Ever tried to lose weight? Did you know what you were doing? Did you just want to see the number on the scale go down or did you want to look better and feel better?
I’m actually tired of hearing about people trying to lose weight. When I eat healthy all the time, co-workers and friends always ask, “Trying to lose weight?” And that’s just because I don’t take the donut or piece of cake they offer. That’s how the general population is programmed now. If you try to eat healthy, people think you are trying to lose weight. Yet, weight loss is not even important!
Weight loss consists of either body fat, muscle mass, or a combination of muscle and fat. Or it can even include water loss which we’ll talk about later. When most people diet and attempt to lose weight, they lose more muscle mass than body fat. But they think it’s a success because the number on the scale decreased.
Weight loss is not important. The number on the scale is NOT IMPORTANT…
Why are people so obsessed with their body weight? Because the world has programmed everyone to believe they need to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong — Many people need to decrease body fat, but most have no idea how to do it correctly. You must focus on losing body fat and NOT body weight.
Muscle mass is active tissue. What does that mean? It means muscle mass works for you each day. Muscle helps you move, helps you lift things, and helps you through your everyday life. Without muscle, you couldn’t do anything. Body fat is dead weight. You do not need very high levels of body fat like most people in this country have. When you lose muscle mass, you are losing your biggest ally in your quest ot get a better body. You must eat less just to maintain body weight.
You then begin to eat smaller amounts of food in order to lose more weight — because that’s what everyone tells you to do. When you do this, you have a greater chance of triggering the starvation response from your body. When the starvation response is triggered, the body holds onto body fat stores and burns muscle for energy. Why? Because it has nothing else to turn to for energy because you aren’t giving your body enough food!
Threaten your body and lose!
Body fat is reserve energy and the body will hold onto it because it believes it is being threatened. The human body is made to survive and that’s why it will begin to burn muscle for energy and hold onto body fat when threatened. People who starve themselves lose weight and they are happy. What they don’t know, though, is all of that weight loss came in the form of muscle mass. And that is losing the war my friend.
When you decide to lose weight with some low calorie diet program, you’ve told your body that it’s okay to burn your precious muscle mass and eventually replace it with more body fat. You end up in worse shape than ever before. You feel bad and look bad all due to some weight loss program that was supposed to help you — instead it did the exact opposite.
So, all of those weight loss diets out there are only hurting you. If they worked, wouldn’t you see many more healthy, lean, and fit people walking around? Instead, the world gets fatter each and every day. And you can give all the credit to those weight loss programs that are supposed to be helping you.
So what’s the solution to all of this?
You should never focus on weight loss. Focus on improving your body composition – increase muscle mass and decrease body fat. That should be your goal. No one cares how much you weigh. It’s not important. What is important is how you look and feel. STOP worrying about weight loss and that stupid number on the scale and start building muscle and burning fat.
The solution to your weight loss problems is a combination of weight lifting or strength training, a healthy diet, and aerobic exercise. If you learn how to combine those 3 components correctly, you’ll be on the right track to a great looking and feeling body.
