Losing Weight Safely
Losing Body Fat
Of course, obese people can lose a lot of weight fast if they follow a good diet and exercise plan. For somebody that needs to lose over 100 pounds, losing over 10 pounds in a 2 week period or less is possible, especially if they've never exercised regularly or ate well before. Once a very overweight person gets closer to their goals their weight loss will slow down.
If you just want to lose 10 to 20 pounds to get into better shape and keep your muscle mass you have to be careful about how fast you lose that weight. If you are losing both fat and muscle you could end up with a shapeless "skinny fat" appearance. To make sure that you are losing fat and not muscle when you are trying to lose that last 10 or 20 pounds you should aim for a weight loss of 1 or 2 pounds per week. Since 1 pound of body fat contains 3500 calories, you'll want to create a weekly caloric deficit equal to, or a little more than, that amount of calories compared to the amount of calories it would take for you to maintain the same weight. So basically you'll want to eat a bit less and exercise a little more to burn 500 calories every day. If you do this, you'll safely lose the weight you want to.
If you start weight training and add some muscle, you may actually lose fat and gain weight. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you may weigh more but be in better shape. It's really about the percentage of body fat you have. If that roll of fat is getting smaller, you are losing fat even if you aren't losing weight. There are different ways to calculate your body fat percentage. You can use fat calipers or even get a personal trainer or doctor to measure it. You can of course always look in the mirror and see if your body looks more defined. Sometimes it's better to not pay attention to the scale to see if you're losing weight, losing fat is more important.
Once you do lose the weight and fat you want, you'll still need to stay on your diet and exercise routine to maintain it. You have to think of changing your diet and exercise plan to lose weight as a lifestyle change rather than a temporary thing you'll do until you get the results you want before going back to the bad habits that made you overweight in the first place.
Many people seem to equate weight loss with fat loss. This is understandable, since you will have likely lost some fat if you lost weight. However, if you lose weight too fast you will likely be losing muscle as well as fat. To get into great shape you'll want to focus on losing body fat while you lose weight.
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