Did You Know Part 2- “I Want to Lose 5 Pounds”

Yesterday was a fascinating class at Wingate about Weight, Fat and Exercise.
In the Fitness world, weight is measured in all sorts of ways: There is the regular weight in pounds/kilos, figuring out your body fat percentage, and calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI). These numbers all get thrown around and people are so confused that they don’t know what to measure anymore.

Weight:
BMI = your body weight in kilos/ your height in meters squared. (There are other minor factors as well including gender, athletic ability, etc…but the major ones are height and weight). While this may be a good measure to describe large populations, it does not give us enough information when evaluation the individual person. In this case, weight is your total weight and does not separate your fat mass (FM) from your muscle mass, or your lean body mass (LBM).

When someone says “I want to 5 pounds and look more toned,” what they really mean is that they want to loose 5 pounds of fat mass. Of course, if they lost those 5 pounds of fat mass but gained 5 pounds of muscle mass, they would be the same weight, but they would feel (and look) more fit. While it is a myth that muscle turns to fat and visa versa, you can work on increasing your muscle mass and decreasing your fat mass.

Fat:
The most interesting thing that I learned in class yesterday was about fat. The number of fat cells that you have by the time you are 6-8 years old are the number of cells that you will always have. Fat cells do not multiply, they only grow in mass. Like muscle cells, fat cells can perform hypertrophy where they grow in mass; they cannot perform hyperplasia where they grow in number- like what happens in blood. Therefore, literally the only way to “lose 5 pounds of fat” is to actually have the fat tissue sucked out of you in a surgical procedure. However, through aerobics and a balanced diet, you can shrink the fat cells that will both help you lose weight and make you look skinnier.

Exercise:
If this same person that wants to “lose 5 pounds and look more toned” decides that she is going to just do aerobics and eat fewer calories a day, she may lose the weight but she may not see the results that she expects. That is because she lost the 5 pounds of Fat Mass (FM) but she did nothing to improve her Lean Body Mass (LBM.) Furthermore, if she ate less then she has less food to help build her muscles so she will not get the toned look she is looking for. What is the answer? The best thing one can do to “lose weight and get toned” is to do aerobics AND weights and to eat a balanced diet. Starving yourself will get you nowhere.

Only 2 more months of class to go!