Don't Lose Weight, Lose Fat
It is estimated that on any given day of the year, 38% of the population are on some type of diet or exercise program to “lose weight”. This means that more than 1 in 3 people wish to achieve a reduction of their body weight and are willing to sacrifice something to achieve this.
The sad part is that the majority, about 95% of these people, end-up abandoning their efforts or fail in their intent to diet or exercise. Very few achieve their goal and even less is able to maintain any weight lost. Because of this, obesity and overweight conditions have been increasing throughout the last 40 years and today these conditions have become an “epidemic” because they affect the large part of our population.
Meanwhile we receive heavy advertising through the media with daily images of skeletally thin models as a symbol of how thin we all should be. Everything we see on television and print media indicates that we are “fat” and that we carry more pounds than we should.
In my experience, a lot of the people who go on a diet fail simply because they have a wrong idea or a compulsion to “lose weight”. The generality that the problem is too much weight is a wrong idea. The general problem is not that we have too much weight, but rather that we have too much FAT, and this is what classifies us as “fat”, the body fat.
There is an important difference that we must recognize before we go on a diet only to then feel a “failure” because we are not “losing weight” like we wanted to. The crucial difference lies in knowing how to set the right goal. “Losing weight” is not the same as SLIMMING DOWN. When the body experiences weight loss, the loss could come from losing water, muscle or fat. In reality, what we are interested in is losing BODY FAT. We don’t want to lose water because our body will dehydrate and metabolism will slow down which will eventually make us fat. We don’t want to reduce muscle mass either because our skin will be flaccid and loose. The important thing is to reduce FAT. That is called SLIMMING DOWN and that is what we really want to achieve.
Some people have a compulsion with their body weight. They want to achieve, no matter what, weight loss. But, they forget that the body is made up of a lot of different components: water, bones, muscles, tissue and fat. The only thing we really want to reduce is body fat because it is body fat that makes us “fat”. It is also excessive fat that blocks our arteries and causes high blood pressure and heart attacks. It is excessive fat that causes an insulin resistance on diabetics and makes it impossible for them to control their condition. It is excessive body fat that makes some women infertile and causes a very painful or irregular menstruation. Fat is a necessary substance, but when it accumulates in excess it causes a bunch of hormonal and health problems. What we want to reduce is our body fat excess. In other words, SLIM DOWN.
Measuring body weight alone has never been a good indicator of how much fat a body has. This is because a human body is made up of at least 65% water and water weights much more than fat. Fat is not a heavy substance and this is why overweight people float in water much more easily. Fat is a very light substance, but it is very VOLUMINOUS. In other words, it occupies a lot of space. Which is why trying to measure the results of a diet or an exercise program with a scale is exposing you to failure. What we should really look at, to determine if we are losing weight, is your dress size. Observing the way your clothes now fit never fails because this tells you clearly whether you are really reducing fat in your body.
In addition, when we put additional pressure to weigh ourselves it creates an anxiety that increases cortisol hormone levels and this prevents us from slimming down. The continuous stress to weigh ourselves every day sabotages our efforts because the cortisol hormone reduces metabolism, makes us hungry and makes us fat.
If you want to go the logical and effective way when it comes to being slim, lose the scale. Do not weigh your body more than once a week and always keep in mind that the problem is not “being heavy”. The real problem is being “fat” and that cannot easily be determined well by a scale. Observe the changes in your dress size. If someone asks how many pounds you’ve lost, simply tell them “I lost 2 dress sizes” or “I lost 4 inches around my waist”. Don’t put too much importance to your body weight. Do put your attention to being able to fit into those clothes you have hanging in your closet that didn’t fit anymore.
Ironically, when a person begins an exercise routine, he or she gains weight. But this weight gain is good because a person is actually gaining muscle mass. Muscles weigh 2 ½ times more than fat. If you increase muscle, fat will reduce and you will be thinner. Increasing muscles is a good thing. I have heard a so-called nutritional expert tell his client not to exercise because exercise makes you gain weight. This is just a reflection of the expert’s ignorance regarding the human body. The best way to slim down is with the correct diet plan paired with an exercise routine.
So, forget about your weight. It is not important. Observe your dress size or the size of your waist. Give your scale a vacation and you will see that you will slim down and increase your energy.
Frank Suarez
Author , The Power of Your Metabolism
