April 6, 2019

So many people start out on a health and fitness journey with a goal of losing weight. They don’t like the way they look and feel and think that losing weight is the answer. They’re focused exclusively on lowering the number on the scale. I’m here to say forget about losing weight. Instead, focus on losing fat. What’s the difference?

When you go on a calorie restrictive diet and lose weight, you will lose some fat, but most of what you lose is water weight and you will also lose muscle. That works against you. Muscle is what keeps your metabolism burning on high. When you lose it, your metabolism slows down and your body burns fewer calories. That results in storing more of what you eat as fat.

Two people who weigh the same can look dramatically different. To change the shape of your body you need to lose fat and replace it with lean muscle. Doing this will increase your metabolic rate which means your body will burn more calories all day long – even when you’re just sitting on the couch. How do you lose fat? It takes a combination of a healthy and nutritious diet and resistance training.