Weight Loss vs Fat Loss - the truth

Hi Peeps....today when at the gym I happened to overhear a client asking a trainer if she could help her with weight loss, the trainer of course said yes and am sure he can because "weight loss" is the easiest thing in the world. I keep wondering why people ask for weight loss and not FAT LOSS. With weight loss you also lose muscle thereby at the end of your weight loss program you may not look the way you thought you would! In fact you could also end up looking ill (believe me I've seen this on more than one occasion) In a weight loss program you may lose 10 kilograms of bodyweight but you'd be surprised to know that your overall body fat percentage may be unchanged or may have gone down by a fraction. Then you ask yourself why? However if you focus on FAT LOSS you not only will look good but you will not hamper Muscle Growth. In this scenario your FAT Percentage will drop without interfering with your muscle mass. Why is it so important to not lose muscle while losing weight...well the answer (go back to biology classes)lies in the fact that our muscles have little fat burning powerhouses called MITOCHONDRIA. These powerhouses are responsible for for the production of energy cells in our bodies and so the more the muscle mass the more MITOCHONDRIA and hence the more the body ability to burn fat and use it as energy. Cut to chase ....in order to keep the fat off you need to increase your muscle mass and not lose it. So beware what you ask for ..Weight loss isn't what you want, its FAT that you want to lose Now that we have got that clear I want to highlight another type of fat we carry ....a far more volatile and dangerous Fat and a fat that not many people pay heed to or talk about. VISCERAL FAT - this is fat stored in our abdominal cavities and therefore also tend to surround the organs in our abdominal cavity! Liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines are all at high risk with this storage of fat. Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiac arrests, insulin resistance etc are all life threatening conditions that arise out of this condition. However what I see quite often is people getting off the measurement scale and perplexed at the fact that while their report shows a drop in fat percentage their overall body fat has changed only marginally. This of course is due to the high percentage of Visceral Fat they continue to carry. The more dangerous FAT. The good news is Visceral Fat is extremely responsive to any form of exercise and nearly not as stubborn at the cosmetic Subcutaneous Fat. So good diet and exercise can help you reduce visceral fat much faster than subcutaneous fat. However to sum this up people remember ; Cardio is not the answer to burning fat - cardio helps you lose overall body weight including muscle. Cardio helps your heart perform better. In order to lose fat effectively and keep it off you need to build your muscle mass which in turn will produce more of those little powerhouses called mitochondria which again uses fat to produce energy. Weight training & resistance training helps to build muscle not cardio and in this form of training there are various ways to implement them for the best results on an individual body. I know there may be some who will continue to think that Cardio is the Holy Grail when it comes to losing fat but they will soon learn it isn't, just like I did on my journey from Fat to Fit. So Myth cardio is the best form of exercise to burn fat is exactly that ...just a Myth!