Happy Sunday!
Catchy headlines are always the buzz. Thats what gets clicks
in today's society. Its really sad that people gravitate towards things like "lose 20lbs in 5 days" or "torch belly fat with these exercises"! But...thats the world we live in!
When we lose weight, we don't just lose
fat. As much as your friend, your favorite influencer, your favorite talk show or anyone else wants to tell you...when we lose weight, we lose a combination of fat, muscle and water (lots of other things as well but let's keep it simple for today). As much as I'd love to tell you all that when you step on that scale, its 100% fat loss...its not. Let's talk about the science and why....
Think of muscle (in simple terms) as our metabolism. The more muscle we have, the more calories our body will demand each day. Let's use me as an example: I am a very muscular person, my body demands about 3,000-4,000 calories per day to keep my physique. If I did not provide my body with that many
calories each day, I would lose weight. This weight loss would come from muscle, fat and water (like I mentioned above). Now...muscle is very demanding for our body, unlike fat. If we do not give our body enough calories to feed our muscle, our body will understand that and will want to shed it. Why you ask? Because muscle requires many, many more calories to function than fat does. Muscle is expensive for our body to keep around so if we don't
use it or fuel it...poof, see ya. Fat is kept around to insulate our organs, protect us in times of cold and long bouts where our body is not intaking an adequate amount of calories. Our body LOVES to keep fat over muscle. I'll provide an example below:
So..let's use Abe as an example. Abe is a 45 year old man who has a lot of stubborn belly fat around his mid section and needs to lose 50lb-70lbs. Abe does not work out. Abe eats like shit. Abe just wants to lose weight. Abe, with the consent of his Doctor, decides to go on Ozempic (or a GLP-1 medication). A few weeks go by and Abe is down 20lbs! WOAH! Buttttt hold the phone. Thats not all fat. Most likely, thats a majority
of Abe's skeletal muscle. How do I know this? Like we mentioned above...muscle is very expensive for the body. If you don't use it (like Abe) or fuel it (like Abe) your body will recognize that and get rid of it first because its so demanding. That's bad. Like real bad. Muscle is our metabolism...remember?
So, if Abe is losing weight that quick...its definitely not all fat (maybe a smidge + some water). He's also not fueling himself with protein or resistance training, so all that weight loss is really for nothing. Because once Abe gets off that fancy medication, Abe is going to gain the weight right back....and then some probably. Abe is still very unhealthy...even more so because he has now lost a lot of skeletal
muscle.
Abe has not done any of the following to change his body:
- Built habits to help him keep the weight off.
- Built muscle to
help burn more calories throughout the day.
- Understand how carbohydrates fuel our muscle and are a necessity.
- Understand the importance of protein.
- Understand that we need to fuel our body and not eat like a little bird if we want to have a muscular physique.
- Understand the importance of restistance training multiple times per week.
Don't be like Abe. Understand your body first before you try to change it. Theres a lot more complex changes going on than
what you see on the surface or what someone who has no knowledge of the body is telling you. Losing weight is great (if thats your goal) but you need to understand what else is going on when you shed said weight.
Takeaway:
- When you lose weight, you lose both MUSCLE and FAT.
- When you try to gain weight while resistance training, you WILL gain muscle but you WILL ALSO gain fat from eating in a caloric surplus.
- It's never one or the other.
- You will gain fat
and lose fat just like you will gain muscle and lose muscle...science always wins🤓👍🏻.
Have a great Sunday!
