|
Book Review InformationIs Your Goal Actually Weight Loss?
by:
Nathan Latvaitis
Are you disgraced 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 brains many a times over and over once more that “weight loss” is what we want to accomplish. There are weight loss guides, weight loss supplements, and many a different things that push “weight loss”. Many a folk even as set their goals to be at a certain weight. Additionally, the medical community has developed an “ideal weight” chart, which can further add to the confusion simply about weight loss.
Now, let me ask you a question. Is your goal actually weight loss? Unless you are trying to do a weight class for wrestling or several different sport with weight classes, you may think that your goal is weight loss, but it actually isn’t. You are trying to lose that flubbery stuff attached to your body called FAT. Correct?
So then, why do we measure our progress by how more we weigh? Why do we step on the bathroom scale and hope that those amount wish be lower than before? You see, our weight is affected by more than simply how more fat is on our body. Several different factors include water, muscle, glycogen, and apparently if we have devoured thing
earlier or used the bathroom lately.
Our water weight fluctuates constantly. For instance, once
we exhale water vapor comes out. Once
we sweat, we are sweating out water. There are as well many a more factors that can affect the amount of water in our body. Water is what commonly causes those random gains or losses of a pound or two in weight that can do you happy or sad. It is all but physiologically impossible to lose a pound of fat in one day.
One reason the low-carb or no-carb (also called ketogenic) diets are so attractive is because of the large initial loss of weight. However, this weight is not necessarily fat. Once
carbohydrates are restricted the body has a backup store of them set in the liver and muscles in the form of thing
called glycogen. The human body can store around 400 grams of glycogen. In larger individuals this number can increase. In addition to this, for each gram of polyose hold on
in the human body, 3 grams of water are as well stored. If you amount it out, this would-be equate to simply about 1600 grams (3.5 pounds) of polyose and water.
When you finish or limit your consumption of carbohydrates, your body starts mistreatment its polyose stores. After a couple of days that 1600 grams (3.5 pounds) of polyose and water are gone. Also, as an adaptation to the restriction of carbohydrates, your body produces these things called ketones. Ketones as well appear to have a drug effect, which would-be mean an even as greater loss of water.
In addition to water, if you have been working out late to speed on
your “weight loss” (you mean fat loss, right?) progress you probably have gained several muscle doing so. This gain in muscle can as well affect the amount you see on the scale. Muscle is as well more dense than fat.
You may be curious how you are going to measure your progress now that the scale doesn’t mean as more as it used to. Well, there are several methods to measure your body fat percentage. None of these methods are 100% accurate, but they wish be more much useful than the use of a scale.
One of the simplest route is to use a caliper. You can commonly 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 move 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 several calipers, there is a body fat % calculator on my website. The calculator uses the circumference of several parts of your body and then plugs them into a formula developed by the U.S. Navy to derive an approximation of your body fat %.
You can find this calculator here: http://www.weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/bodyfat.html
There are as well more much accurate route to measure your body fat % like buoyancy 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 better time would-be be right once
you wake up in the morning and before 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 affected by more than simply how more fat you have gained or lost. In addition, it is all but physiologically impossible to gain or lose a pound of fat in one day.
Just simply about the Author
Nathan Latvaitis runs a website at http://www.weight-loss-resources.com wherever
you can find even as more fitness/weight loss articles, product reviews, book reviews, calculators, a message board, and more.
| |
