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*The Difference Between Weight Loss and Fat Loss and How Your Hormones Effect Which One You’re Doing

By September 11, 2014February 19th, 2020No Comments

Caloric Weight Loss vs Hormonal Fat Loss

The Conventional Calorie-Cutting Weight Loss Method

When you attempt to lighten your load by consuming less calories than you burn, there is no telling whether the weight you lose is coming from fat or muscle. This may be hard to visualize since you increase your activity, eat less and see your number shrinking on the scale. Here is the kicker though, you may be losing weight in the short term but you will probably not see any significant changes in the two places that matter the most… namely your shape and your overall health. If you began this weight loss approach pear shaped with high blood pressure, you will probably stay pear shaped with blood pressure problems. You may become a more petite pear with a little better blood pressure, but are those really the results you are hoping for after all of that hard work?

Almost every one of us has been conditioned to believe in the “exercise more, consume less” model of weight loss but as unbelievable as it may seem, this has shown to be detrimental to your long term weight goals. If you consume too few calories and burn the ones you are consuming through vigorous exercise you will undoubtedly KILL you metabolism. It is due to the fact that when you burn calories this way, you will burn muscle and fat at essentially the same rate. This is why so many calorie restrictive (or “fad”) dieters go through the yo-yo effect and end up heavier than they originally were after stopping or slowing the diet.

It is now understood by a majority of those in the health and nutrition fields that sacrificing muscle through standard dieting will make it far more likely for you to not only regain the weight you lost, but actually end up fatter after the diet is over! Combine this with the intense cravings, unstoppable hunger and fluctuating energy levels that accompany these diets and you are sure to find yourself at the same point you were before the diet… only this time larger and flabbier.

There is mounting research showing that the long term success rate of this method is lower than 5 percent. Would you ever commit this much time and energy into something that only yields a 5 percent success rate when other, more effective, options are available? Studies even show that when a person chooses lose weight this way they have a 66 percent chance at ending up fatter within two years after stopping the diet.

You can find a video on this page that can help explain to you how caloric weight loss can be unhealthy.

You may see your friends or relatives achieve some results with a caloric weight loss but keep in mind that there is a 95% chance this is a short term benefit you are seeing and that almost everyone rebounds and regains the weight. Unless you are 100% certain that you will be a lucky 5%er, why risk the serious implications it may cause you in the future? You must view weight loss with the same respect as you would with any of life’s other major responsibilities, whether financial, social or professional in nature: a plan that works well in the short term but is impossible to maintain in the long-run, is not a plan that works.

Even for those “lucky” 5%ers, they are in for a battle against willpower which will be both draining and endless. And all of that for a body that is weaker and less toned than they had anticipated.

If you are looking for a lifelong improvement in health and body composition then I HIGHLY recommend steering clear of the caloric weight loss trap. Do not let this get you discouraged though. Next I will go over a more suitable and healthy way for you to shed your pounds and keep them off for good.

The Hormonal or “Fat Loss” Method

For a vast majority of you out there, your goal should NOT be measured in the amount of pounds you lose but rather the amount of fat you lose compared to your body mass index (or BMI). This is the FAT LOSS approach. With the fat loss approach, the individual should also pay particular attention to their hormonal health and hormone balance. This may seem like a more complex approach and that is because it is. It does not merely focus on “calories in vs calories out” like we just discussed. Bear with me now. I am completely aware that, for the most part, you are not doctors and that the notion of hormonal fat loss versus caloric weight loss may appear to be a difficult notion to understand but I will simplify it the best I possibly can.

You should not kill yourself trying to understand all of the medical terms or the scientific reasoning behind the why’s of this method. That is something you should let your physicians worry about. All you need to understand are the basic principles of hormonal fat loss to see why it is far superior approach. The easiest way to remember the benefits of this method is through the acronym HEC. Just think, when your body is burning fat, your HEC will be in check.

HEC is an abbreviation for hunger, energy and cravings. When your hormones are optimized and at an equilibrium then these bodily functions will also be balanced, making them far more manageable. This will let your metabolism function at its best. This will in turn cause your appetite to reduce, energy levels stabilize and your cravings for junk food will just about vanish.

By recognizing the significant role that hormones have on diet, exercise and lifestyle, you can now optimize them with modern tools you can now control your body’s ability to enforce calorie consumption naturally with only marginal efforts. When you simply consume less and exercise more, you throw your HEC out of balance and this is end in eating to compensate for the lost calories, a lack of drive for exercise, uncontrollable cravings for poor foods and rebound weight gains.

Practice weight loss properly (aka fat loss as you now know it) by choosing smart exercises and eating logically so that you are able to maintain or build healthy muscle while burning only your unhealthy fat. This method takes great care to balance hormones so that hunger is reduced, energy is elevated, cravings are eliminated, and fat becomes a thing of the past.

Video Showing Healthy Fat Loss vs Unhealthy Weight Loss

Originally Published by AMOWC on Hubpages