Weight Loss vs Fat Loss What's The Difference?

The most discouraging thing about losing weight is knowing that you are eating and exercising 100% right but that number on the scale doesn't seem to move that much. Even if we feel that our clothes are feeling a lot looser or that our body actually does look a lot different in pictures and in the mirror, that number on the scale can discourage us from reaching our fitness goals. I'ts been embedded into our minds that how much we weigh determines if we are Fit or not. I have people ask me all the time what weight am I supposed to be for my height? or tell me that the doctor said they have to weigh a certain amount for their height. In today's blog we will cover what is the difference between weight loss and fat loss and which should you strive to do in order to reach your fitness goals.

The first thing we have to take into account is that when we weigh ourselves the number that appears is an overall number that includes body fat, muscle, water, bones, and organs. The only thing you should be concerned about losing is body fat and any excessive water weight your body might be holding on to, which you can do by lowering your salt intake and drinking the required amount of water for your body daily. Losing water weight can make it seem like you lost fat because you will weigh less on the scale, but in reality all that really happened was that your body got dehydrated. Once you go back to eating and drinking normally the water weight will come back.

Another reason why the weight scale might not move is because you are incorporating weights into your fitness regimen. This by no means is a bad thing, adding weight training is actually vital to help you lose body fat and keep it off. For every pound of muscle you have your body burns about 50 calories daily even if you don't workout. If you gain 10 lbs of muscle that means your body will burn about 500 calories daily. Building more muscle helps you build a calorie burning machinery in your body which will keep you leaner overall. The added muscle will also mess you up when you see the scale. See if you lose 5 lbs of body fat but gain 3 lbs of muscle the weight scale will tell you that you only lost 2 lbs. This is very important because if you are fitting into your clothes better and you are seeing improvements in pictures and in the mirror but the scale isn't moving much it's a great sign that you are adding muscle. When I first started I was like everyone else obsessed with the number on the scale going down, but now if the scale doesn't move I know I built muscle and got rid of only body fat.

Now the difference with weight loss and fat loss is that with weight loss you will more than likely be losing more muscle mass and water weight than actual body fat, and with fat loss you are preserving your muscle mass while getting rid of mostly body fat. You might weigh less on the scale with weight loss but it doesn't really matter how much you weigh if you aren't proud of your results. It doesn't matter how much you weigh as long as you are losing body fat and feel healthy doing it.