Weight Loss

Meaning....if I'm counting calories and walking/jogging (to burn calories for exercise....then won't the weight I'm losing be mostly from extra fat stored in my body (I'm sure water, maybe muscle? is involved)....but isn't it mostly the fat you lose? 

Just trying to clarify from a few things I have read...I'm a little confused.

I am not 100% on this one, but I think you lose water most easily, but I think fat is what you are losing as far as lasting weight loss goes.  I think.

I think there's lots of confusion on this topic, because fat loss is a complex process.  But generally, when you first begin to diet, you have a fairly easy time losing "weight" and this is mostly water weight. It's the result of decreasing calories which decreases sodium levels and makes you excrete water. When that "weight loss" levels off, you lose more slowly, but unless you are starving yourself, it is more likely this is "fat" loss.

Basically, your longer term "weight" loss on the scale is a better indicator of how much fat you are losing than the shorter term weight loss, which is probably mostly water weight. Hope this helps a little.  Keep with it! 

Hi,

Weight loss consists of loosing more then just fat. Your body will never burn fat alone as a fuel unless your body is in a state of ketosis, which only happens when you basically take your carbs down to about 20 grams per day, then your body will switch to only burn fat. However; it’s not good for your kidneys, and it’s not something you can do forever, so best to learn a new lifestyle from the get go.

 

Hmmmmm...so it sounds like "weight loss" is generally a more appropriate term?  Interesting that when I read different magazines or websites it seems like there is always an article about "eat this to burn fat" or "do this workout to burn fat". 

I'm not sure if this helps, but I have read that you never actually lose fat cells. Once your body has created a fat cell, it stays with you forever. By eating less and exercising, you can shrink the cell, but it never acutally goes away.

I think this is part of the reasoning it is harder to lose weight than it is to gain it back.

There are certain times in your life when fat cells are added rapidly.

1. When a baby is in utero (based on what the mother eats and there is some predisposition)

2. During teenage years, when your metabolism is high and many kids eat whatever they want. Eventually it catches up when you get older. The fat cell is there. And with less activity, it just grows in size.

So when things say you can "burn fat" - you are not actually losing them, just reducing them in size.

Original Post by rocklobster:

Hmmmmm...so it sounds like "weight loss" is generally a more appropriate term?  Interesting that when I read different magazines or websites it seems like there is always an article about "eat this to burn fat" or "do this workout to burn fat". 

 This is how I think about it. When trying to get healthy, one of the main measurements you use is weight. You know your start weight and your goal weight, and you can track how much weight you lost from time A to time B. That's weight loss - the change in the number on the scale.

 Your real goal, however, is fat loss, because that's what you actually don't want to keep - you still want your muscles and bones and organs, and water fluctuates, so that isn't as important.  When cutting calories, the calories you burn have to come from somewhere. We hope they mainly come from fat, but they can also come from muscle. If you are not using your muscles enough to give your body a reason to keep them around (it's use or lose, and the best way to make sure you use them is through weight training with heavy weights) you can lose some muscle.   Additionally, if you aren't eating enough, you can lose a little muscle, because the body can only burn so much from fat stores, and so some muscle gets burned to make up the difference between eaten and burned calories.

 So the answer? Lift weights, eat enough, but not too much, and hopefully most of the "weight loss" will be "fat loss".  And beware any article that suggests that you can direct fat loss at one part of your body by exercising that area (in other words, crunches don't burn belly fat any more than any other exercise, and tricep extensions don't preferentially burn arm fat).

Loosing weight comes off in three ways:

1. Water
2. Fat
3. Muscle

If you're not careful and don't eat enough, get enough protein, and do enough exercise what you end up loosing is muscle. 

I read about a company called Kemeta that says they have a handheld device that can tell you if you are really burning fat.  It measures a chemical that you give off in your breath when you burn fat, so all you have to do is breathe into it.  That can tell you if your diet is working.  Otherwise it can be hard to tell if your weight is changing from changes in your water or muscle.  Maybe worthwhile to check out?  Good luck!

While the number of fat cells in your body can never ever change, just expand or shrink, you CAN actually remove them.

Lipo lipo lipo suction. Not suggesting that anyone does it, just FYI :)

Don't quote me on this but from what I remember, you lose "weight" in this order.

1.) Calories->Carbohydrates and proteins.
2.) Fats.

Have you ever heard of the Atkins diet? It spawned the whole generation of low-carb fad diets. It's a fad died that does actually have some validity to it.

The Atkins diet is pretty much this: Eat very little carbohydrates and lose weight. When your body burns up all your carbohydrates it goes into a state of metabolism called Ketosis. You may have heard that carbohydrates=energy. Also joggers/runners/bikers/etc often Carbo-load the day before a big event so they have a bunch of energy the following day. In Ketosis, you have so little carbohydrates that when your body burns all of them, it goes to the next best thing in your "storage."

This would be fat.
This is why people on the Atkins diet are able to lose large amounts of weight but after they get off the diet, they will regain it.