Can you lose weight wherever you want?
If you carry excess weight only in specific parts of your body, you still need to look at yourself as a whole. It is not possible to reduce the point; In other words, you can’t dictate that you just want to lose weight from one place or another. In most cases, so-called “trouble spots” are the last to shed fat, so be prepared to lose weight on your fingers (rings fall off) and face (friends may ask if you feel good) first. However, there is hope in losing that belly fat.
Work to build muscle and reduce body fat
However, if you work to build muscle and reduce body fat, you will eventually address those trouble spots and build a better physique in the process. Muscle tissue is active, meaning it requires calories to maintain itself. If you were stranded without a food supply, your body would eventually turn to your own muscle tissue as a source of nutrition first (muscle is protein) while reserving fat stores for last. Simply put, fat is nature’s way of ensuring survival in times of famine. That is why the prevalence of heart failure kills someone who is severely malnourished. By building more muscle, you become a more efficient energy-burning machine, which means you can eat more food! That to me is a good thing.
The more active you are, the more you can eat!
That explains why some people can eat much more than others and not gain weight; your energy-efficient friend simply has a higher muscle-to-fat ratio than you. Muscle is denser than fat. It is often said that a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat, but the truth is that a pound is a pound. What they mean is that a one-pound volume of muscle is a smaller package than a one-pound volume of fat, or put another way, fat is wavy and fluffy while muscle is sleek and compact. Lady No. 1 weighs 120 pounds at 30% body fat, so she has 84 pounds of lean tissue and 36 pounds of fat, while Lady No. 2 also weighs 120 pounds but has 18% body fat and has approximately 98 pounds of muscle and 22 pounds of fat. Would you rather be lady number 1 or lady number 2? Which do you think takes up more space, 22 or 36 pounds of fat? I’d say 36lbs of fat would be a much bigger package than 22lbs.
how much you weigh makes no sense
This is why body weight as a number by itself is meaningless, but your fat to muscle ratio is very important and worth working on changing. Strive to decrease your body fat and increase your muscle mass and you’ll look better, feel stronger and more energized, and just be healthier.
You can usually get a body fat test at fitness centers and most gyms, so ask if they can. It’s better to know you’re 30% body fat and work to get it down to 29 than not to know and think only in terms of body weight. Most people who only think about how much they weigh tend to go to great lengths to lose that weight, and it’s usually at the expense of losing more valuable muscle.
The best way to increase muscle and decrease fat is through a consistent exercise program. Start at whatever your start is, but start.
Start with a general body conditioning exercise program, doing what you enjoy, whether it’s a sport, gardening, lifting weights, biking, walking, or any other activity. Any physical movement you do on a regular basis counts as exercise, even if it’s doing laundry or taking out the garbage. Get as much as you can out of every task you do and think of it not as a chore, but as an opportunity to move your body.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a washing machine was a new invention. People used to wash clothes by hand and hang them outside to dry. Being a housewife was actually quite a strenuous job. No wonder women are grateful for modern conveniences like automatic washers and dryers, but we’ve now reached a point where our daily activities don’t affect our bodies at all, so unless we want to put on weight more and more, we must do something about it.
Get in shape and belly fat will disappear
There’s no point in going around and around the parking lot looking for the closest space when you’re going for a run or a walk on the treadmill. Why take the elevator five floors every day at work and then pay a monthly fee to do the StairMaster after work? What if we all started noticing that our world is full of exercise equipment?
We could be much fitter if we started noticing all the opportunities for physical movement that we miss out on in the name of convenience. Look around you and see if you can find some opportunities to exercise, and then get to work and get in shape.
