intake. When you lose muscle your metabolic rate decreases. When you resume normal diet habits, your metabolic rate is slower than when you started the ‘weight loss diet. This drastically increases the likelihood that you will put the weight back on as fat, which makes your far worse off than you were before you started the weight loss program.
People these days want everything quick and easy, often at the expense of their own health and when a product or service offers quick results we jump at the opportunity. Unfortunately, as we know from experiences with other products from other industries, things that are fast and cheap to produce are often low quality and don’t last long, this is the same with weight loss programs. Programs that are quick and easy may serve you well in the short term but can often leave you worse off in the long run.
Fat loss takes time, maintains muscle tissue, requires years of knowledge and experience and has a positive impact on overall health in the short term and in the long.
Weight loss is quick, destroys muscle tissue, requires little knowledge and experiences but will get you ‘weight loss results’ in the short term. However, it will leave you worse off in the long run.
The choice is yours.
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