The term “Weight” consists of the total weight or mass of your body.
This includes the weight of your bones, lean muscle, fat tissues (mass), water weight, etc.
What is Weight Loss?
Now, when you’re trying to lose weight, it can either be a result of muscle loss, fat loss, water loss, or even a combination of these three.
So, don’t get so excited about just the number going down on the scale. It could just be your water weight and your muscle mass largely.
And as you lose muscle, you will begin to experience difficulties in performing day-to-day physical tasks.
A later outcome of this could be sarcopenia, a condition that is characterized by losing muscle mass & strength over a period of time with contributing factors being reduced level of physical activity, age & gender (1).
Essentially, your body composition will not improve, you will just become a smaller version of your previous self.
What Is Fat Loss?
But “Fat Loss” means the weight lost by specifically targeting your body fat or the fat tissues over your lean muscles.
So Fat Loss looks like a healthier approach to aim for, both to lose weight and to look good (read sexy 😉) by preserving as much lean muscle mass as possible and having a great body composition.
But benefits of fat loss over weight loss go much beyond than just having a great body composition.
Problem With Losing Muscle
After the age of 30, one tends to lose 3-8% muscle mass every 10 years and this rate particularly shoots up after the age of 60 resulting in involuntary loss of muscle mass & strength also known as Sarcopenia as discussed above (2).
And this is primarily responsible for disability in older people.
Right Approach to lose fat
But how do we achieve Fat Loss over Weight Loss because both look the same as both require a caloric deficit diet? Right?
The real game is the amount of deficit, protein consumption, and physical activity level.
The general problem seen with people struggling to lose Fat is their ‘unrealistic expectations of getting the desired results over a short period of time (like 7-10 kgs in a month or so).
People go for huge deficits (like 1000 calories) in order to get quick results, but guess what? This eventually slows down the metabolism as the body turns on the ‘Starvation Mode.
A better term for starvation mode would be “metabolic adaptation” (4).
Meaning, your body will require fewer calories now to survive because it is smart & it has adapted to the current nutrition pattern.
Also, a large amount of deficit can cause fatigue, Nutrient Deficiencies, loss of lean muscle, and above all you won’t be able to sustain it.
And, therefore deficits need to be small with the optimum amount of protein consumption.
Studies have shown that for most people a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day is sufficient for fat loss and unlikely to affect your hunger or energy levels with the right food choices and also minimizes muscle loss.
Secondly, Resistance Training has a vital role. It preserves the lean muscle mass, prevents metabolism to slow down, and boosts the fat-burning process (3).
The ‘American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight for sedentary individuals and 1.2-1.7g of protein per kg of body weight for active individuals.
Conclusion
To conclude, optimal protein intake, along with some form of resistance type training, a moderate caloric deficit, and long-term lifestyle changes must be looked at for fat loss if you want to sustain it even after achieving it.
References used –
Book – Sports Nutrition for Health Professionals – American Council on Exercise
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