No, that is not a typo in the title. In the 18 years I have been helping people obtain their fitness and nutritional goals, I have never come across anyone who was interested in losing just weight.

In fact 100% of the clients who have come to me requesting to lose weight were really saying, they wanted to reduce their body fat percentage.

Semantics you say? Actually not. Weight is an indiscriminate word which incorporates; water, bone, tissue, muscle and fat. It is measured using a simple scale.

Reducing body fat is quite different, it is specific to just fat and nothing else. It must be measured by using calipers or some other body fat percentage tool, which does not include using a simple scale. If you are weighing yourself on a scale day after day or worse after each exercise session, you are wasting your time.

An eight ounce glass of water weighs 1 lb. Drink three glasses of water and you just gained 3 lbs. You will always lose approximately 1-3 pounds after sleeping for the evening or after performing some physical activity which lasts 30 minutes or more. But it is just water weight.

The most popular diets out today advertise you will lose 5-10 lbs in just a week or so. But they are counting on you to dehydrate and break down muscle tissue during the first few weeks of the program, so you feel like you have accomplished something great. However, it is just water and muscle you would have lost, not fat.

Reducing your body fat percentage requires a much greater effort and more time than just simply losing water and muscle weight. Body fat reduction is a process in which, you must increase the amount of energy you are using over the amount you are taking in. Because you are using more energy than you are taking in, the short fall comes from your stored energy source “body fat”.

The trick is to not lose any muscle or water while you are reducing your body fat. This is very important in order to be successful long term.

A proper fitness and nutritional program which protects your muscles while reducing your body fat, is the most effective way.  That is why you do not want to just lose weight.