Some people use the term weight loss while others call it fat loss whilst many use the terms weight loss and fat loss interchangeably. Do they mean the same thing? To many people, they do mean the same thing. But the terms may be entirely different in meaning. You must know the difference if you want to lose weight or lose fat effectively and healthily.

What’s weight loss?

When you step onto your bathroom scale every morning, what you will be reading from the scale is weight loss and not fat loss. Bath room scales are never accurate in determining fat loss.

Why?

Because it measures your overall weight and not your body fat per say. If you weigh yourself in the morning before breakfast after your bowel movement, you will probably get your lowest reading of the day because your body is dehydrated through hours of non fluid replenishment when you were sleeping and after emptying your bowels, more water and wastes are flushed away so much so that you are you are lighter.

After a night of sleep and not eating anything, your carbohydrate store is running low and therefore you are even lighter without the stored carbohydrate known as glycogen. What happened then? You just loss weight not loss fat! Your body fat is still there while the weight of other substances such as glycogen, wastes, water etc are depleted.

Now go weigh yourself again after dinner when you are fully replenished through meals and consumption of water and you be surprised that you may probably weigh 2kg or more heavier and that is at least 4.4 pounds! You just gained weight and may even gained fat! Now you can see that it is such a misnomer when people think weight loss and fat loss are the same thing.

Why must you know the difference? Because for most of us, especially those who are on the fat side want to lose fat and not necessarily want to lose weight. Getting the drift?

Is there a difference?

Now for the more important part. Mere weight loss may cause you to lose muscle and in turn, make you gain body fat later. Yes, it is ironical. That is because the more muscle mass you have, the more you burn fat efficiently because muscle is an active tissue and it requires calories to function. Body fat just sit there doing nothing and thus do not burn calories on its own. So the less muscle mass you have, the less calories your body will burn. The fewer calories your body burn, the more calories end up being stored as body fat! Therefore it is important to lose fat but not merely lose weight which may include the loss of muscle tissues.

How is it that a person may lose muscle on a weight loss programme?

Well for starters, we commonly hear about people going on this diet and that diet. Most diets demand a severe restriction of food or calorie intake. Your body will then signal to your mind that you are in a starvation mode and the body is designed to store fat for the impending famine and will use up your muscle for energy in your daily activities.

Some diets advocate a severe cut in carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is your body’s first source of energy. When your body is depleted of carbohydrate, it turns to your protein (muscles) and body fat indiscriminately for energy. Now to make matters worse, because of the restricted carbohydrate consumed, there will be fewer carbohydrate calories to be used as energy calories and that again will signal the onset of starvation mode again. The vicious cycle of your body cannibalising its own muscle is set in motion again. The same applies to people on slimming pills or salon fat loss programmes.

So some people say ok, I see your point, so I will just do plenty of cardio exercises to lose weight. Another grave mistake. Have you ever wondered why marathon runners, those who run many kilometers often and are doing cardio exercises almost every day are so skinny with no muscle tone? Because your body is a wonderful machine. It is designed to adapt. When you run or skip or swim long enough, it will say, look, I better get lighter so that I can take the stress better and improve the endurance. Guess what? Your muscles are heavier than fats and what will your body shed more when it wants to get lighter? Muscle or fat? Your body will shed both but more muscles than fats.

Anyway, why would you want to lose weight only to become a smaller you with the same body shape without any muscle tone? Why would you want to be on a weight loss programme that eats your muscles and lower your fat burning rate so much so that when you are off the programme, the fats come piling back on again?

Lose weight but build muscles

Therefore, while you are on a lose weight programme, you must also be on a build muscle programme. That will mean a combination of correct dietary habit, cardio exercises and weightlifting exercises to maintain muscle preservation and a fat loss result.

From now on tell people you are on a fat loss programme and not a weight loss programme. That you are on a correct eating habit instead of just simply dieting.

With the distinction clearly in mind, you will then know how to lose fat effectively, preserve and grow your muscles and at the same time losing weight on your bathroom scale. That would be an ideal way to achieve your weight loss objective because you will lose body fat instead of muscle and mere body wastes.