The big fat ugly truth
There is a big difference between losing weight and losing fat. The only thing you should care about is losing fat. Fat makes you unhealthy, slow and a compromised version of your optimal self. It is also what distorts your body shape and image when you see yourself in the mirror.
When you lose weight, you lose a little bit of everything: fat, muscle, fluids, organs, etc.
Your goal is to make the most of that weight loss from fat and not the other stuff. If you are only concerned with seeing a smaller number on the scale, you may be losing valuable muscle which will result in long term fat gain.
How do you know how much fat you have lost? 
The only way to figure out how much fat you’ve lost is to have your body fat percentage tested.
So it you’re a female who weighs 160 pounds, with 30 percent body fat, you’re carrying around 48 pounds of fat.
A healthy body fat percentage for a female is around 25 percent fat, or about 40 pounds in this example.
So a loss of only 8 pounds of fat would be required to reach a healthier level!
Say you lost 10 pounds total, but only 5 pounds of it came from fat stores. You would still be at an unhealthy 29 percent body fat. To reach the 25 percent body fat level, all pounds must come from fat.
Quick weight loss shrivels you up
We’ve all woke up the night after drinking a little wine or a few drinks and noticed we looked a bit leaner. This is thanks to dehydration, one of the quickest weight loss tricks there is. But, this has nothing to do with fat loss because you’re dehydrated, you’ve only lost water, and those pounds will come right back.
I’ve also heard of people taking water pills to get their stomachs flatter. Don’t fool yourself into thinking those pounds are really gone.
You still have just as much fat on your body as before. In fact, without hydration, the muscles will shrivel up because water keeps them plump and vital, leaving you lighter, but without any energy or strength. This also increases the appearance of cellulite.
You must gain to lose 
When losing weight, the way to lose just fat is by adding strength training into your fitness program.
Don’t try to lose weight simply by performing cardio. The pounds you lose through cardio will come right back if you stop the cardio, without muscle mass to keep the weight off.
Don’t worry about bulking up or gaining too much muscle. For the majority of the population, it’s simply not a concern. When you add muscle, you improve the body fat composition ratio, which is the main goal. Changing your composition and bulking up is two completely different things.
To get ‘bulky’ takes years of deliberate and intentional eating and training to get this way. Professionals in the fitness and bodybuilding industries commit their entire lives to bulking and only a small percentage ever truly make it there.
So remember, you will not get bulky!
Losing muscle, losing gains
Losing weight other than fat is unavoidable, but the loss of muscle mass will cause a rebound effect that leads to weight gain.
Muscle is metabolically active and lights your furnace, keeping your metabolism brisk and burning calories.
Even when you’re sitting on the couch, you burn more calories if you have more muscle mass on your frame. So losing muscle means your furnace slows down, your metabolism gets sluggish and the weight keeps on coming.
Lose fat and find health
Losing weight can leave you looking like a smaller version of a fat person because you have no muscle tone underneath your skin.
Think of the difference between a prune and a plum. You want to be the latter. You don’t want to be a loose, wrinkly version of yourself. You want to be bright, vibrant and healthy!
To look like a fit, healthy person, losing fat and having muscle is absolutely necessary. Hit the weights.
Challenge yourself to stimulate new progress. Cardio might be challenging to some people but, lifting weights is challenging to everyone. Force your body to make new progress by taking your body to new limits.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, get some help because it’s important to do strength training properly to avoid injury.
Trust the process
If you trust the process, follow the steps and don’t buy into the media myths that have clouded your perception of weight loss you will be left with a toned, strong and confident version of yourself. 
That’s all that fitness is about, revealing the best version of you as possible.
It doesn’t matter what weight, age, sex, injury, religion, height, race or anything else. All that matters is that if you have less fat on your body than you do now, you will look and feel AWESOME!!
Committed to your fitness success,
Derek Kuryliw, Fitness & Nutrition coach
www.LiveFitBootcamps.com
