By: Sean Nalewanyj
Submitted: 2009-11-04 04:37:53 | Word Count: 833
When most people think about a diet, they think "lose weight."
Instead of looking at how much you weigh on a scale, you instead need to focus on a diet for fat loss.
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Think it over…
You can weigh 115 pounds and still be soft, flabby, and out of shape, or you can be strong, fit and lean, and yet weigh 185 pounds.
When you consider lean muscle mass, it's simple to understand the difference between a diet for fat loss and a diet for weight loss.
If you have a lot of muscle mass, you will look fit and trim, even if you weigh more because of it.
So, someone who weighs in at 140 pounds and has a lot of lean muscle mass will look better and thinner in their clothes, as opposed to someone who weighs the same on the scale, but is fatter and has less lean muscle.
That's why you need to ensure that you focus on a diet for fat loss instead of trying to lose weight as traditional diets encourage you to do.
Even though you might only lose a few pounds per week if you diet correctly, the truth is that you're swapping out your light but ugly fat for heavy but attractive lean muscle mass.
The great news is that this muscle will aid you in keeping fat off without additional dieting because muscle naturally burns more calories than fat.
Now, in addition to being able to wear smaller clothes and look better, your body will automatically burn more calories thanks to the fact that you have less fat and more muscle.
So why are traditional diets such a failure?
Traditional diets try to restrict your caloric intake to lose weight quickly, but this just makes you lose muscle mass and water instead of fat.
At the end of the month, even though you may have lost weight, you will still be as soft and flabby as before.
Plus, since you are not increasing your muscle mass and allowing your body to naturally burn more calories, you will have to continue this restrictive diet indefinitely in order to keep the weight off.
When you take up a muscle building program and diet for fat loss, you can keep weight off long term without the added effort of unsustainable dieting.
Not many people can continue on a restrictive diet forever, and the moment you stop it, you will again pack on all the pounds you've lost.
You run the risk of gaining even more weight back because your body has actually experienced starvation, and in order to prepare for the next 'famine', it will tend to store more calories as fat.
If you really want to change your body composition, improve your appearance and always diet for fat loss and not for weight loss.
If you can diet for fat loss, you are working towards long-lasting and permanent fat burning results.
