Thursday, October 11, 2007

How Much Weight Loss is Healthy?

How Much Weight Loss is Healthy?
Lose up to 10lbs in 10 days! "I lost 25lbs in just 30
days!" Weight loss with a deadline, they are all over the
place. The advertisements suggesting weight loss in a time
frame are confusing regarding what can realistically be
accomplished in a given time frame. For some, they give
false hope, and they will have multiple attempts at losing
weight. For others, they give up all together.

So what is a good goal to set for healthy weight loss?
Well, let's discuss what weight is and what exactly it is
that you really want to lose. You can also talk to LIVE's
online trainers to discuss your personal situation.

Body Mass- the total amount of weight minus fat stores. So
lean mass includes muscle, bones, organs and healthy tissue.

Body weight-the total amount of weight of a person. There
are 3 main types of weight that you will lose or gain.
Muscle, fat, and water.

Muscle weight Muscle weight is the amount of lean body mass
that a person carries. It uses a lot of calories to
maintain itself. If the calories are not there, the muscle
weight will decrease. So the more muscle weight you have,
the more calories you need to maintain it. This is why it
is important to make resistance training and exercise part
of your program to lose weight, and Live's personal
training and diet programs can give you the support and
education you need to be successful. People who workout,
regardless of wanting to build muscle or lose fat, need to
eat more healthy calories than when they were sedentary!

Fat weight - This is the amount of adipose tissue, or fat,
that a person carries. Body fat does not need calories to
maintain itself. It is stored calories that a person has
already ingested and is burned as energy as a result of
exercise. We need a certain amount of fat to be healthy.
These percentages will vary between men and women but
healthy ranges for men will fall between 4% and 15% and for
women 10%-20% of total body weight.

Water weight - Water weight accounts for the levels of
hydration in our body. This weight can fluctuate 5lbs in a
single day based on hydration levels. If you have ever
been sick and lost weight very quickly, it was most likely
water weight. The contestants on the Biggest Loser TV
show, lost up to 20lbs in 1 week, and it was most likely
some fat, but a lot of water weight too. The reason NFL
football players weigh in and out of each summer practice
is because the are being monitored for hydration levels as
they can lose 3-5lbs in a single practice session. And
finally, this is the weight you will lose and gain rapidly
with low carb fad diets.

So how much weight can you lose safely and keep it off?
1lb of fat equals 3500 calories. That is about 2 days
worth of food for most of us. To lose weight and keep it
off, a calories deficit of about 500 a day is acceptable.
This means if you eat 2000 calories a day, you should burn
through 2500. So by the end of the week 1-2 lbs of fat
loss is considered healthy, achievable and maintainable.
Muscle is what we want to gain so we can burn more calories
and raise our metabolism. We will all gain muscle
differently based on a number of factors including
genetics, training regimen and supplementation. A good
number to target is about 1-2 lbs a month. The reason for
this is because it is difficult to put on muscle and lose
body fat at the same time. So you have to have a strict
calorie balance so you can gain muscle weight without
gaining fat weight too.

There is more than one type of weight you can lose or gain
making this a vague topic to quantify. This is why they
use the term "weight" on TV and in advertisements when
referring to an abundant amount of weight loss quickly.
Set realistic goals, and if you are consistently changing
your body composition by losing fat and putting on some
healthy muscle you will eventually look and feel the way
you want to, you will have done it the right way, and will
therefore be able to maintain the new you for life!


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About The Author: Charles Carter, BS in Exercise Science is
President of LIVE, llc of http://www.liveleantoday.com -
visit the website for more information on weight loss, core
fitness programs, optimal diets, and online personal
trainer and dietician services. For more information on
products go to
http://shop.liveleantoday.com/department/weight-loss-10020.c
fm .

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