Weight Loss, Fitness, And Fat Loss Are Not The Same
Weight loss
Weight loss. Fitness. Fat loss. These and other terms get thrown around a lot, often interchangeably, especially since more than two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and so many of us want to lose weight. But do these terms mean the same thing? Are they interchangeable?
This subject is so important because though these terms are often used interchangeably, they are very different. And it's important for anyone interested in losing weight and getting fit to understand these differences.
First is weight loss. These two words for me, as a weight loss and fitness professional, are counterfeits. I say this even though I sometimes call myself, along with my professional fitness colleagues, a weight loss pro. Let me explain.
In reality, what anyone who is overweight or obese needs to do is not lose weight, but to lose body fat. Even more specifically, excess body fat. Losing excess fat is the real mission, what really counts. Forget weight loss. If you're simply shooting for weight loss, and aren't doing it correctly, you're almost certainly losing muscle along with fat and muscle loss is the last thing you need.
What we're measuring when we weigh ourselves is the total of our physical bodies: water, muscle, fat, tissue, blood, bone, etc. All these are good, including fat; body fat is just as necessary and vital for our bodies as muscle, skeleton, blood and the rest. We couldn't exist without it. It's excess body fat that is the problem. Too much body fat is what causes health problems, and it is excess body fat that has to be banished.
But the reality is the word fat is like another F word; many of us avoid using it altogether, especially if we're using it to describe our current physical shape. We'd rather say, "I'm overweight" than admit, "I'm fat." Or, "I need to lose some weight," rather than "I need to lose fat."
This is understandable. Being overweight is embarrassing and worse for many people. So we save face or avoid embarrassment by using words like overweight, stocky, chubby, plump, wide-body, husky, hefty and the rest. These are euphemisms, words or phrases used in place of a term considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, offensive. And the word fat for many people is all these things: too direct, harsh, unpleasant and offensive.
Whatever words or phrases are used, the most important point to understand is what you really want to accomplish is to lose excess body fat, without suffering muscle loss. That has to be the mission of any diet, weight loss plan or program.
Here is a heads-up that is profoundly relevant to this entire subject: the BMI, or body mass index, is a false formula for determining one's best weight. I don't care who recommends the BMI formula, and that includes your doctor, it is nonsense, and knowledgeable experts have proven this beyond a doubt. This is a subject for another article, but keep it in mind. You're much better off consulting a reasonable weight/height table than relying on the BMI formula.
All of this brings me to one of my favorite subjects, which is fitness. I just read another of those endless articles that details yet another of the endless studies that researchers and scientists continue to crank out. This article said some recent findings indicate that a person can be overweight (that is, fat) and still be fit.
Rather than argue or wait for further findings from further studies, I have decided to choose to agree. As a fitness professional, I now agree, yes, some findings indeed show that one can be fat and still be fit. No more arguments from me. But I also follow up by asking, "Studies or not, do you really want to be fit and at the same time fat?"
I personally prefer to be fit and not fat. Fit and fat free, to put it another way. I want to not only feel my best, but also look my best. And I look my best when I am free of excess body fat. I know this, because people, many times strangers, regularly compliment me on my fitness when I'm at my best weight.
A buddy put it another way when we were discussing these subjects, and captured my own feelings about the fat vs. fit discussion perfectly. As for carrying around extra weight, excess pounds, flab, extra adipose tissue, fat, he said: "Let the sumo wrestlers do it, not me."
Amen, my brother, I wholeheartedly agree.
by: Jerome Kellner
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