You’re facing your phone or computer wondering how losing weight works.
- You want to understand the exact process.
- The best and most sustainable way to lose weight fast and forever?
This article will go through EVERYTHING you need to know about losing weight.
When I say everything, I mean every single thing:
- What constitutes your body weight?
- What are the parameters that impact your weight the most?
- How do these parameters change in different contexts?
- How can you take control over them to lose weight?
- What’s the best strategy to lose weight healthily?
- And much more.
By the end, you’ll have an accurate understanding of how losing weight works.
You’ll arm yourself with the knowledge and tools you need to take control of these processes and influence your weight the way you desire.
Most importantly, I will give you simple tips you can implement right now to lose weight the healthy way.
Ready?
Let’s begin!
PART 1: HOW YOUR BODY WEIGHT WORKS
How losing weight works…
Understand What Constitute Your Body Weight.
Before understanding weight loss physiology, let’s recognize the main parameters that constitute our weight in the first place.
First, we’ll take a look at the molecules that weigh the most.
Second, we’ll explore how much weight each organ accounts for in the body.
These two perspectives will help us appreciate how our body weight changes.
MOLECULES THAT WEIGH THE MOST
How losing weight works…
The simplest way to understand body weight is by looking at the main molecules that make most of our weight:
WATER WEIGHT
Up to 70% of our body weight is water!
And guess what?
99% of the molecules in your body are water molecules!
No joke!
Water is everywhere:
- Every cell is like a small bag of water. It holds water, structures it, and uses it as an information carrier.
- Your blood is mostly water mixed with all the hormones, minerals, vitamins, proteins, etc.
- Your muscles are up to 80% water.
- Your brain is also roughly 80% water.
How losing weight works…
Most of your body weight is water!
Without water, there will be no life!
70% OF YOUR BODY IS WATER BY WEIGHT!
PROTEINS AND FATTY ACIDS
Roughly 25 % of your body weight is protein and fatty acids.
Our body uses them as tools and structural components for biological processes.
25 % OF YOUR BODY IS PROTEINS AND FATTY ACIDS BY WEIGHT!
OTHER MOLECULES
All the other molecules account only for 5% of your body weight. Think of everything else: DNA, vitamins, minerals, and all molecules our body uses.
5% OF YOUR BODY WEIGHT IS OTHER MOLECULES
How losing weight works…
The takeaway here?
MOST MOLECULES ARE: WATER, PROTEINS, AND FATTY ACIDS.
THEY COMPOSE MORE THAN 95% OF OUR BODY WEIGHT.
ORGANS THAT WEIGH THE MOST
The other way to look at it is by asking:
- How much weight does each organ account for in our body?
Of course, the weight varies depending on many factors: gender, height, activity profile, health status, and more. Despite individual variations, this look gives us a clear idea of what matters the most for weight loss.
Here I outlined the weight percentage of the main organs, as well as their weight on average.
MUSCLE WEIGHT
How losing weight works…
Your average muscle weight is around 40% of your body weight.
That being said, water constitutes up to 80% of your muscle weight.
Yes! 80% of your muscles are water by weight!
So if you are 70 Kilograms (154 Lbs.):
Your total muscle weight will be around 32 kilograms (70.4 Lbs.).
Only 7 Kilograms (15.4 Lbs.) are muscle cells and structural components. Up to 25 Kilograms (55 Lbs.) is water filling the gaps.
40% OF YOUR BODY WEIGHT IS MUSCLES
BONES WEIGHT
Your average bone weight is around 15% of your body weight. Of which 30% is water! So, if you are 70 kilograms (154 Lbs.):
Your total bone weight is 10.5 kg (23.1 Lbs.), and 3.15 Kg (6.93 Lbs.) of your bone weight is water.
15% OF YOUR BODY WEIGHT IS BONES
FAT WEIGHT
How losing weight works…
Fat tissue weight depends on how much fat you store. Body fat percentage widely ranges from:
- 5% for the very lean bodybuilders.
- 45-65% fat for most obese people.
Only 10% of your fat tissue weight is water.
Fat and water aren’t best friends!
So, if you’re an average person walking around with 70 Kg (154 Lbs.) and 15% body fat: 10.5 Kg (23.1 Lbs.) is fat, of which only 1 Kg (2.2 Lbs.) is water.
AVERAGE HEALTHY BODY FAT PERCENTAGE
- FOR MEN BETWEEN 8% – 15%
- FOR WOMEN 15% – 25%
BLOOD WEIGHT
Blood is around 10% of your body weight. It’s 90% water mixed with blood cells, minerals, hormones, and an endless list of other things!
So, for a 70 Kg (154 Lbs.) average person, their blood will weigh around 7 Kg (15.4 Lbs.)
YOUR BLOOD MAKES UP 10% OF YOUR BODY WEIGHT.
WEIGHT OF OTHER ORGANS
How losing weight works…
To give you an idea for comparison, here I listed the weight of some organs:
- Skin = 3.6Kg (7.92 Lbs.).
- Digestive tract: 3.5 Kg (7.7 Lbs.).
- Liver: 1.5 Kg (3.3 Lbs.).
- Brain: 1.1-1.4kg (2.42-3.08 Lbs.). depending on how smart you are! No, it is a joke!
- Lungs: around 1 Kg (2.2 Lbs.)
- Heart: around 300g (0.66 Lbs.).
- Pancreas: 70-90g (0.154 – 0.198Lbs.).
THE REST OF THE ORGANS MAKE UP 20% OF YOUR BODY WEIGHT.
PART 1 KEY POINTS
How losing weight works…
Your total body weight is affected by many parameters.
It’s mostly water (70%). Water is the vehicle that carries everything!
25% of it is proteins and fatty acids making up the structure of your cells and the tools they use to function!
Muscles are the heaviest organ in the body and constitute, on average, 40% of our body weight. Fat and bones come second with 15%, and blood comes third with 10%.
The remaining organs combined make up around 20%.
PART 2: HOW LOSING WEIGHT WORKS, THE KEY VARIABLES
As you’ve seen, there are so many variables that can affect your weight. We’ll focus on the ones that impact it the most.
Understand Them To Control Them.
WATER FLUCTUATIONS
WATER BALANCE IS VERY DYNAMIC AND FLUCTUATES DAILY.
Since your body weight is mostly water, let’s explore how water fluctuations can influence your body weight.
First, We are constantly excreting fluids through breathing, going to the bathroom, and sweating. Also, we regularly intake water directly by drinking and eating. Therefore, significant body weight fluctuations can occur hourly due to water intake and elimination!
Depending on your body composition and lifestyle, you can witness fewer or more fluctuations in your weight within 24 hours.
Anytime you pull water out of balance in one direction, your body will pull it back in the other direction to balance it.
The fluctuations you see on the scale illustrate this tug-of-war between your behavior (eating, drinking, sweating, etc.) and your body regulating your physiology.
All this to say, water weight fluctuations are normal. It has to occur as part of your healthy physiology.
Conversely, disturbing water homeostasis to decrease the numbers on the scale is not a good idea. It’s an unhealthy way of fighting and losing the battle against your body.
Should you look at the scale daily, worry about the numbers, and hate your life because you gained 100g despite your efforts?
No, the fluctuations are purely a reflection of short-term water losses and gains. Fat and muscle losses will only appear on the scale across a more prolonged period.
DO NOT FOCUS ON THE SCALE NUMBERS.
WATER FLUCTUATIONS WILL CONFUSE YOU.
MUSCLE MASS VARIATIONS
MUSCLE WEIGHT CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE FORCES APPLIED TO THEM, THE HORMONES YOU EXPRESS AND THE FOOD YOU EAT.
The forces you regularly apply to your muscles are the primary signal that modulates muscle weight. Muscles are highly energy-demanding, therefore your body will only keep as many muscle fibers as it needs.
In other words, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Remember that 80% of your muscle weight is water, and a significant portion of the remaining 20% is glycogen stores (check below).
As a result, your muscle weight will change according to:
- How much resistance do you apply to them? How often?
- Your hormones-expression and what you eat.
- How full are muscle glycogen stores?
- How much water do they hold?
These are the main factors that influence your muscle weight, especially short-term.
USE YOUR MUSCLES, DON’T LOSE THEM!
GLYCOGEN STORES CHANGES
CHANGES IN GLYCOGEN STORES LEAD TO SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT FLUCTUATIONS ON THE SCALE!
As mentioned before, glycogen stores are a significant part of your muscle weight. Muscles can stock 300-350 grams of glycogen.
Each gram is stored along with 3g of water.
In other words, full muscle glycogen stores account for 300+900=1200g of weight worth of glycogen and water.
Empty your muscle glycogen stores, and you can quickly lose 1.2 Kg = 2.4 pounds.
Do you remember the first 2 pounds you lost when on a diet?
Probably glycogen and water!
The liver also stores a maximum of around 150g of glycogen. Add this to muscle glycogen, and you end up with a total of 500g of glycogen in the body: 500g of glycogen + 1500 g of water = 2 kg = 4.4 pounds.
Yes, 4.4 pounds of your body weight is glycogen bound to water in your muscles and liver. Deplete your glycogen reserve and lose more than 4 pounds from glycogen and water alone!
BE AWARE THAT GLYCOGEN STORES ARE A SIGNIFICANT VARIABLE IN YOUR BODY WEIGHT.
FAT PERCENTAGE MODIFICATION
YOUR FAT STORES HAVE VIRTUALLY NO LIMITS
As long as excess sugar and fatty acids are present in your blood with hormonal signals for storage (mainly high insulin levels), your fat cells will store them as fat.
As a result, you’ll gain fat weight accordingly.
Fatty acids can also be a fuel source. Store less, utilize more fatty acids, and your fat percentage will decrease over time.
TO LOSE FAT, AVOID SIGNALING FAT STORAGE, AND INCREASE YOUR CAPACITY TO UTILIZE FATTY ACIDS!
BONE DENSITY DIFFERENCES
CHANGES IN BONE DENSITY ACCOUNT FOR NEGLIGIBLE FLUCTUATIONS IN YOUR BODY WEIGHT.
Bone density changes in response to gravity and the forces applied to your bones. This process is similar to the way your muscles respond to exercise. It’s another reason exercise is valuable to your health. It helps you preserve your bone density and stay in shape.
The variation in bone density is not significant for most people (except in extreme cases).
So, exercising and applying forces on your musculoskeletal system will induce muscle and bone mass changes. But most of the weight gained will come from muscles, glycogen, and water. Only a tiny portion will come from the increase in bone density.
MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BONE DENSITY, ESPECIALLY AS YOU AGE
PART 2 KEY POINTS
The key variables that change your body weight are water fluctuations, muscle mass, glycogen stores, fat percentage, and bone density.
Water fluctuations happen daily as part of your normal physiology and directly impact your body weight. Don’t focus or get confused by the numbers on the scale.
Changes in muscle mass significantly impact your overall body weight. Increasing body weight through building muscle is healthy. Use your muscles!
Glycogen storage variability can account for more than a 4-pound difference in your body weight. Be aware of that!
Your fat storage capacity is virtually unlimited. Decrease your fat percentage to healthy levels by storing less and utilizing more.
In most cases, changes in bone density are negligible on the scale.
Maintain healthy bone density by applying forces to your musculoskeletal system.
PART 3: HOW LOSING WEIGHT WORKS THE HEALTHY WAY
YOUR BODY HAS AN INNER INTELLIGENCE REGULATING EVERYTHING FROM WITHIN.
Now you have a more precise understanding of the main variables that make our body weight. You also comprehend how these variables fluctuate and the main signals that influence them. The next question is:
How can you affect these variables to lose weight the healthy way?
YOUR JOB IS TO WORK WITH YOUR BIOLOGY AND GIVE IT THE CORRECT INPUTS.
DO NOT MANIPULATE WATER BALANCE TO LOSE WEIGHT
YOUR INNER INTELLIGENCE IS WAY SMARTER THAN YOU
Trust your inner intelligence and execute upon the signal you receive from it!
For example, if the weather is hot and you’re excessively sweating, you’ll feel thirsty: your job is to drink quality water with the minerals your body needs.
Besides, if you drink too much unnecessary water, you’ll flush the excess and lose minerals in the filtration/excretion process.
What a waste of time, energy, minerals, and water!
Drinking plenty of water to lose weight might not be always ideal!
Just enough water!
WHEN THIRSTY, DRINK QUALITY WATER WITH THE MINERALS YOUR BODY NEEDS!
DON’T OVERDO IT.
DO NOT RESTRICT CALORIES TO LOSE WEIGHT
CALORIES AREN’T A SIGNAL FOR WEIGHT GAIN OR LOSS! HORMONES ARE.
Hormones are the primary regulators of our weight. They control:
- Muscle mass
- Fat storage and mobilization
- Glycogen stores
- Water retention or elimination
- And all the other processes in the body.
This has been proven time and time again.
Here’s a simple example:
Keep the same diet (the exact number of calories), inject yourself with insulin, testosterone, and growth hormone, and your body weight will increase significantly!
You’ll become a muscle monster with bigger glycogen stores, and retaining more water! Please, don’t inject yourself with anything. It’s just an example to illustrate my point!
OPTIMIZE YOUR HORMONES. THEY’RE THE SIGNAL FOR WEIGHT MODULATION. CALORIES ARE JUST ANOTHER MARKETING ILLUSION.
INCREASE MUSCLE MASS
INCREASING MUSCLE MASS RAISES YOUR HEALTH STATUS TO A NEW LEVEL.
Most people sit around all day long, eat junk food, and drink alcohol to feel good! It’s a perfect recipe to waste muscle mass and gain fat.
Losing muscle mass is not healthy. Here is how it happens:
5 COMMON MISTAKES ROBBING YOUR MUSCLE MASS
- Not applying resistance to most of your muscles. Yes? You’re doing it if you sit all day long.
- Not eating enough quality proteins. Yes? You’re probably eating highly processed foods.
- Overdoing cardio to exhaustion. Yes? Overdoing cardio to lose weight is shooting yourself in the legs.
- Depriving yourself of sleep. Do you stay late watching Netflix and wake up early to work? Yes? you’re sleep-deprived!
- Stress yourself beyond what you can handle. Do you live a stressful life with no time for yourself? Yes?
That’s a five out of five! No wonder you feel weak and cannot build muscles!
Please stop it!
5 FOUNDATIONS TO GAIN MUSCLE MASS
If you want to gain muscle, do the exact opposite:
- Re-build your mindset around health.
- Apply resistance to most of your muscles regularly. Make it a routine.
- Pay attention to what you eat. Eat whole foods prioritizing proteins and healthy fats.
- Enhance your sleep quality.
- Manage your stress.
Combine them, and you’re good to be a muscle monster!
I am just kidding.
Of course, the healthy way is to gain enough muscles to feel strong in your daily life without harming yourself or taking it to extremes.
Although building muscles will increase the numbers on the scale (Who cares about the numbers?) Resistance exercise and building muscles increase your health status in many ways (health is what matters!)
5 WAYS BUILDING MUSCLES MAKE YOU HEALTHIER
- Increasing your muscle mass:
- Allow you to build strength and do more.
- Make you more resilient to stress.
- Create a large and sensitive reservoir for glucose storage which helps you better regulate blood sugar levels.
- Optimize your hormones and neurotransmitters, making you feel good and function better.
- Increase your sleep quality.
There are many other reasons! But I think you got my point.
BUILD OR AT LEAST PRESERVE A HEALTHY LEVEL OF MUSCLE MASS DESPITE THE POTENTIAL INCREASE IN YOUR WEIGHT (YOUR HEALTH MATTERS!)
RE-CYCLE YOUR GLYCOGEN STORES
ACTIVELY RE-CYCLING YOUR GLYCOGEN STORES PREVENTS YOU FROM CONSUMING EXCESS CARBS.
Recycling glycogen stores means: depleting them before refilling.
If you already have full glycogen stores, any glucose you consume is an excess that your body can only store as fat (check next section).
The next question is:
How can you use your glycogen stores?
3 STRATEGIES TO USE YOUR INTERNAL GLYCOGEN STORES
- Intermittent fast or do an extended fast. Fasting depletes a good portion of your liver glycogen stores.
- Engage in exercises that force you to tap into the glycolytic system (intensity close to your max efforts). It will deplete your muscle glycogen stores.
- Follow a very low-carb diet: Consume little to no carbs during the first meal (even better during the first two meals).
Combine these 3 strategies and significantly increase your capacity to utilize and store glucose without falling into the trap of excess glucose consumption. It’s a powerful combination: Use it!
As a side note, drink water with salt to help your body deal with this process and keep electrolyte balance.
USE YOUR INTERNAL GLYCOGEN STORES BEFORE YOU CONSUME EXTERNAL SOURCES OF CARBS.
DECREASE FAT PERCENTAGE
DECREASE FAT PERCENTAGE TO REACH A SWEET SPOT OF 8-12% FOR MEN AND 12-18% FOR WOMEN.
Having stored fat is vital for healthy physiological processes.
Conversely, excess fat stored disturbs the system and creates chaos (internally and externally!). Therefore, the idea is to decrease body fat percentage to a sweet spot that allows you to function optimally and feel good in your body.
Based on our current lifestyle we don’t need to carry fat to survive the cold winter anymore. Hence, The sweet spot becomes around 8-12% for men and 12-18% for women.
You need to have fasted to mobilize fatty acids and use them for energy production (aka lose fat). The goal is to shift your metabolism from storing to using fat for fuel most of the time and get accustomed to that. Over time you become adapted to burn fat efficiently. Of course, to help your body in this process, you also need to optimize all the other health foundations!
3 POWERFUL STRATEGIES TO BECOME FAT ADAPTED
1. Workout fasted in the morning: It does wonders for your metabolism and overall well-being. After a night of sleep and no food in your stomach, your body is already burning fat for fuel. Adding movements or a good workout throws more fatty acids into your burning furniss and exponentially boosts fat loss.
2. Prolong your fasting after your workout: Don’t rush to eat as soon as you finish working out. Hydrate only, and give your body some extra time to continue to burn fat. Remember you want to stay in “burning mode” as long as possible and in “storing mode” for the least amount of time.
3. Lower your glycogen reserve: With low-glycogen stores, you force your body to mobilize more fat for fuel. It has no better choice for energy production! Combine the same glycogen-cycling principles mentioned previously with the first two strategies and become a fat-burning machine.
Finally, avoid these 5 common eating mistakes, and you’re ready to burn excess fat.
5 COMMON EATING MISTAKES ADDING FAT TO YOUR BODY
For fat loss, what you eat is crucial:
- Don’t avoid fats. Your body needs healthy fats to function optimally.
- Don’t eat excess glucose. Your body will transform excess glucose into fatty acids and store them as fat.
- Don’t eat unhealthy fats. You will create inflammation and disturb your ability to mobilize fatty acids for fuel.
- Don’t eat refined carbohydrates. You will secrete high insulin levels in response. High insulin levels prevent you from utilizing your endogenous fuel sources.
- Don’t eat processed foods. They contain all the unhealthy elements mentioned above without the vitamins and minerals your body needs to burn fat.
In other words, eat whole foods, prioritize proteins and healthy fats, eat less carbs, and become a fat-burning machine!
CONCLUSION
How losing weight works…
To lose weight, focus on the variables that make you healthier.
Understand that your body weight includes many variables that change constantly, and water fluctuations account for most of them. For this reason, it’s crucial to follow your body’s thirst signals and drink quality mineralized water. But, don’t obsess about drinking a lot of water: too much becomes counterproductive.
Your muscle mass, glycogen stores, and fat mass are the parameters you need to take control of and manipulate in the right direction.
Optimize your hormones to support muscle synthesis, fat mobilization/ oxidation, and proper overall functions. To do so, stick to the health foundations: proper sleep, nutrient-dense foods, managing your stress, etc.
Implement the tips outlined here one at a time, make them a routine and you’ll set yourself on the path of sustainable healthy weight loss.
Congratulations!
