Posted on August 21, 2015 by Kate Halsall

Ahhh the age old debate – do we really trust what we see on the scales? But let’s face it, weight is just a number – it doesn’t tell us anything about our body composition. What is fat mass vs lean mass? Does is matter if our weight goes up and down ?

1. We can lose weight by losing fat.
2. We can lose weight by losing muscle.
3. We can stay the same or gain weight but decrease fat and increase muscle
4. We can stay the same or gain weight but increase fat and decrease muscle

To help explain this, and to get a better understanding of this here are some key facts:

• Lean Mass refers to your muscles, your bones, your organs, ligaments, tendons and essential internal fluids
• Fat Mass is that adipose tissue – your non-essential body fat, the stuff that a lot of you are constantly trying to reduce. Some body fat is essential for the body to function correctly though so make sure you’re not dropping too much body fat.

So when you step on the scales and your total weight is shown this is a combination of your lean mass and fat mass. What you should be really interested in is how much of your total weight is fat mass and how much is lean mass.

The important take home message from this blog is it doesn’t really matter what your weight is, what matters is how much body fat you have. Excess body fat poses all sorts of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure to name a few.

Forget what your weight is, focus on your body fat levels and make sure these are at a healthy level.

How can we differentiate between lean mass & fat mass?

One of the more accessible and accurate ways is through having your body fat measured with skinfold calipers. From these measurements it is possible to determine your body fat percentages and how much of your weight is actually lean mass and how much is fat.

Some scales also show how much lean mass and fat mass your total weight is made composed of but beware sometimes these types of scales are not always 100% accurate so book in at your local gym and get your body fat measured with calipers instead.

 

• How can I not lose muscle? Don’t just do cardio as part of your workouts – you need to get some resistance training in as part of your routine. Don’t stop training – you can lose those gains! Eat the right amount of protein for your lean mass and training goals – especially before bed!
• How can I lose body fat? Through a variety of training (resistance training and HIIT training and great at blasting body fat) and a good balanced diet. We have loads of blogs on this subject on our site – workouts, recipes, what to and not to eat and so on – check it out!
• How can I gain muscle? Again, through specific training regimes and diet. Diet is often overlooked when trying to gain muscle but it is as important as when trying to lose fat.

If you ever have any questions about your goals and your training plans, please do contact one of our trainers!