Why You May Look a Bit Fatter When First Losing Body Fat

Why You May Look a Bit Fatter When First Losing Body Fat
There is a total mind game that happens when you first begin to lose body fat. At some point when dropping body fat, it is very possible that you look slightly flabbier than when you first began your diet and exercise program. Dec 2016 Update: Click Here to get my FREE 5 day email course “Fitness With Style” (How I coach runway models to Increase Definition Without Excess Size). I have never read about this fat loss principle, but I have observed it so many times that I know it is very common. Lets talk about why this happens, so you know what to expect when you start a strict fat loss plan. [Meaghan isn’t good with the measuring tape. She always gets a much higher number than her actual measurements for some reason.] “If I’m Losing Weight, Why Do I Still Look Flabby?” The best way (and only way) to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit. This means you are burning more calories per day than what you consume. When you are in a strong deficit, your muscles are typically depleted of glycogen (the carb energy stored in your muscles). When your muscles are full of glycogen, they are full looking. When your muscles are depleted of glycogen, they look a bit flat. When your muscles flatten out a bit due to dieting, it can actually appear that you have less muscle in proportion to your body fat…you will actually look like you have gained a bit of fat. Your Muscles Will Lose Glycogen Faster Than You Lose Fat Have you ever heard of someone who lost 10 pounds in their first week or two of dieting? Many people claim that this is just a loss of “water weight”. What happens is that glycogen binds to water molecules and the more glycogen in your muscle means more water gets stored in your muscle cells as well. When people go low carb or create a strong calorie deficit, they lose a lot of the glycogen in their muscles as well as the water that was binded to that glycogen. Their muscles lose a lot of volume. In contrast, they may only lose 2-4 pounds of fat in that same time period, so it “appears” that they had a fat gain even though the scale shows that they are 10-15 pounds lighter. The Weight You Lose From Glycogen Loss is Limited Your muscles can only store up a limited amount of glycogen, so once your muscles flatten out you will cease losing water weight. This will happen quickly, depending upon how strong your deficit is…it happens even quicker on a low carb diet. Don’t worry about the “apparent loss” in muscle mass as glycogen loss is just a temporary cosmetic thing. You will gain back all of this muscle volume once you go into maintenance mode. Here is the Point When You Will Look Visibly Leaner… When your loss in body fat equals your loss in water weight, you will begin to look leaner from that point forward. I like to tell people to not worry too much about what they see in the mirror their first month of dieting. Although they are making progress in losing body fat, the mirror will not show that progress yet. Once they reach a certain fat loss level, that is when things get exciting and dieting becomes very rewarding. It is fun to get visible feedback when you are working hard to get lean! This Illusion of Being Flabby is Even More Drastic In the Gym When you lift weights in a dieted state, your muscles will look flatter than normal. If you are used to getting a big pump, then this will be a big change for you. The problem with getting a pump, it that it actually hides a lot of body fat. The body fat stays at the same level while the muscles temporarily increase in volume. A “pumped up” person is tricked into believing they are in better condition than they really are. A person in a dieted down state achieves very little pump, so won’t appear to be in as good of condition as someone who is carbed up. This typically happens the first month of a strict fat loss program, and from that point forward your body will increase in definition each and every workout…you will have a tough time not staring at your remarkable transformation in the mirror. So What Happens After You Reach Your Fat Loss Goal? My suggestion is to keep dieting hard until your body looks really sharp in a glycogen depleted state. Remember…you still don’t have the benefit of having full looking muscles. Once you go back to eating at a maintenance level, your muscles will go back to their normal state and you will look even sharper and more lean than you did when you were dieting hard! You muscles will still look hard and defined, just slightly bigger, hiding any bit of body fat left on your body. Dec 2016 Update: Click Here to get my FREE 5 day email course “Fitness With Style” (How I coach runway models to Increase Definition Without Excess Size). Note: This is a strategy I use before going on vacation. I am going to write a short e-book or report on how to prep for a vacation and look outstanding the entire time. I keep putting it off, but I promise I’ll get around to it soon. Important Message: Although this site has received 25+ million visitors, I am starting from scratch and abandoning it. This site is dated and old school looking, terrible to read on mobile, etc. It's like a Ford Pinto compared to my new site...which is like a Ferrari. Click the link to head over to my new site. Thanks for reading all these years! Original article and pictures take http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/why-you-may-look-a-bit-fatter-when-first-losing-body-fat/ site