Weight loss
What exactly does this mean? Is it just kilograms lost on scale, centimetres off our stomachs and butt, loss of fluids, muscle loss.
The oxford dictionary describes the term of weight loss as a decrease in body weight. Whilst this is correct it does not describe the exact type of weight that can be lost.
Weight loss can come in many forms, it can be a decrease in body fat, a decrease in fluid stored by the body ie water retention and loss of muscle mass.
When looking at weight loss I urge all my clients to worry less about the kilograms lost on a scale and focus more on lost centimetres around different sites around the body and how they are generally feeling.
Thanks to a surge in the last decade of the reality tv genre of fat loss progrms, so many unrealistic and misleading facts have become “truths.”
Losing weight in the range of 5-10kg a week has been accepted as normal, anything less is “not working” What isn’t seen is what type of actual weight loss this is. Is it fat loss, fluid or muscle loss? Or a combination of all three. The endless hours of training and strict calorie deficit dieting is not shown and some shows have allegedly not been honest in between their “weigh ins” some have allegedly gone two – three weeks between weigh ins yet when edited it is shown as being the following week on the program.
Now before anyone jumps up and down about the Weight Loss reality show bashing Im doing please understand I am glad to have them around, they do bring attention to the weight loss fight we are currently undertaking as a society. I just take exception to the unrealistic, unhealthy and sometimes down right dangerous outcomes they are producing. Ive had enough of them.
Healthy and sustainable weight loss is approx. 0.5kg – 1kg a week. This is dependent upon your gender, age, body type, muscle mass, nutrition and activity level.
So back to our topic of what weight loss is – it’s a combination of all three types of loss sometimes. You need to use different ways of measuring your progress, so when you find your kilograms lost is stalling, you may find that your body measures are still improving. When you see an increase in some measurements it may infact be muscle development and negates the fat loss achieved.
We have access nowadays to a larger number of services to help us monitor our progress when it comes to our health and well being. I suggest strongly to my clients to keep it as simple as possible and whilst monitoring is the key to keeping on track and gives us the opportunity to celebrate our successes and guides us on how to improve over time I impress upon them that it should be used as a guide and not something they should obsess over.
If you are doing as much as you can to keep on track, being consistent and working hard you will achieve results. Remember you didn’t become overweight, unfit and unhealthy overnight, it took time. So to reverse this is also going to take time. Be patient, be consistent, be honest with yourself, don’t compare your progress to anyone else and try and enjoy the process. If you want to change your health and fitness or know someone who would benefit from this post, please like and share. For more information on our training solutions check out our One On One Personal Training, our Group Personal Training and if you are not local to our private training our online personal training programs could be for you.