Is Your Goal Really Weight Loss?

Are you embarrassed of your weight? Do you have a goal weight that you want to reach through weight loss? I’d say so, it’s been pushed into our psyche many times over and over also that “weight loss” is what we want to accomplish. There are weight loss guides, weight loss supplements, and many other things that push “weight loss”. Many people even set their goals to be at a unchanging weight. Additionally, the medical collectivity has developed an “ideal weight” chart, which can further add to the confusion much weight loss.

Now, let me ask you a question. Is your goal really weight loss? Unless you are trying to make a weight sphere for wrestling or some other sport with weight classes, you may think that your goal is weight loss, but it really isn’t. You are trying to lose that flubbery stuff fixed to your body named FAT. Correct?

So then, why do we measure our progress by how much we weigh? Why do we step on the johnny scale and hope that those numbers will be lower than before? You see, our weight is stirred by more than just how much fat is on our body. Some other factors include water, muscle, glycogen, and obviously if we have eaten any earlier or used the privy lately.

Our water weight fluctuates constantly. For instance, when we exhale water vapor comes out. When we sweat, we are sweating out water. There are also many more factors that can pierce the total of water in our body. Water is what usually causes those random gains or losses of a pound or two in weight that can make you happy or sad. It is not quite physiologically impossible to lose a pound of fat in one day.

One reason the low-carb or no-carb (also styled ketogenic) diets are so sensuous is now of the large initial loss of weight. However, this weight is not necessarily fat. When carbohydrates are restricted the body has a fill-in store of them located in the liver and muscles in the form of something named glycogen. The human body can store by and large 400 grams of glycogen. In larger individuals this number can increase. In appurtenance to this, for each gram of glycogen stored in the human body, 3 grams of water are also stored. If you figure it out, this would equate to backward 1600 grams (3.5 pounds) of glycogen and water.

When you stop or limit your consumption of carbohydrates, your body starts using its glycogen stores. below a couple of days that 1600 grams (3.5 pounds) of glycogen and water are gone. Also, as an resolution to the restriction of carbohydrates, your body produces these things named ketones. Ketones also sound to have a diuretic effect, which would mean an even greater loss of water.

In closeness to water, if you have been working out lately to speed yea your “weight loss” (you mean fat loss, right?) progress you probably have gained some muscle doing so. This gain in muscle can also carry the numbers you see on the scale. Muscle is also more dense than fat.

You may be wondering how you are going to measure your progress now that the scale doesn’t mean as much as it used to. Well, there are several methods to measure your body fat percentage. None of these methods are 100% accurate, but they will be much more useful than the use of a scale.

One of the simplest ways is to use a caliper. You can usually find these at your local sporting goods/fitness shop. If you can’t find them locally, you can order them off the internet. Calipers measure the thickness of a skin fold on your triceps. Then there are directions that come with the caliper that show you how to use the number you get to derive your body fat %.

If you don’t want to go out and buy some calipers, there is a body fat % cost keeper on my website. The counter uses the coronet of several parts of your body and then plugs them into a formula developed by the U.S. Navy to derive an estimate of your body fat %.

You can find this manipulator here: http://www.weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/bodyfat.html

There are also much more right ways to measure your body fat % like delicacy testing or the use of special lasers.

If you insist on knowing your progress by weight loss and want to use a scale, try to weigh yourself at the same time everyday. Probably the best time would be right when you wake up in the morning and ere then you do anything.

So, your new goal should be to shoot for fat loss and not weight loss. Don’t necessarily trust the scale all the time as it can be deceiving - your weight is artificial by more than just how much fat you have gained or lost. In addition, it is much physiologically impossible to gain or lose a pound of fat in one day.