Weight Loss Diet Tip | Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

In order to lose weight, your body must burn more calories than it takes in, but keep in mind that your body needs calories for energy and when you exercise; your body needs even more calories. Before I talk about energy, the first thing you must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not the same thing. Just because you lose weight, does not mean you lose fat, and just because you lose fat, does not mean you lose weight. When people talk about losing weight, what the really want to do is lose the excess fat on their body and obtain an attractive figure.

When you eat, the body uses most of the calories for energy. If you eat more calories than the body uses, it will get stored as fat. If you do not consume enough calories per day you will lose weight, but you will also lose energy. When you do not consume enough energy (calories) for your body, it will start using up your energy stores to make up for the energy deficiency. Unfortunately, the energy stores used is not your stored fat, but instead it’s protein and carbohydrates (carbs) that will supply most of the energy (stored fat makes up a very small percentage). Your body will take the protein and carbohydrates from your muscle cells; causing your muscle mass to reduce (say goodby to that toned attractive look) which forces your metabolism to decrease (a low metabolism = slow or no fat burning). When this happens your body requires less energy to maintain its new lower body weight (remember the body weight is lower because you loss muscle), which is why your body conserves energy by slowing down the metabolism. In other words, the body has adapted to the new lower energy (calorie) intake which means that you will no longer continue to lose weight.

Keep in mind that the weight you had lost in the first place was mostly water weight and you will eventually gain it back in the form of fat, not muscle (in order to get your muscle mass back to the way it was before, you have to work on rebuilding it). When carbohydrates and protein that are already in your body are used as the energy source, your body will lose water weight because both carbohydrates and protein hold water in the cells. In essence, you are dehydrating yourself to lose weight. So yes the scale will go down, but approximately 75% (if not more) of it is water instead of fat. And just so you know, exercising while consuming a small calorie intake just makes the situation worse. This is because when you exercise, you start burning off more energy and the more you workout, the more energy your body needs. I already told you above where the energy comes from, and if you do not give your body the energy it needs, it will just feed on your muscles even quicker now that you are exercising. So eat more food! In addition to this, when you cut down too much on your calorie intake, your body will start storing calories because it doesn’t know when you will eat again. The calories that are stored will be stored as fat. So in other words, when your body is storing energy, it’s basically storing more fat.

To summarize my point: Not eating enough calories results in muscle loss, dehydration, slower fat burning, and your body will always adapt to a lower calorie intake.

Bottom Line: if you can’t maintain that lower calorie intake for the rest of your life, you will gain your weight back when you get tired of starving yourself!

To lose weight properly (burning fat) you must increase your metabolism (weight training) and your need for oxygen (aerobics) while eating enough calories each day (nutritious diet) to give you energy and maintain the protein in your muscles because protein helps build muscles, which indirectly burns fat. This brings up another good point: When you build muscle your weight will increase because your muscles are made up of mostly water, but your body fat percentage will decrease because building muscles increase your metabolism (in other words, muscles way more than fat, but take up less space than fat). So keep in mind that losing body fat can’t be measured by a scale; use a measuring tape and also look at yourself in the mirror, and then you will see the true results. One of the best ways to know if you are losing more body fat than water is by using a body fat analyzer.

Make sure that you focus on fat loss not weight loss. Your goal should be to lose weight by burning fat, not losing water from your muscles. Remember this when you choose your weight loss program.

This article was written by Vernita Sherman of Ultimate Fat Burning Secrets. Ultimate Fat Burning Secrets is an online resource dedicated to exposing fat burning secrets that weight loss companies are keeping from you. Vernita focuses on teaching you the truth about how to permanently lose weight the healthy way at http://www.ultimatefatburningsecrets.com

American Heart Association No-Fad Diet : A Personal Plan for Healthy Weight Loss

American Heart Association No-Fad Diet : A Personal Plan for Healthy Weight Loss By now, you’ve heard of (and maybe tried) them all: the low-carb diet, the grapefruit diet, the miracle diet . . . the list goes on and on. Fad diets may promise a quick fix, but few deliver lasting results. If you’re like millions of other Americans, you’re still struggling to lose weight and get in shape—without harming your long-term health in the process.

It’s time to leave behind the one-size-fits-all approach to dieting. Now, the American Heart Association, the nation’s most trusted authority on heart-healthy living, introduces its first-ever comprehensive weight-loss book. No-Fad Diet helps you create a personalized plan to lose weight in a healthful way. After a simple assessment of your current habits, you choose the eating and exercise strategies that best fit your needs. You’ll learn how to set realistic goals, eat well to lose extra pounds safely, and add physical activity to keep the weight off for good.

This book offers more than 190 delicious, all-new recipes, including Cream of Triple-Mushroom Soup, Tilapia Cham-pignon, Chicken Pot Pie, Pumpkin-Cranberry Pancakes, and Vanilla Soufflé with Brandy-Plum Sauce. You’ll also find two weeks of sample menus, guidelines for meal planning, useful tips on dining out and food shopping, and sound advice for staying on track to reach your target weight.

If you’re fed up with fads and want a diet that can provide a lifetime of effective weight control, No-Fad Diet is the book for you.

Tired of losing weight and gaining it back?

Sick of fad diets and gimmicks?

Frustrated by crazy food restrictions?

Try the No-Fad Diet

What’s the only effective way to lose weight and keep it off? It’s simple: Calories in must be less than calories out. But since the factors that contribute to this not-so-magic formula are different for everyone, a one-size diet plan does not fit all.

The No-Fad Diet includes:

•Tips on turning negative thinking into positive rewards

•Simple quizzes to find the approach that’s best for you

•Diary pages to record and monitor your eating and activity habits

•Strategies to reduce calories and increase your activity levels

•Guidelines to help you prepare your own nutritious meals

•More than 190 delicious and healthful recipes

•Techniques to maintain your momentum

The weight-loss strategies in this book are based on reliable scientific research and are backed by respected medical professionals. The American Heart Association has the information you can trust.

Also available as a Random House Large Print Edition
Customer Review: No Fad-Diet
I read everything that is related to healthy weight loss. Out of all books that I've been through, many were not worth the time and I did not finish reading them. There are a few, however, that made a great impact on my lifestyle. These titles are "You the owner's manual", "French Women don't get fat" and especially "Can We Live 150 Year". As I am reading "No Fad Diet" it seems that it does have a good chance of remaining on my bookshelf for a longer period of time.
Customer Review: Comprehensive Look
This is a comprehensive book that tries to guide readers clear of get-thin-quick schemes and focus on the only tried-and true method of long-term weight loss. By counting calories and taking in less per meal by reducing the sizes or percentage of the foods consume per sitting. The book offers substantial advice for changing the reader's behaviors while focusing on meal plans based on 3 different calorie levels and healthy recipes.

There is a lot of good advice about customizing your approach using 3 key concepts
1.Think before you eat
2. Eat well
3. Exercise more
These keys are the author's "circles of success" for weight loss. Take home message Fad diets don't work, eat less, eat healthily and exercise more.

Joy Bauer, New York City's hottest nutrition guru, has taken the nation by storm with The 90/10 Weight-Loss Plan. Now, Joy reveals the secrets to creating meals that will help you lose weight and keep it off. Following the 90/10 plan--an easy, balanced diet of 90% nutritious food and 10% Fun Food--Cooking with Joy is the perfect book for those looking to create healthy at-home meals. Only Cooking with Joy features:
*Over 100 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, AND DESSERT!
*Joy's Guide to Navigating the Grocery Store
*Kids in the Kitchen--a chapter devoted to kid-friendly meals and snacks.