Have you ever stepped on your bathroom scale and were unhappy with what the scale reflected? More than likely, if you are someone currently seeking a proper diet, exercise, and weight loss plan then you are probably not happy with what you are seeing. As such, taking the right steps to lost weight is the right plan…or is it?

Here is some advice: do not concern yourself with losing weight. Be more concerned with fat loss. There is a significant difference between the two. The human body is composed of bone, muscle, water, and fat. You certainly do not want to burn up muscle. Losing excess water weight is helpful in moderation but this does nothing to get rid of stored fat. Cutting too much water, however, could lead to dehydration. Again, if you really wished to be pleased with the results of your diet and exercise plan, you want to concentrate on fat loss…not generic weight loss.

This is one reason why fad diets are not a good thing. Usually, these diets revolve around drastically cutting calories as a short term fix. Doing so will reflect quite a bit of weight loss on your scale…and mostly all of that weight will be water. Why is this so? Basically, when you cut out a ton of calories, you will also be cutting a lot of carbs. Carbs cause water retention and when they are dropped from the diet due to calorie restriction, you will not any significant fat loss.

Then, there is a more ominous component to drastically cutting a significant amount of calories: your body may believe it is starving and will burn lean muscle mass in order to preserve its stored fat as a means of self-preservation. This means you will lose muscle tone from your physique and your fat deposits will be highlighted. That certainly would not lead to presenting a very impressive physique!

The goal of any diet or exercise plan is to get rid of unwanted and unneeded fat. Losing muscle or excess water is not the route you want to go. That is you need to maintain muscle mass. Here is a little secret: muscle mass helps enhance fat loss. Why is this? Muscles stimulate the metabolism. In order to maintain their size and shape, muscles require calories. So, if you increase and preserve your muscle mass, you will discover fat loss to be a byproduct of this.

Here is another secret about muscle mass and weight loss: muscle mass burns calories even while you are at rest. Yes, this means even when you are sleeping, your muscle mass is burning up excess calories thanks to its impact on the metabolism. The process will occur even when you are sleeping.

Ultimately, you want to promote fat loss as opposed to generic weight loss. Building up your muscle tone will help with this tremendously. You do not need to hit the gym for hours on end. You just need an effective exercise program and combine it with a proper diet. Solid results will follow.