Why Your Body Fat Percentage Is Going Down but Not Your Weight

Fat loss and weight loss are two often spoken terms that people use interchangeably, but they’re not the same things.

Similar, yes, but when it comes to individuals, who are working towards a very particular physical goal, there’s a huge difference.

Weight loss is an objective to decrease in and is the total weight of your body fat, bones, organs, muscles, etc. whereas; fat loss means a goal to lower the percentage of body fat. i.e., the amount of fat contained in body compartments like belly, thighs, and back, etc.

You can see that there is a significant difference between these two terms. Most of the people who have a desire to lose bodyweight likely carry excess body fat.

With this new information, you can now consider whether is not your weight, but excess body fat that’s causing you to weigh beyond where you feel comfortable.

Is It a Good Thing My Weight’s Not Changing Even Though My Body Fat Percentage Is Going Down?

Some individuals must lose weight, like athletes before going to a competition, but most want fat loss. If it is the extra weight you want to lose, it is most likely because you carry too much fat.

Therefore stop weighing yourself. Weight loss is less critical because it’s:

• Unreliable: The stomach, bladder content, bowel, water retention, recent muscle gain/loss, recent fat gain/loss all contribute to your body’s weight which is why it can fluctuate every day. You can have no idea that what’s going on.
• Irrelevant: Two individuals with similar height can weigh alike, but look different because one’s has less body fat than the other. For example, if you find two women who both weigh 150 pounds then they will likely seem very different. One may appear leaner, and one may be curvier. One may look taller. Their body compositions and shapes may be very different. However, they weight the same 150 pounds, thus again, weight is irrelevant.

Therefore, why is it that fat loss is a “better” goal than weight loss? The weight loss of the body is merely becoming a lighter version of yourself. Fat loss is how you can achieve things like visible abs, muscle definition, and consistent appearance.

What If I’m Gaining Weight and Still Losing Fat?

When you talk about losing weight, you are usually pointing towards slimming down. People normally want to lose weight around the thighs and hips, the arms and belly.

But, an odd thing regarding slimming down is that it doesn’t always mean losing actual weight off the scale.

It may sound strange, but if you don’t have a lot of fat to lose it is likely to get thinner without really seeing a change in your body weight.

It happens when your body fat percentage is going down while gaining muscle. If your body fat percentage is going down but not your weight, you’ll be dropping inches in no time, and this is an indication that you are moving in the right direction.

The problem is that people often focus themselves on the scale and believe that if that number doesn’t change, they are not getting real results.

Through knowing the difference between losing body fat and losing weight can improve how you see yourself, and maybe even how to look at his own body.

The Healthiest Way to Gain Weight is By Acquiring Lean Muscle

Fat loss takes place when the body recruits fat stored in it. It happens when the body requires extra energy which is not supplied by the glycogen stored in the liver and muscles.

Cardio exercises force this situation by way of first expanding your body’s storage of glycogen through long-term, low-intensity exercise.

When your body gets low on glycogen, it starts to “burn” the fat stored in other parts of the body.

That is why cardio exercises lead towards efficient fat loss. On the other hand, muscle takes place by doing strength training.

During strength training, a person put his muscles under considerable force in an anaerobic technique.

The high sum of resistance causes the muscles to strain which leads to microtears. After this strength training session, the body restores these microtears by rest and protein intake, making muscles larger during the process. It points towards an increase in muscle mass.

How to Lose Stored Body Fat and Not Muscle

There are different techniques that you need to implement to lose fat while preserving muscles.

Track Body Fat Percentage

Fat Calipers can track body fat by measuring your skin-folds. Track whether your body fat percentage is going down or not. Perform this at weekly or monthly intervals.

Get Stronger

Undertaking regular strength training helps you to build muscle, increase his metabolism, fight the signs of aging, as well as help reduce the risk of injuries.

Eat Healthier

Eating a healthy and balanced diet helps a person lose fat. When struggling to lose fat, there are a lot of different options to the traditional weight scale.

They can help you to create realistic expectations for his body, leaving himself feeling positive about his progress, rather than dejected.

Stop Weighing Yourself

The variations in the scales (which can be because of a range of different factors) can demotivate a person, bringing down his confidence, willpower, and making him less likely to preserve.

Measure Your Body Stats

Taking measurements of the chest, neck, waist, thighs, and arms help you to track his progress.

Track Your Workouts

Logging the exercises and taking note of all progress steps is an excellent approach. It can assist anyone to feel motivated because measurable results can indicate whether you are succeeding.

How You Can Tell You’re Making Overall Progress

Consequently, to maintain the body weight during fat loss, you will be adding muscle. But as muscles are denser than fat, your speed of fat loss must exceed his rate of muscle growth.

Thus your workout should focus on cardio exercises that emphasize fat burning whereas, still allowing for some sessions of strength training.

As you progress, you will burn fat more speedily, as more muscles lead towards faster calorie expenditure.

Your workout at the start should consist of numerous cardio sessions per week with a couple of strength training sessions, but as you reach your target body weight, you should phase out an extra course of strength training, leaving perhaps one per week.

References

• https://www.stronglifts.com/weight-loss-vs-fat-loss-are-you-sure-you%E2%80%99re-losing-fat/
• https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/burning-fat-or-burning-calories/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21986696/
• https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160127132741.htm/