The most common thing I hear from clients and people who have some kind of goal. They want to lose weight. Now I know what they mean is they want to lose body fat. Most people tend to focus on the losing weight part and what the scales say. But when you lose weight, it’s not necessarily always body fat coming off. We can’t target what we lose weight from. Because we can lose weight from muscle tone and water. Although we can’t directly control it, we can increase the chances of losing weight from fat.
So how can we increase the likelihood of weight loss is from body fat?
Well, we can do some form of resistance or strength training in our weekly routine. Which would be at least 2 up to 4 times per week of strength-focused workouts. Which is can be using bodyweight, resistance bands, kettlebells, dumbbells, gym resistance machines, and sandbags. This will strengthen our muscle groups and in turn make them stronger, and improve their overall shape. Helping you to tone up.
The next thing we can do to ensure this is by making sure we get an adequate amount of protein from our diet. This is a nutrient in foods that our cells, organs, hair, and nails are made from proteins. I would recommend getting at least 1.2g per kg of body weight or 3 to 5 portions per day. If you’re wondering what a portion of protein is, it’s roughly the size of the palm of your hand. Sources like chicken, turkey, steak, eggs, dairy, tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans.
Lastly, we come to water. The most common way to lose water is by significantly cutting carbohydrates. If you’ve ever done some form of low carbohydrate diet, I am sure you will have noticed a good amount of initial weight loss within the first few weeks or so. But normally it is water weight that is being lost. Because for every 1 gram of carbohydrate stored in the body there are roughly 2-3g of water retained. So I would suggest having a reasonable amount of carbs within your diet.
Next, how we track weight loss
At some point, most people will get the bathroom scales out. Sometimes getting on them on a random day and time of the week. All scales do is measure the total weight of your body to gravity. Not to see that scale weight is pointless, but understanding how to use them correctly is important. Because they can fluctuate for various reasons, such as menstrual cycle, carbohydrate intake, salt, inflammation from exercise, toilet habits. They are more useful when used over time, monthly.
What scales don’t tell is what is changing. So I would recommend using other tools in addition to scales. For example, a tape to measure body circumference. For example, you could measure hips and waist for females. Chest and waist for males and any other body parts you may want to monitor. It will give you a better idea if fat loss is happening and if areas are tightening up. The next tool I would suggest is taking progress pictures from different angles of your body. That you will be able to look back on and see visible changes, fat coming down in certain areas, and increased shape. If there are any specific clothes you want to fit better as part of your goal, use that item of clothing.
