San Juan Island Fitness Home Page
Community Healthy Weight Challenge Home Page
"there is a big difference between losing weight and losing fat"
It is important that everyone out there understands that there is a big difference between losing weight and losing fat. I mean sheesh,
anyone can lose weight, all you have to do is eat birdseed and arugula with a side of grapes.
You'll lose weight.
When you step onto your bathroom scale every morning, what you will be reading from the scale is weight loss and not fat loss. Bath room scales are never accurate in determining fat loss.
I think what most of us here are looking to achieve is fat loss.
It?s called ?fat-loss? as apposed to ?weight-loss? because many unsuccessful weight-loss programs result in loss of lean body tissue as well as fat. Loss of lean body mass, which is essentially muscle, drives your metabolic rate down and reduces your capacity for physical work. A successful fat-loss program centers on the reduction of body fat levels with minimal disruption to your metabolic rate and energy levels. For anyone here who may have been on a ketogenic diet, didn't they tell you not to exercise for the first little while? The only other time I have been told not to exercise was when my body was in distress, whether after surgery or sick with a nasty flu. Doesn't make sense to me.
In fact, most of these fad diets wreaking havoc out there demand a severe restriction of food or calorie intake. Your body will then signal to your mind that you are in a starvation mode and the body is designed to store fat for the impending famine and will use up your muscle (protein) for energy in your daily activities.
Some diets advocate a severe cut in carbohydrate (Low Carb-No Carb). Carbohydrate is your body's first source of energy. When your body is depleted of carbohydrate, it turns to your protein (muscles) and body fat indiscriminately for energy. Now to make matters worse, because of the restricted carbohydrate consumed, there will be fewer carbohydrate calories to be used as energy calories and that again will signal the onset of starvation mode again. The vicious cycle of your body cannibalizing its own muscle is set in motion again. Does this seem healthy to anybody reading this??
My advice to you is that if you want to be successful in your fat-loss campaign, for the love of Pete (whoever Pete is...)don?t be in a rush. You need to be looking at creating a slight negative energy balance (500-800 calories), which is something you?ll be able to stick to long-term, rather than the ever-popular crash dieting strategies sold to us by the do-do birds on TV and in all those magazines. Crash dieting is unlikely to work long-term for various reasons. First of all the motivation for rapid weight loss is short-term in nature anyway because it centers on a ?quick-fix? mentality. This invariably leads to the nightmare roller coaster ride of emotions that the ?yoyo dieter? or "crash dieter" often falls ? determination to diet, rapid weight loss, weight-loss plateau, loss of determination, return to old habits, depression, rapid weight gain, depression, guilt, new determination to diet, rapid weight loss? and so it goes on.
Knowing your BMR at rest and what your BMR is with activity is the key folks. As I said above, if you don?t have any food coming in (calories), your carbohydrate stores will run out pretty quickly, because of their very limited supply (within the muscles and liver). Once this runs out, you?re left with fat and protein as fuel sources. In preference to using its fat stores, the body will metabolise protein for one logical reason: Protein constitutes the structure of our muscles and organs, all of which are living tissue, requiring energy to ?exist? at rest.
In order to hold on to your muscle when you?re at negative energy balance, guess what? You need a diet rich in carbohydrate. They are our friends!!! Carbohydrate is said to have a ?protein-sparing? effect, because in its absence, protein will be converted to carbohydrate through a process called ?gluconeogenesis? to enable your metabolism to run smoothly. So apart from sparing protein and preserving a high basal metabolic rate, enabling you to burn more fat at rest, carbohydrate will provide you with the capacity to exercise effectively and at length.
I hope this has helped out a few of you on your journey towards good health, fitness and overall wellness in your lives!
as found on this website...