Weight Loss and Fat Loss: Big Differences By Traci D Mitchell

You can lose weigh. Anyone can. Often times, the number on the scale is the only thing we pay attention to when we try to drop a size. We eat less and exercise more, and eventually - the weight comes off. Great, right? Yes...well, sometimes.
Weight loss can happen rapidly by crash dieting, or by doing some crazy amount of cardiovascular exercise for periods of time that is probably difficult to maintain for more than a couple weeks. Maybe its a combination of both. Regardless, if you're losing more than two pounds a week, it's highly likely that you'll gain some of that weight back. More importantly, there is a good chance than you also lost some muscle

Weight loss vs fat loss

When you get on that dreaded scale and see the kilos melt away, the excitement is unparalleled. Some get motivated to work even harder; Some others drop off the fitness routine, thinking 'that's enough for now'. But what about the possibility that all you might have lost was body weight, and not fat? Reduction in weight from loss in bone density and muscle tissues and not from fat, is not healthy in the long term. When a person is extremely overweight or obese, any change in lifestyle or any new exercise will result in massive weight loss, mainly from water loss and initial fat loss. But the closer you come to your ideal weight, the more careful you need to be about whether you are losing weight the right way.

How do you know whether your weight loss is from fat or not?
How you feel is a very good indicator. When you are dropping weight on the scale, but feel weak, exhausted, cranky or maybe slightly nauseous, you are probably losing more than just fat. Beware of banking too hard on this indicator though, as the euphoria of the plummeting scale may just keep you elated enough not to pay heed to any of the above symptoms. If you are losing weight through fat loss, you may see the scales remain the same but your clothes will fit better. This means that you are gaining muscle and bone density but losing fat, which is why you feel stronger, with more energy and not fatigued.

How to lose fat and not muscle?
What you eat and how you workout determines how you lose weight. Here are some dos and don'ts to help you get fit the right way.

Don't

- Starve. Instead, eat food rich in protein, complex carbs (including salads and fruits), and good fats for energy. Eating right, eating so that you are not hungry, and eating food that is nourishing is important so that you lose fat.
- Eat empty calories. Eating empty calories like biscuits or snacking on empty calories that do not satisfy you in anyway, needs conscious effort. Snack on healthy, filling snacks instead.
- Do only cardio. While cardio is important, you run the risk of losing muscle if you focus only on cardio and not on strength training. It is therefore advisable to mix up your workouts in order to get the best of both worlds. If your workout plan involves just running, swimming, or walking, it's best if you throw some yoga, and weight training into the mix too. If you're eating right, then this will be invaluable in building muscle, which in turn burns fat faster.

Do

- Sprint. Throw in some really fast sprints on your cardio days. Even once a week is more than enough. This stimulates the HGH (human growth hormone) that facilitates the growth of muscle and resultant fat burn.
- Lift heavy weights. Push yourself to do bodyweight workouts, or lift heavy weights at the gym to grow muscle, that increases your metabolism and burns fat even when you are not working out. No you will not bulk up.
- Lead an active lifestyle . Sitting at your workplace for 10 hours a day and then being a couch potato for the rest of your waking hours is the perfect recipe to hamper all your hard work. Being active outside of the gym, low levels of cardio like evening walks, helps towards your fat loss goals.

Don't worry too much if you're looking better than ever, feeling energetic and active, and the weighing scale is not budging an inch. You may be losing fat and gaining muscle, the only path to good health and weight management in the long run.
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The Fat Loss Factor Review - Is The Fat Loss Factor a SCAM?

Losing excess fat is no walk in the park. Sadly, many fat loss programs out there give the impression that it is an easy process where you simply eliminate certain foods from your diet and the shedding starts. For the most part, such diet programs will help you lose ‘water weight’ within a short period of time and the program will seem to be work. In reality, users quickly realize that their new, often radical diet changes are unsustainable over the long haul, and they give up. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people often find themselves caught up in a vicious cycle of losing fat after dieting, then regaining the weight a few months after abandoning the diet program. One of the most important issues to acknowledge is that losing fat has no magic formula. The majority of ‘magic pills’ on the market that have no credible scientific basis to back their claims, and are merely hype. The approach used by the Fat Loss Factor is a holistic one that not only focuses on what you put into your mouth but also tackles other important aspects of your lifestyle that affect weight. Although the Fat Loss Factor program doesn’t claim to be a scientific authority per se, most of its guidelines are premised on credible scientific facts. This can’t be further from the truth given that one of the authors, Charles D.C, is a doctor while the second author, Lori Allen, is a certified nutritionist. In fact, Lori Allen was the first person to test the program herself, having battled weight issues for some years after the birth of her 3 children. The Fat Loss Factor At A Glance The Fat Loss Factor is unlike other weight loss programs in a number of ways. Firstly, the program gets off by taking users through a two-week metabolism boosting phase that entails eating natural foods only. By sticking to an all-natural diet in the first two weeks of the program, you rid your body of harmful toxins that are abundant in a typical meal laden with processed food. Fat cells are a repository for toxins in the body, so this phase is aimed at eliminating those toxins. Fruit, vegetables, coconut oil, legumes, raw seeds and nuts are some of the natural foods on the two-week cleansing diet. In addition to natural foods, users are supposed to walk for a minimum of 30 minutes daily and up to a maximum of one hour. According to Dr Charles, this program is unique in that users break down their ‘body and mind’ in the initial stages, and then spend the rest of the stages rebuilding it. This helps them to completely overhaul their lifestyles without being too drastic. More than 200,000 people from 107 countries around the world are claimed to have been helped with this program. The second phase is the ‘master cleanse’ and lasts anywhere from 3 to 10 days. Like the two-week cleansing phase, the master cleanse phase is aimed at ridding your vital organs of toxins as well as building a healthy blood stream. In this phase, there are instructions for flushing out impurities from the digestive tract by using herbal laxative tea and the saltwater flush preparation. However, before you get carried away with the cleansing routines, the Fat Loss Factor is not all about flushing impurities out of the body. It is a guide for a complete healthier lifestyle that emphasizes natural foods and smaller meals with a lot of physical activity. Admittedly, many users will not find what they expected because whatever is taught in this guide requires patience and consistence. As stated by the author, the program requires high levels of mental strength to go through with. People looking for quick fixes will certainly be disappointed. The good thing is that there are dozens of recipes provided, along with a list of groceries and cooking guidelines to make the shopping and cooking easier. There’s a list of 15 foods that achieve maximum weight loss and another list of 17 foods that guarantee weight gain. But most importantly, the Fat Los Factor shows you how to eat the foods you love without and still manage to lose weight. You don’t have to ‘cheat’ just to eat your favorite foods. After the master cleanse phase, next comes the crucial exercise phase. There is the ‘dreaded cardio’ routine and the weight training exercises that each achieves different goals. The special cardio routines are efficient at ‘blasting’ the fat away and have enough balance that makes it easier to perform regularly. The high intensity interval training (HIIT) routines are aimed at sculpting muscle mass so that you achieve a defined physique. However, the focus of these routines is to speed up the fat burning process rather than to build muscle mass. What you’ll particularly appreciate about this program is that throughout the eBook guide, there are sections dedicated to useful tips in every chapter. Tips range in topic, from how the body uses food to stress and weight gain, among other topics. The author repeatedly makes reference to scientific studies and research that relates to a particular topic, thus giving the material more credibility. Offering The program is available only in digital format as a downloadable eBook. You will hardly find a user of this intuitive fat loss program that doesn’t recommend it. Its ratings average at approximately 9 out of 10 points going by reviews of leading weight loss experts and fitness websites. It is a complete lifestyle solution that not only focuses on weight loss, but also on the overall lifestyle of the user.