FAT loss vs WEIGHT loss
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Fat Loss vs Weight Loss - FIGHT!
Author: Jonathan Wong, Singapore Personal Trainer And Fitness Expert
It is important to know healthy weight loss facts. It can sometimes be hard to tell what is real from what is fake. I have had clients who have, in the past, spent many thousands of dollars on what can only be called weight loss scams.
Weight loss and fat loss is a MULTI-BILLION dollar industry. In the United States alone, this industry is estimated to be worth over 100 Billion US dollars in the year 2007. That is one country, in one year!
The truth is, the weight loss and fat loss market is so incredibly huge, that it is possible to be profitable by simply selling a scam and leaving a customer or client disappointed, upset, frustrated and worst of all... too scared to try again. Thus damning them to a life of poor health and low quality.
So what is it about fat loss vs weight loss? If you search for either of these terms in an online search engine, you will get millions of hits. Many from the same websites. It may seem slightly obvious to some, but fat loss and weight loss are not the same.
I say that I can help a person "lose weight" simply because weight loss is what most people commonly ask for and it is a term they easily understand. But as soon as I get the chance, I educate them that FAT LOSS is the key issue not weight loss. Once you start reading the articles on this site, it will become very clear that I don't actually care about weight loss. Why is this so?
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss: Round 1
Weight loss simply means "being lighter on the weighing scale" (scale weight).While its true that overweight people do tend to carry a lot of fat, we cannot just considerscale weight;when we set goals for ourselves. I don't care that much about my client's scale weight. I couldnt care less if they lost 30 pounds. 20 or 40 or even NONE would have been fine as well. Why is that? The simplest way I explain it to people is as follows:
You see, most of us want to look good and perform well, whether in daily tasks, or as an athlete who needs to control their own body to play a sport well. In general, this means having more muscles and less fat.
Fat doesnt help us at all in most sports, muscles do.
Fat doesnt look good on our hips, thighs or tummies, muscles do.
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss: Round 2
In general almost all of us need to gain some muscle and lose some fat to get to our fitness goals. Here is where scale weight comes in. Muscles have a large amount of water in them. Fats well they are fats. Have you ever seen oil (fats) and water (muscles) in the same glass? Which one floats? Yup its the oil. Oil is less dense that water. It takes up less space. Fat is about 20% less dense than muscle (0.9g/ml vs 1.1g/ml) if you want to be calculative about it.
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss: Round 3
In practice all this means that if you are following a good exercise and diet plan, you can gain muscles and lose fat at the same time. The increased muscles will offset the “weight loss” from the reduced fat resulting in a “disappointing” change in scale weight. This can be discouraging but in reality it's great news!
So if scale weight doesn’t matter, what then should we look for to check our progress? I look for 2 things.
Appearance: This can be easily seen: “hey my arms don’t jiggle when I wave at my friends”. Easily touched: “wow my stomach feels a lot firmer now”. And changes easily measured via fat measuring calipers. Seeing and touching is enough for most people to notice progress. Calipers just give a more consistent way to quantify it.
Performance: Simply put, you can do more with respect to your bodyweight if you are not carrying a lot of fat around. A good example is the chin-up. The chin-up exercise is all about strength to weight ratio. Fat doesn’t help at all. If a person increases his/her ability to lift their bodyweight, we can be pretty sure that they have gained some muscle and probably lost some fat.
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss: Round 4
Society as a whole has to get off the “weight loss” bandwagon and onto the “fat loss” one. Eating disorders, fad diets and slimming centers focus on weight loss. But usually the quality of their nutrition is doubtful, and they don’t do ANY proper training so the majority of the weight loss is muscle. It's even shown that when we go on a lousy weight loss plan, to body PREFERS to lose muscle weight rather than fat weight because its biologically efficient to do so.
It’s a never ending cycle:
Client comes in-->
Client uses scam product-->
Client achieves weight loss (but this is actually muscle loss)-->
Client's reduced amount of muscle means lower calories burnt per day thus making fat gain easier-->
Client goes back to his/her regular lifestyle but now that they use even less calories due to the muscle loss from the poor product-->
Client gets fatter than ever-->
Client goes back to the slimming center or fad diet-->
Unscrupulous makers of bad products/services have a never ending supply of "satisfied" clients
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss: CLEAR WINNER! Fat loss is king.
So remember, if you are looking better and performing better, you are on the right track. Let the scale weight fall where it may, it really doesn’t matter because we are going for performance and appearance. So please tell all your friends that you are on one of my "fat loss" programs even though you searched for "weight loss" on Google!
Contributed to Coachjon.com, site of Singapore Personal Trainer and Fitness Coach Jonathan Wong
Return From "Fat loss vs Weight Loss" to the Training Article page.
http://coachjon.com/articles/training/fat-loss-vs-weight-loss.htm -
I hope you got his permission to post it here?
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This is the reason why BMI is not a good indicator for athletes...
Want weight loss? Just chop off one limb. -
Wow so we gauge fat loss on our body not weight ?
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The mirror.
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Weight lost is easier to acheive as compared to FAT loss.Originally posted by Seth35:Wow so we gauge fat loss on our body not weight ?
Weight can be anything... -
thx fer dat. it helps.
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easier to Acheive ?
It seems a lot of tranining only moves down by 1 or 2 kg....
I cant wait -
What is your training and diet?Originally posted by Seth35:easier to Acheive ?
It seems a lot of tranining only moves down by 1 or 2 kg....
I cant wait -
Diet
2 meals a day...Not much...
Training....
Treadmile 30 mins - 3.3km - highest speed-7.8
Chest
-Bench Press-4 Sets 10 reps
-Flys-4 Sets 10 reps
-Incline-4 Sets 10 reps
-The chains on both side have to pull...-4 sets-10Reps
-the ones where you spread your arms an pull them together- 4 Sets-10 Reps
Arms i dont know how to classify fr each one...But i all do is 4 Sets-10 Reps -
chest and jog only? hmmmm
my training program now more or less settled till exams period or next sem
Sat-> Heavy chest (bench, fly, etc) and heavy legs (squats, calves, etc) workout
Sun-> Heavy back (deadlifts, rows, etc) and shoulder workout
Mon-> Light Swim so not tired so can study
Tue-> Light gym in school for legs and abs. Going to attempt extra weighted pulls ups training soon. Managed to do 6 reps of 10kg extra weight so far.
Wed-> Light jog of abt 3km. On road, so dunno speed
Thu-> Heavy school day = rest day
Fri-> 4km jog if not too tired
Everyday, at night, play with 8kg dumbbells for biceps, triceps and shoulders whenever feel tired of studying -
1)Why eat so little?Dont believe crap that you have to eat little to "lose weight"(which is probably muscle)Originally posted by Seth35:Diet
2 meals a day...Not much...
Training....
Treadmile 30 mins - 3.3km - highest speed-7.8
Chest
-Bench Press-4 Sets 10 reps
-Flys-4 Sets 10 reps
-Incline-4 Sets 10 reps
-The chains on both side have to pull...-4 sets-10Reps
-the ones where you spread your arms an pull them together- 4 Sets-10 Reps
Arms i dont know how to classify fr each one...But i all do is 4 Sets-10 Reps
2)Crap weights programme - where are the squat and deadlifts?Lack of pulling movements also.
3)Ditch the cardio and do interval training for 10 mins after weights programme.
Dont underestimate 10 mins of intervals vs 30 mins of jogging. -
3)Ditch the cardio and do interval training for 10 mins after weights programme.
I got run leh...
Monday, Wednesday and Friday i go gym
on tuesday,Thursday and Sunday i run at bishan park...Sometimes complete 6.6km leh
Swimming on Weekends...20 laps or more of freestyle and Breaststroke...
Gym i no need to train back leh...I have a bit v shape...and some muscles here and there....
mainly i do a lot of chest and arms...
i need to build up my chest...After become A Cup i afriad...Like that no different from the ladies....
Arms got do...But dont know how to say the types as i dont know their names...
Right now if you see me is more like those army come out one...But i not in army...Normal but back nice and shoulders quite nice...Belly still there.... -
You say your back and shoulders q.nice? Q.nice compared to who? Marathon runners?Originally posted by Seth35:I got run leh...
Monday, Wednesday and Friday i go gym
on tuesday,Thursday and Sunday i run at bishan park...Sometimes complete 6.6km leh
Swimming on Weekends...20 laps or more of freestyle and Breaststroke...
Gym i no need to train back leh...I have a bit v shape...and some muscles here and there....
mainly i do a lot of chest and arms...
i need to build up my chest...After become A Cup i afriad...Like that no different from the ladies....
Arms got do...But dont know how to say the types as i dont know their names...
Right now if you see me is more like those army come out one...But i not in army...Normal but back nice and shoulders quite nice...Belly still there....
You wanna compare your v-shape back with mine? And I still do back work without fail...
From the way you described your training,you dont have A CLUE what you are currently doing and what you are supposed to do... -
This thread is most probably an answer to Missqi's postings in the tyre lift thread...
Anyway guys, any good ways to burn fat quickly? What kind of food to take more and less of? Thanks! -
Interval training, but I'm still too lazy to do itOriginally posted by wonderamazement:This thread is most probably an answer to Missqi's postings in the tyre lift thread...
Anyway guys, any good ways to burn fat quickly? What kind of food to take more and less of? Thanks!
What kind of food? Other than protein powders taken by some forumites here, poor people like me just eat more. I eat canned tuna though for supper during gym days though (sat and sun) -
Seriously,if you RELIGIOUS stick to a 3 meals,3 snacks per day routine,protein powder is cheaper than food.Originally posted by eagle:Interval training, but I'm still too lazy to do it
What kind of food? Other than protein powders taken by some forumites here, poor people like me just eat more. I eat canned tuna though for supper during gym days though (sat and sun) -
I agree. I did my calculations too.Originally posted by Marco_Simone:Seriously,if you RELIGIOUS stick to a 3 meals,3 snacks per day routine,protein powder is cheaper than food.
To say the truth, there are a few reasons why I don't take
1) Mum and Dad dislike it.
2) I eat a lot already anyway.
3) Spending too much at one go is a bit steep for me although overall price per grams of protein is cheaper.
Unless you suggest a way for me to get cheap enough and yet be able to hide from my parents.
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Buy chocolate whey and put it in a milo tin.
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haha n1Originally posted by galapogos:Buy chocolate whey and put it in a milo tin. -
haha nice!Originally posted by galapogos:Buy chocolate whey and put it in a milo tin.
Then what if my mum wants to make milo drink also? -
You say your back and shoulders q.nice? Q.nice compared to who? Marathon runners?
Sorry if i meant wrong...I meant it was Acceptable...Not Fat...he shape is still there but not that perfect....
You wanna compare your v-shape back with mine? And I still do back work without fail...
From the way you described your training,you dont have A CLUE what you are currently doing and what you are supposed to do...
I know...Cause theres some instructors advising me....But i am just not sure about certain names of the workouts... -
Btws can someone explain with me interval tranining ?
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Its all in another thread..
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So what is the best way to train to optimize fat loss?
1. Specific Strength Training
2. Metabolic Training
Specific Strength Training.
Strength training is performed for several reasons - I will list just a few here.
1. Hormonal response
2. Muscular adaption
3. Metabolic disturbance (including EPOC effect)
Metabolic training(Bodyweight calisthenic intervals etc) is performed for similar reasons but work in synergy with the strength training.
1. Hormonal Response (hGH)
2. Metabolic disturbance (EPOC)
hgh-Human growth hormone
EPOC-Excess post exercise oxygen consumption
Source:Optimumperformance.com.sg