Exercise: Losing Weight But Not Shedding Fat

• For the best chance of success with regard to weight loss, the most important factor is determination. You should be careful to choose a diet and exercise regime which is suitable to your unique needs.
• In some cases, we may be losing weight and feeling quite happy with the results. However, that weight loss could, in fact, be caused by muscle loss due to a lack of nutrition and exercising too strenuously.
• The effects of exercising are not limited to that slim body we all strive for. Exercising can also help us delay the onset of various illnesses and disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high lipid levels, Alzheimer’s disease and coronary artery disease.

The laws of physics state that our body weight is the effect of the world’s gravitational acceleration (g) on our body mass.

The simplest way to lose this weight would be to go and live on another planet where this gravitational acceleration is much weaker. Supposing we weigh 50 kilograms here on earth, our weight on other planets could be as low as 8.28 kilograms on the moon, 45.55 kilograms on Venus, 19 kilograms on Mars and just 3.5 kilograms on Pluto.

However, as humanity is not yet able to travel to other planets, those worried about excess body weight still require a determination to eat and exercise suitably due to the proliferation of delicious dishes found throughout this cruel world we live in.

Each person has their own idea of what constitutes a great looking body. Some people would like to lose fat and gain muscle, so they can achieve their dream of looking like a well-proportioned body builder or model. Such regimes often lead people to see an increase in body weight, but also a more shapely body which is much slimmer than before, due to the muscle mass gained being heavier than the fat they’ve lost. Nevertheless, there are many other people who would like to lose weight by only shedding fat, and it is these people who should consult a specialist physician due to each body being unique, thereby requiring its own specialized regime.

• When exercising, our body will first use up energy stored as dietary fuel which we get from the food we eat. Once these stores are exhausted, the body will then turn to body fuels, such as proteins found in muscles and, thereafter, accumulated fat stores.
• Limiting the food we eat or fasting from food before partaking in strenuous exercise may lead to fat loss in the short-term, but it will also cause muscle mass to go with it. This is due to the body not having enough nutrition to repair the muscle mass damaged during exercise.
• The way to burn fat while losing the least amount of muscle mass is through weight training, such as exercising by lifting weights or exercising by lifting your own body weight. This should be done in conjunction with cardio exercise, such as running, swimming and cycling, in order to burn off any excess fat stores. However, the success of such a regime relies on carefully regulating your diet, meaning that you do not skip meals, especially breakfast. The main principles of this form of diet are as follows:
  • Cut out sugar, sugary drinks and desserts
  • Reduce white flour intake
  • Ensure leafy vegetables make up 40-50% of each meal
  • Limit the amount of fat you take on each day and make sure any fats you eat are unsaturated
  • Eat healthy proteins, such as chicken breast, fish and skinless meat, and reduce processed protein intake, such as sausages and ham

• To ensure that our muscle mass increases to a satisfactory degree, we must exert our upper limits of power when training, as this will result in new muscle mass being produced. Although, the success also depends on us getting the right nutrition and sufficient periods of recovery. Nevertheless, lifting light weights or partaking in resistance training can also help, since these forms of exercise can ensure that we maintain muscle mass.
• The reward for every 0.5 kilogram of muscle mass added to our body is an increase of up to 40-50 calories metabolized each day. However, if we also add cardio exercise to our regime, the body will use up its stores of dietary fuels in the first half hour, meaning that it will start to use up the body’s fat stores as energy thereafter, in order to fuel and repair the muscles we are using.

We currently have highly specified screening techniques available that can provide accurate analysis of a person’s body mass index. This enables each individual to achieve their target body shape and maintain great health.