Why losing the same 10-15 lbs. is making your health worse
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to their health is using the terms “fat loss” and “weight loss” interchangeably. Usually when people say they want to lose weight, what they really mean is they want to lose fat. But oftentimes, when people actually lose weight, they end up losing more than just fat. Let’s dive into this a little bit.
The typical weight loss approach is to eat less and do more cardio and this often gets people to a spot where they are eating fewer calories than they are burning and therefore, lose some weight. The problem with this is most people aren’t emphasizing a high protein diet or resistance training when they are trying to lose weight. This means when they lose weight, some of it will be fat and some of it will be lean mass. Lean mass is everything that isn’t fat mass - water, muscle, bone, ligament, tendon, etc. While losing some water weight isn’t a bad thing, losing any other type of lean mass can become problematic.
When you lose this lean mass, a number of things can happen. You become weaker, more injury-prone, more insulin resistant (think greater risk for diabetes), less toned, and more likely to get sick from bacteria and viruses. Also, it becomes a lot harder for you to maintain your new lower body weight because your maintenance calories have gone down. Let me explain why.
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of calories your body needs to keep the lights on if all you did was lie down on the couch and do nothing. It takes energy to maintain your nervous system, keep your heart beating, maintain your respiration, repair tissues that break down over time, etc. This makes up the bulk of the calories you burn each day. The main way you can change your basal metabolic rate is by adjusting how much lean mass you have. Lean mass takes energy to maintain, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you need to eat each day to maintain that muscle mass. Conversely, if you lose muscle mass, the number of calories you need to eat per day will decrease.
So if you lose weight on a diet and some of it is muscle mass, you cannot go back to your regular eating habits after your weight loss even if you were maintaining your weight with those habits. You now have to eat a little less than you used to, otherwise, that extra energy (calories) your body no longer needs will be stored as fat. Then as you gain fat, you will be tempted to cut calories and increase cardio like you did to lose fat before, but this time you need to cut EVEN more. If you lose weight, you will end up losing fat and muscle yet again and be in an even worse situation than the first time. You can get stuck in this vicious cycle, never really getting to the body composition you want and drastically making your health worse in the long run. For most of us, losing lean mass is not really something we can afford to do considering the time and energy it will take to regain that lean mass. So if you are trying to lose body fat, you must make sure that while you’re in your calorie deficit (for 6-12 weeks), you are still prioritizing resistance training and protein consumption. This will help you shed fat and maintain muscle so you end up with a lean body that still feels strong and healthy! And remember, it takes time! Most people overestimate the progress they will make in 12 weeks and underestimate the progress they will make in 12 months. So be patient, stay the course, and make sure that you give yourself some grace!