Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss: Are You Sure You’re Losing Fat?

Weight loss is one of the hottest topics ever. Everyone seems to be trying to lose weight nowadays. But what’s the difference between weight loss & fat loss? People seem to use both terms interchangeably.

After reading this post you’ll understand the difference between weight loss & fat loss, but also which one you should aim for and how.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. What’s the difference? Let’s start by defining weight loss & fat loss so you know what I mean here.

Weight Loss. You want to lower your body-weight, the sum weight of your bones, muscles, organs, body fat, …

Fat Loss. You want to lower your body fat, the amount of fat your body carries. Healthy goals are 10% body fat for men and 15% for women.

Problems with Weight Loss. If you want to lose weight, it’s most likely because you carry too much fat. There are people who must lose weight, like athletes before a competition, but most want fat loss. So stop weighing yourself.

Unreliable. Your body-weight can fluctuate daily since it’s influenced by your stomach/bowel/bladder content, water loss/retention, muscle loss/gain, fat loss/gain, … You’ll have no idea what’s going on.

Irrelevant. 2 people with similar height can weigh the same, but look completely different because one has lower body fat than the the other. Check the picture at the top for an example.

The last point shows why the BMI standard is flawed: it doesn’t take your body fat into account. Both guys in the top picture have the same BMI, but one is clearly healthier: his body fat is lower.

Here’s How The Weight Scale Can Mislead You. Clothes, mirrors & pictures don’t lie. Neither do fat calipers. But the weight scale can become your worst enemy by misleading you and killing your motivation. Examples:

Carbs & Water. Carbs bind to water. So eating less carbs will make you lose weight: water loss. This is why you lose so much weight on a diet like Atkins the first 2 weeks: it’s mostly water. Of course, increasing your carb intake will make you gain weight again: water retention.

Muscle Gains & Fat Loss. You’ll gain muscle while losing fat when you get into strength training. But on the weight scale it will look like you’re not making progress: your body-weight doesn’t change. Track your body fat using a fat caliper and you’ll see your body fat is going down.

How to Make Sure You Lose Fat, Not Muscle? Check the picture above: 5lbs muscle takes less space than 5lbs fat. That means you’ll look slimmer at the same body-weight by building muscle. Keys to losing fat, not muscle:

Get Stronger. Strength training builds muscle & prevents muscle loss. It also helps sticking to your diet. Check the StrongLifts 5×5 routine.

Eat Healthy. Eat whole unprocessed foods 90% of the time and eat less starchy carbs. Check the 8 nutrition rules.

You can do cardio to speed up fat loss. But without strength training, cardio will cause muscle loss and you’ll end up skinny-fat. Avoid.

How to Track Progress Efficiently. You don’t need to track progress weekly, changes wouldn’t be drastic enough. Track progress every 2 weeks.

Stop Weighing Yourself Daily. The daily fluctuations will mess with your motivation. Weigh yourself once every 2 weeks, not more.

Stop Looking in The Mirror. Self-image issues can skew perception. Shoot full body pictures and compare them with old ones.

Track Body Fat. Get a fat caliper and track your body fat every 2 weeks. Use this how-to guide and watch this video.

Take Measurements. Girth measurements of your neck, chest, arms, waist & thighs. Waist should go down, rest should go up.

Shoot Pictures. Full body pictures from ankle to neck, front/back/side, every 2 weeks. Compare with your previous pics.

Strength Stats. Log your workouts. Strength going up means muscle gains and strength training prevents muscle breakdown.

Listen also to what people say. They’ll notice your body change more than you will. Clothes will start to feel differently too.

You Might Not Want to Lose Weight. Big guys who want to lose weight often change their mind once they’ve lowered their body fat. They realize they prefer to stay big as long as their body fat is healthy.

Focus on fat loss first. Once you’ve got your body fat down, check if you like what you see. Then decide if you still need to lose weight.

"What do you think?" Comment in the box below.

Source: https://stronglifts.com/weight-loss-vs-fat-loss-are-you-sure-you%E2%80%99re-losing-fat/

What Are the Benefits of Gaining Muscle Mass?

While you know exercise is good for you, you may not know the importance of building muscle through strength training. If your workouts only focus on aerobic exercise, you're missing a key component of overall fitness. Gaining muscle mass offers plenty of benefits for everyone. Strength training increases lean muscle mass, which helps your body burn calories more efficiently and improves your quality of life.

Weight Control

As far as metabolism goes, muscle mass is the "engine" of the calorie-burning machine. As you strength train and increase your muscle mass, you build a bigger, more efficient engine that burns more calories and helps you lose weight. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to maintain your weight. In fact, the higher your muscle mass, the more calories you'll burn when you rest. For every pound of muscle you gain, your body uses about 50 extra calories a day.

Increased Strength

People lose about 10 percent of their muscle by age 50, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. By the time you reach your 60s and 70s, your muscle strength will decrease by about 15 percent per decade -- and about 30 percent thereafter. However, older adults who perform adequate strength and resistance training can increase their strength as much as threefold within two to three months. Increasing your strength will help you lead a more active lifestyle infused with spontaneous activity.

Reduced Risk of Injury

Building muscle also helps protect your joints from injury. As you age, balance may become an issue that can lead to fractured hip bones or other injuries related to falls. Stronger muscles help support your joints -- this can help you lead a more independent lifestyle as you age.

Miscellaneous Benefits

Increased muscle mass makes you stronger so you'll have more stamina when you perform physical activities. As you become more active, your quality of life most likely will improve. Stronger muscles also counteract the side effects of weak muscles, which may cause instability and structural pain. Strong, toned muscles also enhance your appearance, boost your self-esteem and make you feel better overall.

"What do you think?" Comment in the box below.

Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/344229-full-workout-plans-to-gain-weight-without-the-gym/

10 Good Reasons for Taking Up Bodyweight Training

Bodyweight exercises are strengthening exercises that do not require use of weights or any other specialized machine to work with. Instead, one's own weight provides the resistance to the movement. The fact that bodyweight exercises are quite effective for increasing one's fitness has been backed by many studies.

It is a legitimate option for anyone interested in building impressive body, increasing strength, mobility and flexibility, boosting cardio-vascular fitness, losing weight, and establishing excellent mind-body-soul awareness. Yoga, Pilates, calisthenics, gymnastics all fall under the category of bodyweight exercises. Though they have variations of movements, intensity and forms, they all use bodyweight in their execution.

The following are some of its benefits:

Good fitness gains - Most of bodyweight exercises involve multi-joint movements (compound movements) that work against gravity. Common bodyweight exercise movements like squats, lounges, push-ups and many more involve multiple joints. Compound movements are extremely effective for building muscle strength of the muscles used and boosting cardio-vascular fitness. Another big advantage is that most of these movements strengthen body core muscles by engaging them automatically and, therefore, provide greater stability and balance to the body.

Ease of doing - As bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere, an individual is far less likely to skip a workout. It can be done at home or new place, where one travels to because it doesn't require any equipment to be carried.

Functional fitness - Bodyweight exercises engage patterns of movements that we use normally in daily activities. So, it increases functional fitness of a person by strengthening the muscles used in daily activities, providing him or her ample strength to perform such activities with ease.

No equipment required - There are many combinations and variations of exercises one can perform with one's own body weight without requiring any equipment. In contrast, some may like to use some light weight dumbbells or kettlebells, pull-up bar or other small equipment in addition in order to reinforce the effectiveness of exercises. But as it is not obligatory, one may not use them.

Not much space required - As it doesn't require much space, bodyweight exercises can be performed in the comfort of the living room or lounge of your home. One need not go to a gym. You can do them at home while playing softly your favorite music.

Much variety - There are large numbers of bodyweight exercises for different body parts. One can change them often in order to avoid boredom by doing the same movements over and over again. By substituting exercises for different body parts, we can prevent overtraining and reduce the risk of injury. Furthermore, this will also help break through strength plateaus and help continue making fitness gains.

Intensity build-up - We can effectively create high intensity interval workout with bodyweight exercises. One can do this by increasing the speed of performing a given number of reps of an exercise for a certain period, say, 30 to 60 seconds, and then doing the same exercise at normal speed for a certain period, say, 10 minutes. One can repeat this pattern as frequently as one wants. One can also plan a circuit training schedule by performing a certain number of specific exercises without rest completing a full circuit. A small rest of 2 to 3 minutes can be taken before performing another circuit. One can repeat this pattern of circuit training as frequently as one wants.

Cheap workout - Generally, bodyweight training doesn't require any equipment but some may like to use some equipment to enhance the effectiveness of some exercises. It is free or at extremely low cost as one doesn't have to get gym memberships, classes, equipments and gear that can all add up to a significant expense.

Easy to mix up workout - One can do these exercises indoors or outdoors alone or with friends. They can even be done after jogging or running in a park. They can also be done after a swim session as a quick bodyweight circuit plan. One can make one's bodyweight exercise plan interesting by mixing up with many different exercises, using some ingenuity.

Can be made challenging - They can be made challenging by adding extra reps, performing the exercises faster or super slowly, taking shorter breaks, or adding a ballistic movement. With each added challenge, the progress becomes more obvious.

The bottom line -

Over time bodyweight exercises have scientifically evolved into a system of well designed exercises offering many health and fitness benefits. They can be suitably performed by all age groups and fitness levels. A schedule of bodyweight exercises can easily be combined with aerobic exercises such as walking, jogging, running, cycling or swimming to enhance its effectiveness. We can make them more challenging by using our ingenuity and knowledge.

Bodyweight training has evolved into a system of specific exercises, in which our own body weight is used as resistance to movements of the body in different exercises. It has been found to be very effective in increasing overall fitness of the person. It has many varieties, which an individual can choose from according to one's liking and fitness goals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Pran_Rangan/2322082

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Why Adults Could Use More Muscle

Most men and women as they reach their senior years don't even consider doing strength training. Most look at resistance training as something for young people, and as they get older walking and other sorts of aerobics are something they feel they can handle better. The problem with light aerobics like walking is it will not preserve muscle tone, good balance, healthy bones and posture as you age. No matter what our age, we all need some sort of resistance training.

Of course nothing really matters without a healthy diet. It's said that diet accounts for about 80% of any health benefits you expect to reap, but exercise is a crucial component. In fact it's thought that strength training acts as a force multiplier in enhancing the benefits of a healthy diet.

John Turner Aged 67 Years Old photographed by Etta Clark

Americans over the age of 45 seldom do strength training exercises. According to a recent survey fewer than 25% of Americans do any strength training at all, and this of course drops the older we get. The people least likely to meet strength training recommendations by the government are women, especially widows, seniors over 85 years' old and obese people. None of these categories probably are very surprising but these people are at an especially higher risk factor than most.

The following are a few factors that are reasons why strength training is essential:

1. Muscle atrophy must be stopped. The older you get the faster your muscles break down. This process actually begins in a person's 20s if they lead a sedentary life, and after the age of 50 the atrophy will accelerate, with people losing almost a half a pound a year if nothing is done.

2. The necessity of a proper diet. To prevent diabetes and obesity a low carbohydrate diet is necessary. But it's commonly thought that when we begin working out we have to replace those carbs with protein, and sometimes low-quality protein. A high-protein diet can lead to weight gain, higher blood sugar levels, and kidney stress and cancer growth. Actually, for most people 40 to 70 grams of protein a day will be ample. Rather than replace those lost carbs with protein, replace them with healthy fats.

3. When you take your protein is important. With that in mind, it is still an important to feed the muscles the proper fuel, and that will be protein. But to build muscle will require taking it within an hour or so of exercise. An excellent source of protein is whey protein, and it is a great post exercise meal for increasing muscle growth.

Strength training does not have to necessarily be pumping iron, as trying to overdo heavy lifting often leads to injury, causing more harm than good. Practical applications of strength training are yoga, body weight exercises, elastic bands that provide safe resistance training and lighter varieties of free weights. Weight machines are also okay, but they don't provide as much help for the core muscles, where we get most of our balance and flexibility. Pilates are also an excellent option.

There are many things we can do to help us become healthier and to age better, and exercise is certainly a big part of it. Seniors are now getting more into yoga and other exercises such as Pilates to keep young. Rich Carroll is a writer and avid health advocate now living in Chicago.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rich_Carroll/1009184

Photo of John Turner aged 67 by Etta Clark www.ettaclark.com

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