Decided to “lose weight”? Well there is something that you must know before deciding upon any weight loss
[the_ad id=”6153″]program. Your weight in kgs is not a very reliable indicator of your health status. It is the sum total of body fat, muscles, blood, organs, water etc. So commenting on your weight without considering the actual composition, will be unfair and unjustified.
Its good to have muscle mass but the fat percentage should be within normal range. An athlete has a higher muscle mass and will fall in the category of overweight due to muscle weight but that doesn’t mean that he has poor health status. His/her body will be more toned and firm. On the other hand, a person who has a higher fat percentage, will be having bulges and fatty distortions that anybody can make out easily with the help of visual inspection. Higher fat percent increases your risk towards lifestyle disorders. So in reality, its the fat that is culprit not your weight. You actually need to lose fat, not your weight.
Now let’s understand the concept behind a “healthy weight loss”. When you are on your way to lose weight, the parameter that you should exactly lose is fat and not muscles. When you are losing in kgs, it becomes difficult to assess whether you are losing fat or muscles. That is why tracking in terms of body composition analysis is very important. Muscle loss can lead to increase in fat percentage, weakness and fatigue. This is particularly seen in cases where people indulge in crash dieting. When calories are restricted, body starts breakdown of muscles to fuel the body and starts storing fat. This is called catabolism of muscles.
Another issue is “self-induced weight loss methods”. People try to gain knowledge by searching google and start implementing on their bodies without checking the credibility. The tips and articles on google are completely general and should be cross checked with a professional. For eg. high protein usually gives results in terms of “weight loss” and is a much hyped diet prevalent over online but high protein diet is a strict no-no for people with kidney issues and high uric acid.
People fail to relate their conditions with half-baked knowledge gained from google and end up aggravating their conditions. Similarly, certain kinds of diets available online are not customized at all and don’t take into consideration any existing medical condition, likes and dislikes, allergies etc. If one starts following such kind of diet, it may not give the desired results and may lead to demotivation. The fad diets available online like cabbage soup diet, ghia juice diet, GM diet are very low calorie diets and would lead to muscle loss rather than fat loss. In fact such diets will make you gain fat as the body will start storing fat to compensate for the restricted calories. There are many kind of diseases related to wrong dieting, to name a few, high cholesterol, hypoglycemia, gall bladder stones, high uric acid, hormonal imbalances, stress etc.
People who have higher fat percentage, normally have low muscle mass. So it’s better to involve yourself in a program that will focus on muscle improvement and reduction in fat percent. This can be best achieved through a combination of diet and exercise. A moderate to high protein diet clubbed with strength training exercises can help you achieve the best of inch loss, improved stamina and more toned body.
Its best to take a professional help for both diet and exercise. Any kind of wrong diet can aggravate the present medical conditions or make you prone to diseases caused due to wrong kind of diet. Similarly, wrong exercises, incorrect posture can all lead to skeleto-muscular injuries.
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