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"Do You Want Fat Loss Or Weight Loss"

By Rodney Golden

Do You Want Weight Loss or Fat Loss?

The answer is FAT LOSS! But most people use the words…..weight loss. It really stems from the large and ever evolving “diet center phenomenon.” The lingo they use and have brain washed our society is weight loss. The language needs to be changed to fat loss. But that’s a little trickier than just stepping on a scale.

At least, this is what almost 95% of the people dieting and working out today are trying to achieve. But with better education and credentialed fitness professionals, more and more people are beginning to understanding that traditional weight loss methods do not work. So people are now beginning to understand the difference between weight loss and fat loss. There are still some aha’s to discover and that’s where I come in. To help you discover the real meaning behind weight loss and fat loss.

In this article, I’m going to explain the difference from a fitness professional’s point of view. After I get done explaining the difference, I’ll explain the only methods needed to lose fat consistently.

Why do people use the term weight loss so much? Well, it’s the easiest way of measuring and communicating about your body. It’s the standard of tracking that so many are used to using. But is it truly accurate? Nope. When I meet with people, I like to find out how much weight they want to lose. After discovering what that magical number is, I’ll dig a little deeper to find out past weight, current weight and everything that has to do with weight.

By asking these particular questions, I can see what weight standards they are using. I’ll then match them up with how people respond to our program using weights, optimal cardio, and a balanced diet.

It’s important to know that weight is a very temporary and revolving term. Your weight can change everyday. Weight is best measured in longer periods of time. Have you ever experienced the dramatic weight-loss in the first week and then saw less and less the following weeks. This will happen all the way up until you don’t see anymore weight-loss.

There’s a couple of things going on here. One is, the initial weight loss has come from a decrease in immediate calories which has everything to do with water loss and not true fat loss? Is the goal to take the weight off just to easily put it back on? Well, if the weight loss is water weight. Then yes.

Guess what, you’re going to put it back on fast. Second, the continuous cutting of calories in order to lose consistent weight will leave you with a less than optimal metabolism. Once the cutting of calories begins, the body responds by slowing the speed at which it burns calories. So traditional dieting methods are futile.

Another important factor of measuring traditional weight loss is that you don’t know what you are measuring. Are you made up of all muscle? Are you made up of all bone and skin? Are you considered “big boned?” Do you have high levels of fat? What about when the scale starts moving and going down? What are you losing? Is it all water? Is it muscle? If it is, you’re creating a “snails pace” metabolism.

So does the scale really know what it’s reading? The answer is no. It just knows the weight.

If you want to lose weight the right way. It takes a paradigm shift. A different way at looking at weight loss. First, we have to determine what is it that we want to happen to our body. Do we want more energy? Tone up? Build strength? These are all benefits of following a program that will help you lose weight in time, but more importantly lose body fat consistently. We’ve got to understand that there is really two different weight systems that make up weight. One is fat mass and the other is muscle mass. These two subjects make up the human body along with a host of other things. But what we are concerned with here is muscle mass and fat mass.

By measuring these two things we can determine a body fat percentage. This is the ratio of fat to muscle. We then compare the amount of fat mass by the total body weight For example, if you weighed 130 pounds and you had 35 pounds of fat on you entire body you would have a body fat percentage of 27%. There would be a remaining balance of 95 pounds composed of muscle, bone, water weight, and organs.

The measurement of fat and muscle gives us a better perspective of what you are made of. Using this gauge we can determine a body fat percentage and design a practical plan that increases metabolism and therefore burns body fat at a much higher rate without sacrificing muscle tissue.

So once we make our paradigm shift from weight loss to fat loss we can move forward.

To design a fat loss plan. You are going to need a few things in your tool box. I call it my fat loss toolbox. There is no fat loss magic bullet, so I use multiple tools to increase my metabolism and burn fat. My fat loss tools are; water intake, muscle, optimal cardio in the morning, balanced nutrition, proper sleep and stress reduction.

Tool #1. Lets start with water. Before you start scheduling your workout program and spending hours on the treadmill, you need to realize that there are so very practical but easily missed tools that get missed when trying to lose fat. You must drink water. Just like the world is primarily made up of water, so is our bodies. That should tell you right there that water is essential to life. So just common sense says increase you water intake. Water is the transport system. It transports nutrients to our body. It also transports fat to be burned as energy. So, fat loss is increased by increasing water. (A side benefit is your skin will glow.) My recommendation is .55 percent of your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 100 pounds you should consume easily 55 ounces in your day. This is your first step that will help promote fat loss today.

Tool #2. My second tool is supportive nutrition. Notice, I didn’t say diet. It’s not that diet is a scary word, for me. For most people it is considered a negative term. So, I don’t use it. Dieting doesn’t work anyway. What diet really means is the food that you eat. Not bad food, good food, less food, or more food. It just means it’s the food that you consume any given day. So diet does not mean starving, cutting back, rabbit food, or anything that resembles these things. So I use the words supportive nutrition. It has a better ring to it. It’s positive. Supportive. Meaning, that it supports my body nutritionally, for the physical demands that I place on it. It supports my activities. Work. Play. Working out. Resting. Sleeping. Anything that I do in a given day.

Each meal I eat is composed of a lean protein and a complex carbohydrate. A good example of this is a lean steak with a sweet potato or a chicken breast with green beans or salad. These two foods combined provide our bodies with what it needs nutritionally. I get amino acids from the protein to help repair muscle tissue and I get a complex energy source that regulates blood sugar by eating a complex carb. This dual combo promotes consistent energy levels with consistent fat loss. Remember fat loss is key. When my blood sugar is level. The pancreas secretes a hormone called glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for fat loss. So by eating balanced between a protein and carb, I get balanced blood sugar levels which result in body fat loss.

Tool #3. My third tool is muscle. I’m not talking about being Mr. Universe or Mr. Olympia. I’m talking about just having a concern for muscle. Muscle is what burns calories at a very high rate. It’s simple, the less muscle you have the less calories you will burn. The more muscle you have the more you will burn. So, if you want to be firm and fit for life, you’ve got to preserve or add some muscle tissue. How you do this is through resistance training. Resistance training is anytime you use any amount of weight in opposition to a muscle. To challenge a muscle you must resist against it. Not just with the same weight every time but progressively as well.

Resistance training builds muscle in response to their work load. So the more you consistently work your muscles with weight, the more your metabolism is going to speed up. Do you see how this is very important if you want to lose body fat? Do you also see why the scale is not the way to measure results? You may lose fat put on muscle, look like a million bucks but still be the same weight. Eventually if you have weight to lose it will come off. If you keep working with your tools, you’ll lose all the weight you need to. Your muscle increase will be limited especially if you’re female. That’s why it’s so important

Tool #4. The next tool in the toolbox is optimal cardio in the morning on an empty stomach. This yields great fat loss results and gets the metabolism working early in the day. Cardio is aerobics. Aerobics is when you use non stop full body motions for extended periods of time. It’s basically walking. Jogging. Using an elliptical. Treadmill. Basically, anything that gets you moving consistently, with oxygen.

When you use oxygen which is most of your day, you can burn fat. But, doing cardio will enable you to burn fat at a faster pace. The reason why I do cardio in the morning is because I’m coming from a fasting state. Exercising on an empty stomach, allows you’re body to start burning calories from fat. If you’d like to burn more fat, then do you’re cardio on an empty stomach and start the day off on the right foot. This is a great way to lose fat.

Tool #5. Proper sleep. I’m not going to go into detail about this one but it’s very important. You know this. Those who get less than optimal sleep, get sick, look worse, and are cranky and irritable all the time. I’m not a sleep specialist so I dare not go too far into this but remember a few basics. Your body needs rest to do what? Repair itself. The body uses hormones to accomplish this. If you have bad sleeping habits, this will impair your body’s ability to recover. If your body doesn’t repair and its hormone production gets out of rhythm, you’ve got a big problem. So get the recommended eight hours. Go to bed at the same time consistently. For example bedtime at 10:00pm and arise at 6:00am everyday of the week.

Tool#6. Stress Relief. If you are stressed out to the max. Your body will not work optimally. Stress has a catabolic effect that will break down muscle and store body fat. If stress is getting the best of you, it will keep you from burning fat and more importantly make you older much faster. In order to keep this from happening you need to find things you enjoy to decrease your stress levels. This can include anything from going on a walk to playing a musical instrument. It is usually doing something that you enjoy and gives you a way to release your stress. If you want to just be healthier, find a way to relieve your daily stress.

So now that you realize the significant difference between weight loss and body fat loss you now begin to really see results daily and consistently. Remember it’s not about weight loss as it is so much fat loss. What does it matter what you weigh as long as you feel great, look stunning, fit into your clothes, and enjoy life to a new level. This is what a true fat loss solution can do for you. By using the tools in the fat loss tool box you can burn more fat than ever before and reach new fitness goals. Consistent fat loss. If you use them consistently you will never put the pounds back on. So, put your fat loss tool belt on and start losing fat today.

About the Author:

Article written by Rodney Golden. A certified personal trainer and owner of two Fitness Together Personal Training Studios in Hoover, AL. He can be reached concerning personal training programs and fitness seminars at or