Lee Labrada's Tips for Losing Body Fat: Lose Body Fat, Not Your Mind!

As you probably already know, losing body fat has to be one of the most challenging, if not most misunderstood, endeavors that any bodybuilding aficionado can undertake. Losing body fat is not rocket science, although in our society you’d think it was, with the legion of rip-off infomercial shape-up gizmos, the monthly “diet of the month” book releases, and the abundance of weight loss pills being pushed by pharmaceutical companies.

Losing body fat is easy once you know the simple rules, but it does take a little discipline, often more than the hapless, average soul possesses. Those who are incapable of applying a little discipline to their eating habits are condemned to fail time after time, wandering from one weightloss quick-fix to the next. Frustration builds, leading to resignation or worse, cynicism.

This is why I hate infomercial companies. I think that they are full of deceiving, heartless marketers selling false hope to naive people. Their diet and exercise gizmo infomercials are the worst. They prey on people desperate to try anything to alleviate their deplorable overweight condition. I delight every time the Federal Trade Commission jumps all over one of these infomercial companies. Chalk one up for the consumer.

But it’s not just infomercial companies who are guilty of misleading overweight consumers. Misinformation rears its ugly head in many forms, even in the sports supplement business. Take a look at some of the recent lawsuits brought on against well-known supplement companies by state attorneys general and consumers alike. To a ruthless marketer, weightloss product consumers are the dream target market; consumers who are willing to shell out big bucks, then all too willing to blame themselves, and not the product they purchase, when they don’t lose weight. Imagine buying a refrigerator, having its motor burn out the first week, then throwing it away, figuring “I must not have done something right!” Insanity.

My disdain for misinformation, and worse, misinformation fabricated to deceive consumers, stems from the fact that every time someone gets burned by a weightloss quick-fix, it makes it that much harder for me to get through to that person with the real deal, the correct information, the key that will turn their life around. And what is the “real deal”?

Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss

Let’s start by defining fat loss and weightloss. They are not one and the same. You’ll note that I began this article with the mention of fat loss, then ranted about weightloss and the ugly state of the weightloss products market.

Fat loss, as the name implies, is the loss of, or reduction of, body fat. Fat loss may or may not result in weight loss. For example, if you lose three pounds of fat and gain four pounds of muscle at the same time, you experience a net weight gain of one pound. Weightloss, on the other hand, is the loss of body weight, irrespective of whether it is fat weight or lean tissue (read “muscle”) weight.

Lean muscle tissue is the body’s metabolic engine. It is the most energy intensive tissue in the body, requiring more calories for maintenance than fat tissue. There is a direct correlation between the amount of muscle mass you have and the number of calories you burn at rest (basal metabolic rate). Loss of any muscle tissue results in a loss of metabolism, making it harder to burn fat. Achieving fat loss while preserving lean muscle tissue should be the overriding concern of any individual wanting to lose fat and unwanted inches without destroying his metabolism.That being said, let’s outline the ideal way to drop body fat while preserving lean muscle tissue.