Digging deep into fat loss: fat loss vs weightloss
As someone who works in the field of fitness, I hear both these terms all the time. I have had people come to me saying they want to lose weight and I have people come to me saying they want to lose fat. Not everyone knows the difference when you say you want to lose fat or you want to lose weight, so I am here to explain.
Let’s start with weight loss, the loss of weight can be from any component in the body such as fat, water, muscle and more. Fat-los, as the name implies, is specifically the loss of excess fat in the body. Fat mass is all fat molecules that take place in the body. You will need more than a weight scale to find out how much fat you have gained or lost. The standard weight scale you might have in your bathroom is only going to show you your overall weight.
For instance, I step on the scale week 1 of my fitness journey and the scale says 165lb. We now are 8 weeks into my fitness journey and the scale reads 160lb. That 5lbs lossed can mean a number of things. That 5 pounds is 5 pounds of weight lost from my body. It could be a little bit of fat, muscle (hopefully not muscle if I am in a weightlifting routine), and water loss. If I really want to know the exact amount of fat I lost in 8 weeks I would have to measure myself on a more complex scale. There is “smart” scales on the market for reasonable prices that show your BMI, fat, and visceral fat% which is a great tool to have if you are wanting to know how much fat you have. Keep in mind these scales may not be 100% accurate so other ways that you can track your BMI more accurately can be from skin folds, body composition machines and water BMI testing.
I believe in my opinion, that being educated on fat-loss and ways to measure fat is the most important thing to consider when it comes to calculating body fat percentages. But it is just as important to take into account that the number on the scale that may have gone up 5 pounds in the last week is not 5 pounds of fat. I just want to brush over these examples because I will save going more in depth for another post. But I do think it is very important to know the extent the number on the scale has because I was there once, discouraged and confused when I felt better in my body but the number on the scale did not change.
