episode 182: why losing weight isn’t the same as losing fat
Today, we’re diving into a super important topic that comes up all the time with clients and friends alike: the difference between losing weight and losing fat. This is something that might seem straightforward but is actually a bit more complex than it appears. Especially when it comes to losing weight without counting calories.
Here’s what I’m talking about today:
What does the number on the scale really represent? Spoiler alert: it's WAY more than just body fat.
Learn why protein and strength training are crucial for losing fat while maintaining muscle.
What’s actually a better indicator of fat loss than the scale?
Why you shouldn’t panic over daily changes in your weight.
Discover the importance of looking at long-term trends rather than short-term changes.
The scale is just one tiny part of the puzzle when comes to your health goals and how to better measure your progress. Let’s get some clarity around how and why to use it and prioritize what what really matters when it comes to losing weight without counting calories.
If you want to work on losing weight without counting calories, check out episodes 161 and 163!
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182
Speaker: [00:00:00] Hello friends. Welcome back. I don't even know what episode number this is. I'm recording a few episodes in advance because the way my schedule is right now. So I'm, I'm a little bit ahead right now and I'm not tracking what number is what. Doesn't really matter. I'm gonna keep this one short today. One 'cause I don't have a lot of time to record.
Um, and two, because I think short podcast episodes are awesome and especially during the summer. Um, and something I wanted to talk about today, which I scrolled back through old episodes and I'm like, have I talked about this? And maybe I have, and maybe I haven't. I don't think I actually have, but it's something that has come up in conversation like.
with just people, with clients, and all over the place. And I thought it'd be useful to talk about, and that is the difference between losing weight and losing fat. And we kind of the colloquial term is like losing weight, losing weight, losing weight. But what we're actually talking about, and what you actually want is to lose fat, right?
You want to lose body [00:01:00] fat. Weight, your weight, when you get on the scale, the number on the scale includes Everything inside of your body, your poop, your pee, whatever you ate, and it reflects because your body responds to how much you did or did not move, how much you did or did not sleep, your level of stress, if you've eaten a lot of carbs or a little carbs, if you've eaten a lot of salt or a little salt, if you've drank a no alcohol, a little alcohol, or a lot of alcohol.
All of these factors are impacting your weight. And so when we lose weight or gain weight on the scale, we don't actually know where that's coming from. Yes, there are some fancy scales out there that tell you they can discern between body fat and muscle. And yes, to a certain extent, they can. Is it an exact science?
Not at all. Um, so when you want to lose weight, you actually want to lose body fat. And so that's why When we use the [00:02:00] scale as a way to measure progress, we have to be very, very thoughtful about how we do that because the scale is not showing you how much fat you've lost, it's showing you how much weight you've lost.
That could be water weight, um, that could be muscle, right? Those are kind of the two, the body fat, muscle, and water are kind of like the three big, um, factors in terms of like gaining weight or losing weight and where it's coming from. And so, In order to lose body fat and not muscle, you need to be eating sufficient protein.
And actually, I don't say sufficient, I should really say optimal protein, because sufficient protein is kind of like the baseline of like what you'll see on the side of a package. which is like 60 grams a day, that's not enough. If you are not eating enough protein, but you are eating in a caloric deficit and you are losing weight, you're losing more muscle than you want to be losing.
Losing some muscle when you lose weight is totally normal, but losing [00:03:00] more muscle, like the ratio being more on muscle than on fat is not what we want. That is not improving your health. So if you're wanting to lose weight to improve your health, and you end up losing more muscle than is good for your body, you're actually not improving your health.
And so a way to mitigate that is to be eating enough protein and to be strength training so that you are basically maybe building, but hopefully maintaining muscle as you are losing weight. So it's coming from muscle. body fat. Another big way that you can tell what's happening, actually, I'm saying another, but really the most indicative way is really how your clothes are fitting, right?
If your clothes are getting looser, you're losing some body fat. If the scale is changing, you're not feeling a big difference in your clothes, right? Then we know that we're not really sure where it's coming. There probably hasn't been a big change. Probably it's like some water weight. But you really want to be focused on losing fat.
And this is why when you get on the scale and the number [00:04:00] is up or the number is down, we have to take that information in context. If the number, if you are someone who weighs yourself every day, then you know the scale fluctuates day to day. And if the scale goes up, it doesn't mean you've gained body fat overnight.
You cannot physically gain a pound of body fat or two pounds of body fat or three pounds of body fat overnight. It is biologically impossible to do that. Could you gain three pounds of water weight overnight? 100 percent yes, you can. And it happens all the time. Can you lose three pounds of water over the course of the day?
100 percent yes, you can. This is why we have to use the scale with it, with context. If the scale goes up, don't freak out. You haven't gained body fat. If the scale goes down, it's a piece of information. It doesn't mean that you suddenly lost a pound of body fat overnight. If the trajectory of the scale is down over a period of time, that is an indicator that you are losing more than just water, right?
And in conjunction with your clothing, how your clothing is fitting is giving you an [00:05:00] idea of where that weight is coming from. And obviously, the closer you get to like your body's set point, The harder it is to lose weight, and this is all dictated by genetics, um, but the harder it is to lose body fat, right?
If you have a lot of body fat, if you have a much higher percentage of body fat on your body, it's a lot easier to lose that body fat. If you have a lower percentage of body fat, it's a lot harder to lose that, and sometimes it is more likely for that to happen. to come a little bit more from muscle, which is why it's so important, no matter what size you are, if you are pursuing intentional weight loss, to be eating optimal protein, which I have a whole episode about that.
Maybe I'll even do another one. Um, optimal protein being, this is a big number, so don't freak out. I'm going to link the other episodes so you can listen to it and get the
Your body weight [00:06:00] times 0. 75. Now if you are if you have obesity and so you're carrying a lot of body fat, that's going to be a huge number. So more towards a, um, a body weight number that would be more in the range for what would be considered, um, a little bit more optimal for you. And so I know I'm using words that might feel sensitive and whatnot, but let's look at all this objectively, right?
This isn't saying that certain body weights are good and certain body weights are bad. We're talking kind of, um, just using a frame of reference that if you are, if you weigh 250 pounds, that would be times 0. 75. I don't know what that number is. It's an insane amount of protein. It'd be very difficult to get.
So using a body weight that might be, um, more in the range of what you would be working towards in a very, like, a reasonable, you know, attainable body weight. Um, that would be the number that you would use to calculate your protein. Or you can also just take your current weight and do it times like 0. 6.
Um, [00:07:00] and that will also give you a good number. And you might be really far away from that number in terms of protein, and that's what that other episode is about. So I will link that. I'm kind of digressing right now. But the whole point of this was to talk about getting clear that when you say you want to weight, you want to lose body fat.
And so seeing what happened is happening on the scale is not always an immediate indicator of that. And the scale can be fluctuating. The scale could be going up and you could be losing body fat at the same time, right? Because you could be retaining water for many different reasons that we retain water.
And at the same time, you could still be in a caloric deficit and you could be losing body fat. And that's why when the scale goes up, don't start freaking the fuck out. Okay? Because on a day to day basis, it doesn't really mean that much. You have to be looking at patterns over a much longer period of time.
Um, and if you only weigh yourself once a week, then you've got one piece of data. And what if that was the day the scale was up? Right? Then you don't really know. So again, you've got to be [00:08:00] looking at an even longer period of time, at least a month, at least, probably more, to see what is the trajectory. Is it going up?
Is it staying the same? Is it going down? And remember that over the course of a month, I have clients who are, um, working on weight loss right now through the lens of improving their relationship with food and who are experiencing that loss as a byproduct of that. And it's happening at like a quarter pound a week, right?
I have a client who's lost like three pounds over like a several month period. Um, and So, it can be, it's totally fine for it to be slow, and when you're using a skills based approach and you're not using a diet, meaning you're not tracking macros and calories, you're not restricting, you're not being rigid, it's gonna be slow.
It just is, um, and that is what makes it sustainable, right, because you're improving your relationship with food and learning to feel more at ease and at peace around food, and then as a byproduct, your overall food [00:09:00] intake decreases and you lose weight if you need to, right? If you don't need to, then you won't, basically, right, um.
So I feel like this is basically what I wanted to say. I'm trying to, I didn't like make notes. Sometimes I make notes of things I want to do when I didn't because I just decided yesterday this is what I wanted to kind of bring up. Um, But really, the big points are, when you talk about losing weight, you want to lose fat.
And so that's why we can't just use the scale as a measure of that, right? If the scale goes down five pounds, it doesn't mean that you've necessarily lost five pounds of body fat. Um, you want to be seeing how your clothes are fitting and making sure you are eating close to optimal protein, working up towards that.
The number that you get from that little equation I gave you is probably, For most of you listening, a lot of you listening, much higher than what you're currently eating, you have to slowly work up to it and strength training. I cannot enforce the significance of those two things [00:10:00] enough. Even if you are not, don't need to, don't want to, weight loss, you don't give a shit, fine.
Fat loss, you don't give a shit, fine. You still need to be doing those two things for your health, for your well being. So again, like we're doing those things for our health and well being, and then they contribute to fat loss. It always comes back to that. Everything we do, the way that I coach, what I share with you, is all about feeling more at ease around food and more comfortable in your body.
And then again, like I said before, the byproduct of that for some people, if your body needs to and would be maybe healthier in certain cases, depending. Weight loss can be a part of that, would be a byproduct, right? And I keep saying weight loss because that's like, that's the term that we're using. And that's why it's so important to get the clarity around this.
Weight loss versus fat loss, what is the difference? How do we know? Why does it matter? And how are we gauging that? How are we measuring that? How are we knowing what progress is or isn't happening? Okay. [00:11:00] so that we're moving towards the goals we want to, that we're staying in alignment with our values, that we're feeling good, that we're not getting caught up and distracted by and putting our time, energy, and attention to something, like, stuff that's not helping us, right?
Like, scale obsession. Um, and I've talked about the scale before in other episodes, so I'm not going to get into that today. Again, I wanted this to be short, just kind of around this, whoops, very specific topic. Um, so that's it. Thanks for listening. I hope this was helpful, and I'll see you next week.