In Abu Dhabi, weight loss is one of the primary reasons men and women look to hire a personal trainer for at home fitness. However, many people are still confused when it comes to the difference between ‘weight loss’ and ‘fat loss’

We asked a female trainer from Abu Dhabi to give us an explanation of the main differences to help make the topic clearer.

In Abu Dhabi, many people hire a personal trainer for at home fitness with the sole purpose of losing weight. However, there is still confusion about whether someone needs to lose weight in general or fat loss.

As a weight loss specialist can you explain what the difference is between weight loss and fat loss?

There is a big difference between weight loss and fat loss.

Body weight is probably the number one indicator of fitness progress used by so many individuals around the world.

When my clients in Abu Dhabi first attempt to change their physique the number one priority is the weighing scale.

Some may become obsessed with the number even though they have seen results with progress pictures or even the fitting of their clothes.

Avoid excessive dieting – it doesn’t work

The disappointment stems from thinking that their body will look a certain way if they just loose a few lbs or hit that goal scale number, but this excessive dieting normally results in some muscle loss along the way.

Sometimes we forget that the body on the scale includes fat, muscle, bone, water and even our all-important organs, all these factors contribute to the number they see on the scale.

Because this number doesn’t tell the whole story we should be focusing on losing fat within the body not weight, as the name suggest it’s the reduction of stored body fat.

In simple terms losing weight consists of losing water, glycogen, fat and even muscle during a dieting phase. Resulting in a smaller look.

While losing fat ensures you retain your muscle, or even build some extra during a dieting phase.

This allows you to look more “toned” as a result of having more muscle.

A diet personal trainer in the UAE who is a specialist when it comes to nutrition can usually help you create a diet based on all your needs.

Are weight loss and fat loss diet plans different?

In theory, diets in Abu Dhabi for weight loss and fat loss are different.

Weight Loss Diets

When an individual decides to follow a weight loss plan the primary focus will be to reduce the number on the scale, these types of plans result in people eating too little, not having enough high-quality protein and doing way too much cardio.

What will end up happening is they will lose the weight and look smaller, yet not have that toned look they desire.

Loss in muscle mass can have a rebound effect, the more muscle we have results in a higher metabolism therefore burning more calories throughout the day, even when sitting down if we have more muscle mass, we will keep burning calories!

So if we lose this muscle while trying to hit that magic scale number our metabolism will get sluggish, resulting in the weight and the scale creeping back up.

Fat Loss Diets

A fat loss plan in Abu Dhabi, the primary focus is to reduce the amount of fat within the body, this is achieved by prioritizing weight training along side cardio exercises.

Focusing on improving eating habits while hitting their protein goals. In the long run setting the body up to have a higher resting metabolism and burn more calories on a regular basis.

As a personal trainer in Abu Dhabi, do you design your exercise plans for weight loss different from those you would do for fat loss?

I like to educate my clients and thoroughly understand their goals so we can come up with a solution together.

It’s not really necessary to plan a ‘weight loss plan’ – if a client is severely overweight, weight loss may be required first to restructure the body, ideally I like to plan and focus on fat loss.

The ideal way of setting a plan for fat loss and to achieve this in a sustainable way is to condition the body for strength training and cardio exercises regularly.

In addition to this workouts such as high interval intensity training (HIIT) & weighted circuits should be included.

These are all great ways of getting the body fired up while preserving muscle the best we can while still being in that fat-burning state.

I also tell my clients to forget about the scale, how do they feel, do their clothes fit better, I encourage clients to take progress photos.

The scale may not move due to added muscle mass but a picture can paint a whole lot of progress.