Are You Losing Weight or Losing Fat?
There is a significant difference between losing weight and reducing fat percentage. When you lose weight, you not only lose fat; you also lose muscle, fluid, and some of the size of your organs. The number that appears on the scale does not, in all honesty, convey the full picture.
It is possible to get thinner or leaner without actually seeing a difference in your weight; this is why you should eventually be striving toward fat loss rather than just focusing on weight loss.
Learning the difference between losing weight and reducing body fat might alter your perception of yourself, your progress, and possibly how you view both your body and yourself.
Alter the criteria by which you judge your accomplishments.
You can monitor your progress using a variety of different methods, not just the number that appears on the scale. No matter what the number on the scale indicates, it is essential that you do this so that you can see that you are, in fact, making changes.
Consider how well your clothes fit you.
If they fit you better overall but are more relaxed in the areas that you want, then you are on the right path. Try on different articles of clothing once a month and make mental notes on how they look and feel on you. Employ the same method of dressing every month, and use this as a yardstick to measure your improvement. You can also try photographing yourself while you are wearing these benchmark items in order to keep a visual record of your progress.
Perform the necessary calculations.
You can determine whether or not you are losing fat by measuring your body at various intervals throughout the process. The following is what you should be keeping an eye on:
Find your natural waist, sometimes known as the area of your torso that is the narrowest. In general, the diameter around the body that is level with the belly button is considered the waistline.
Your hips are the broadest part of your glutes. Examine yourself in a mirror while you are standing on your side. Check that the tape is laid out in a straight line with the floor.
Find the largest part around your breast when standing with your feet together and your torso completely straight. This is your chest.
Arms: While standing with your back straight and your arm relaxed, discover the place that is exactly in the middle between your shoulder bone and your elbow on one arm.
Thighs are defined as the area between the bottom crease of the buttock and the middle of the knee, also known as the section of the thigh that has the most width.
The calves are the muscles that are about halfway between the knee and the ankle.
Determine your level of body fat.
Utilize a scale that can accurately measure your body fat. These scales are easily accessible and may be purchased at a wide range of price ranges; also, your gym probably has one ready for use. By telling you explicitly about your body fat percentage, they will provide you with a more accurate assessment of whether or not you are reducing your body fat while simultaneously increasing your muscle mass.
Establish benchmarks for performance.
Focus on what you are doing to achieve your goals of increasing your health and overall fitness rather than being concerned with the number that appears on the scale or, for that matter, the loss of fat. Instead of focusing on the number that appears on the scale, think about fat loss. Your brain is concentrating on gaining rather than losing, and this provides your mind with a winning mindset, which is a far more optimistic approach and way of life.
You could, for instance, decide that you want to increase the number of times you go to the gym or the number of sessions that you manage to do successfully. You can track how many repetitions of a certain activity you can perform, such as the number of push-ups you can do at once or how long you can run without stopping. You can also set objectives for specific exercises and track how many times you can accomplish those activities.
These are concrete objectives that require you to concentrate on what you would like to acquire or accomplish as opposed to what you would like to avoid. In addition to this, the accomplishments you observe will provide you with a greater amount of instant gratification than the scale can.
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