Losing Fat Without Losing Muscle

One of the trickiest aspects of losing weight is to find a way of losing fat without losing muscle. Many people are under the impression that weight loss is weight loss - period. However, often times when people lose weight they are losing water weight or muscle instead of fat which won't give them the body that they are hoping for. Rather than aiming for weight loss it is important to change your thinking and work toward losing fat without losing muscle instead.

Losing fat without losing muscle allows you to get that sleek, toned look and lose the "jiggle" that excess body fat can cause in any part of your body. Losing body fat can also help reduce your risk of certain types of health problems and can leave you feeling energized, healthy and strong. Not only that, but having a great body can help to improve your confidence level and make you feel more comfortable in your own skin.

One important thing to keep in mind when you are focusing on losing fat without losing muscle is that you can't trust your scale. It is easy to fall into the trap of putting a lot of importance on your weight, however the numbers on the scale are not necessarily an accurate reflection of what is happening with your body.

Many people start a diet or exercise program only to get frustrated and give up because they don't see the scale budging, however if they would look at their body measurements they would see that they had actually lost inches and are more firm and toned than when they began. Rather than watching your scale, take your body measurements and try to get measurements of your body fat percentage that you can refer back to to track your progress.

If you don't work on keeping your muscle while losing your fat you are actually sabotaging your weight loss efforts and won't get the results that you are hoping for. Having muscle in your body helps your metabolism to run in high gear, which means that you burn more calories and can lose weight more easily.

However, if you start losing weight and you are losing muscle along with losing fat, then your metabolism slows down because of the decreased muscle in your body and makes it more difficult to lose weight. That's why so many people eventually hit a plateau with their weight loss efforts using traditional diets or weight loss techniques.

Because of this it takes a different type of diet and exercise approach than you may be used to. You need to look for a program or diet specifically created to help you focus your weight loss efforts on losing fat while maintaining your muscle tone.