Weight Loss or Fat Loss

I hope you're well. 

For this post I wanted to talk about something that a lot of people get a bit confused about...

The difference between weight loss and fat loss.

Most people will say they want to "lose weight", but what they really mean is they want to lose body fat.

"Weight" on the scales means very little.

When you jump on the scales, you're weighing not just body fat, but also muscle, bone, the contents of your stomach, the contents of your bowels...

(I'll never forget watching an episode of "The Biggest Loser" when one of the contestants lost a pound that week and one of the trainers furiously exclaimed "A pound?! I could shit a pound!" - Brilliant!)

It's actually an incredibly poor indicator of how much fat you're losing.

Everyone who's ever attended Weight Watchers or similar knows this - they often avoid eating all day before a weigh-in so the scales don't say they've put on weight!

That's a great way to deceive yourself and everyone else!

(They then proceed to smash an entire days' calories in one sitting, with their "low points" curly wurly's and pink wafers!)

IF you're going to weigh yourself - and let's face it, it IS something that people are worried about and the easiest metric to track - you need to do it at the same time every day, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything, and then work out your weekly average. Then compare week to week.

DO NOT use a single day as a snapshot, because "weight" fluctuates massively.

But really, what you should be tracking is FAT LOSS

This is the one people are really thinking of when they talk about "weight loss".

No-one wants to shed 2 stone of muscle and keep hold of all of their fat - that would be insane.

Yet the scales would have you believe you're achieving your goal, because the number is dropping!

So in order to really know whether you're heading in the right direction or not, you need to be measuring your body fat percentage and using that to track your progress.

Ditch the scales, and start tracking body fat - that's what people are really trying to lose, not "weight".

If your body fat percentage drops, you know you've lost body fat, not muscle.

(The other way to decrease body fat, as a percentage, would be to increase muscle mass - this would likely mean an increase in weight!)

So whilst it's ok to talk about "weight loss", just remember that what you're really talking about is fat loss, and maybe replace the "weight loss" talk with "fat loss" talk to help other people realise the difference too.

If you ever hear me talking about weight loss, know that it's simply because that's what most people still talk about and think of - I will always mean, and be focussing on, fat loss. I'm just using language people resonate with. 

Using weight as a measure of progress would be doing people a massive injustice, and anyone who uses bodyweight to measure success is doing people a disservice (you know who I'm talking about).

Don't fall victim to the "weight loss" crowd. The fact they focus on weight shows they don't know what they're talking about.

And as for BMI...! Height to weight ratio is meaningless if you're using "weight" (12 stone of fat or 12 stone of muscle? There's a BIG difference!) 

I truly can't believe the NHS and even the army still use BMI - it truly isn't a "health" service - just a "sick" service.

Do yourself a favour - start tracking your body fat percentage and STOP stressing over your weight.

Unless you're 30 stone (in which case, yes, any weight loss is likely going to help extend your life right now), you should be looking at body fat, not weight.

There are various options, but just make sure you use the SAME method each time you measure, under the same conditions wherever possible.

The Naval Method is the cheapest option and is reasonably accurate.

I'd avoid the scales that supposedly measure BF% - mine are literally 10% OVER my actual BF% - not accurate AT ALL.

Leave a comment if you've found this useful.

Mark