What does weight loss mean for you in terms of which aspect of your body weight do you actually want to lose? Let’s set the record straight to ensure your weight loss intentions are on target.
Most of the time, when someone realizes that they want or need to lose weight, they are referring to excess fat, or adipose tissue, in their body. This accounts for more than 90% of all types of weight loss goals. On rare occasions though, someone may want to reduce their dense tissue in the form of muscle. But how will you know which category you fit into?
To rule out the special cases, if you’ve done a lot of heavy lifting via fitness or physical labor, then you may be a part of this weight loss group. Decreasing muscle mass is fairly simple if you can eliminate the original causes of the muscle growth. In general, if you increase your endurance while decreasing your above average strength, then you may be able to reverse your extra-large muscles.
For the rest of us who actually want to lose weight in the form of fat mass, things are a little more complicated. Fat is kind of sneaky in the sense that it will accumulate in places that make it difficult to distinguish between your muscle fibers being the source of large muscles, or the adipose tissue growth within those muscles. Fat cells will grow outside muscles and under the skin, inside the muscles between fibers, and around the organs of the midsection. It will grow wherever the hell it wants to, and for apparently no good reason at times. Many researchers hold the opinion that the placement of fat cells is determined by your genetics and possibly a defensive response to any threat to your health.
You may not be able to target specific areas of fat on your body for reduction, but you can rest assured that when such fat is metabolized and used for fuel, it will do so in the reverse order it was accumulated. For example, if you’re genetics and health dictate that the extra fuel you consume goes to your hips first, then it will also use that fuel lastly. The same goes for people who see belly fat first, but some people will see a more even distribution for both fat accumulation and reduction.
The main take away here is that all you need to worry about is putting your body into a situation where it is not consuming enough fuel for its needs, so it is forced to utilize the fuel it already has in storage, i.e. its fat cells.
Please also keep in mind that when someone makes radical changes to their diet in a ‘good’ way, they will usually see rapid weight loss of about 7 lbs. This weight is usually comprised of about 5 lbs of water and ‘gut’ weight, and 2 lbs of fat weight. If said person then resumes their previous ‘bad’ diet, they will usually see that 7 lbs return to their body seemingly overnight because water retention and gut plaque can accumulate almost instantly if the conditions are right for it.
If one of your goals is ‘body toning’ or to ‘get more toned’ then consider this. Your muscle fibers are the part of your body that are referred to as having tone, or muscle tone, anatomically. They are the parts of us that are ‘toned’ and will always be ‘toned’ even if they are weak and/or covered up by a layer of fat tissue between them and the skin. So please just remember that you are always toned, just like you are always naked, underneath your clothes. 😊
I hope some of this info has helped you understand what has become a very confusing yet important topic for most of us. I am available of course to help you fully understand what you will need to do to accomplish your specific weight loss and/or fat loss goals. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for help!
