Fat loss is referred to by many people as weight loss, which is very generic as losing weight could refer to losing muscle or water, not just fat. Muscle uses calories and water is essential for hydration so in an ideal world, we only want to lose fat.
To lose fat, you basically need to use more calories than you consume. Sounds easy enough. But there is a lot more to it than that. Fat loss needs to be done slowly. Body fat is seen as unattractive to a lot of people but more importantly it can contribute to health issues whether it be now or further down the line. Dieting slowly will help you lose fat but keep hold off muscle, otherwise it would essentially be pointless to diet if you were only going to lose muscle and no fat.
If you consume more calories than you can burn off in a day, you need to either create a calorie deficit or increase the amount of exercise you do. A good fat loss target would be to lose between 1 and 3lb per week.
Muscle gain on the other hand is healthy, but we live in a world where what the scales say matter too much. Someone who is trying to gain muscle will inevitably gain weight, and you automatically think that is a bad thing. Wrong. Weighing 15 stone for example may sound like a lot, but it depends a lot on the percentage of body fat. There's a difference between someone with a high percentage of body fat and someone with a low percentage of body fat, even if they weigh the same. Muscle is more dense than fat, so a pound of muscle will take up less space than a pound of fat.
To gain muscle, you need to consume more calories but also train effectively, but this needs to be progressive. That means more reps, more weight or more volume whilst exercising in order to work the muscles and build them, otherwise the extra calories you are consuming will gain fat not muscle.
Building muscle is a slow process, you need to give your body time to adapt, this means spending a lot of time at the gym (or wherever you choose to exercise) and not increasing the calories you are consuming too quickly. A healthy muscle gain is around 1/4 to 1/2lb per week.
Beth x
Photo credit: https://thefitgirltalk.com/category/muscle-vs-fat/
To lose fat, you basically need to use more calories than you consume. Sounds easy enough. But there is a lot more to it than that. Fat loss needs to be done slowly. Body fat is seen as unattractive to a lot of people but more importantly it can contribute to health issues whether it be now or further down the line. Dieting slowly will help you lose fat but keep hold off muscle, otherwise it would essentially be pointless to diet if you were only going to lose muscle and no fat.
If you consume more calories than you can burn off in a day, you need to either create a calorie deficit or increase the amount of exercise you do. A good fat loss target would be to lose between 1 and 3lb per week.
Muscle gain on the other hand is healthy, but we live in a world where what the scales say matter too much. Someone who is trying to gain muscle will inevitably gain weight, and you automatically think that is a bad thing. Wrong. Weighing 15 stone for example may sound like a lot, but it depends a lot on the percentage of body fat. There's a difference between someone with a high percentage of body fat and someone with a low percentage of body fat, even if they weigh the same. Muscle is more dense than fat, so a pound of muscle will take up less space than a pound of fat.
To gain muscle, you need to consume more calories but also train effectively, but this needs to be progressive. That means more reps, more weight or more volume whilst exercising in order to work the muscles and build them, otherwise the extra calories you are consuming will gain fat not muscle.
Building muscle is a slow process, you need to give your body time to adapt, this means spending a lot of time at the gym (or wherever you choose to exercise) and not increasing the calories you are consuming too quickly. A healthy muscle gain is around 1/4 to 1/2lb per week.
Beth x
Photo credit: https://thefitgirltalk.com/category/muscle-vs-fat/
