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Difference between Losing Weight and Losing Fat
If you are looking for measures to stay in shape and shed some extra pounds that you have gained over time, it is quite easy. However, many end up mixing the terms while aiming to cut down fat. When there is a decrease in body weight from muscle, water, and fat loss then it is known as weight loss. Whereas the term fat loss refers to a drop in overall kilo weight or losing weight from fat instead of muscles, and it is considered to be a healthier and more effective way to lose weight. It gets pretty difficult to determine if it is fat that you are losing the weight from or muscle. So, here you will get an insight on the difference between weight loss and fat loss and also, why the latter is considered to be a healthier option from the two.
Some Important Difference to Take the Weight Off Your Mind
It is quite common among all fitness enthusiasts to keep track of their progress of weight loss with the help of a scale. Though this way proves to be pretty helpful, however, most of the scales aren’t designed to differentiate between muscle loss and fat loss. Keeping this in consideration, it is not reliable enough to track only your weight to determine if you are losing muscles or fat and in what amount. To estimate the precise results of your body structure and its composition by measuring fat percentage, one should go for a body fat scale. One can also consider going for skinfold calipers to determine the percentage of body fat, but this process requires quite a lot of practice and accuracy for correct results.
Focus on fat lot instead of weight loss
If you go on searching, you will find many weight loss plans on various platforms that claim to have exercises to make you lose weight in a matter of weeks or even days. However, it is quite mandatory to recognize that a significant amount of this weight might include losing muscle and water composition, and considering how important muscle is for your overall health, it can prove to be pretty deleterious. The benefits of maintaining a healthy percentage include maintaining healthy fat levels, regulating blood sugar levels such as cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood as well as controlling inflammation. Also, the reason behind men having higher calorie needs as compared to women lies in the fact that the more muscle percentage you have, the more calories you would end up burning even at rest, and losing weight in the form of muscles can decrease the calories you burn at rest.
Aside from that, muscles are also known to reduce the risks of age-related muscle loss which may lead to potential disability.
Leads to follow to lose fat and gain muscles
There are several factors that contribute towards ensuring that you lose weight precisely in the form of fat instead of muscles. These factors include, having a proper and consistent work-out regime, including good or healthy percentage of protein in your diet along with healthy amount of nutrients in your calorie deficit diet.
High protein percentage:
Protein plays a vital role in performing various bodily functions. Protein helps in repairing muscles and encourages muscle growth. Enzymes are important for digestion and energy production and help in regulating the balance of fluids and supporting overall immune health.
Though just having a good amount of protein along with a calorie-reduced diet would not help with gaining new muscles but it sure helps in repairing and maintaining muscle while increasing fat loss.
Having an effective work-out regime:
It is extremely important to adopt an effective exercising schedule not only to encourage fat loss, or repair muscles but to gain new ones. Exercising alone is said to be strategic enough to maintain muscle mass along with dieting which would help with cutting down that extra fat, making those toned muscles visible, but combining a satisfactory protein intake would certainly help with optimizing your results.
Following calorie deficit diet:
To cut on that bloated feeling and lose weight, it is important to create a calorie deficit. To make an effective calorie deficit add fruits, veggies, lean protein fruits, whole-grain foods, low-fat dairy, and products and beverages with no or less added sugar. Try abstaining from processed meats and fried foods from your diet.
End Note:
It is mandatory to measure the protein and calorie intake to tame down the overconsumption. Other measures to determine fat loss includes sizing up inches and centimeters lost from your hips and waist and noting the changes you feel while trying on old clothes. One should prioritize losing weight in form of fat rather than muscle considering how important the fat-to-muscle ratio proves to be for the overall health of an individual.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: How much protein percentage should one include in their diet?
A: While protein intake vary from person to person, depending on the height, age, sex, health and their level of physical activity or fitness. In order to support muscle mass retention, consumption of protein in the range of 0.43-0.73 grams per pound or in the range of 1-1.6 grams per kg of body weight in a day for fat loss with dieting is considered satisfactory.
Q: How much of cardio and strength training should one go for?
A: According to some Physical Activity guidelines, it is advised to do 150-300 minutes of cardio along with muscle- strengthening activities that involve major muscle groups.