5 Differences Between Changing Your Body Composition vs Weight Loss
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Change in body composition. Weight Loss. Are the two one and the same? Or are they entirely different from each other?
In this episode of Embrace Your Real podcast, I will give you the differences between changing your body composition vs weight loss to help guide you into getting the body that you desire and love.
What I discuss:
The purpose of weight loss is to reduce the overall amount of body weight – to simply reduce the number you see on the scale.
The methods used for changing your body composition and losing weight are different.
The majority of people who are working to lose weight are not doing it in the healthiest of ways. They are restricting calories, cutting out food groups, depriving themselves, over exercising, etc. This leads to a plethora of negative health effects. Changing your body composition promotes amazing healthy benefits that increase your longevity.
Losing weight will result in a smaller overall body size, but it’s not going to give you the body that you want. Changing body composition leads to a more toned and defined body.
Living in a constant caloric deficit is hard especially because the second you eat more calories, you instantly gain the weight back. Changes in body composition are typically more gradual and stable leading you to not seeing much fluctuations…which is what you want!
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get hugs, girl. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace, your podcast. I have a question to start out this episode. How long have you been living in weight loss mode? Or a better question, for how long has your goal been to lose weight? Or how badly do you want to lose weight? I know that for so many of us, this is a goal that we have. And I know this because I talk to thousands of women on a monthly basis, and so many of them come to me and ask, Is this going to help me lose weight? Is this the best workout for this? What do I do for nutrition? What's a meal plan? All of these things with the goal of weight loss. And I know that at the same time, these people, what they're actually really wanting, the majority of these people when I get into a deeper conversation, is they want a stronger core. They want, you know, a firm booty or more toned arms or whatever it is that you are aspiring to in kind of your physical goals of what you are setting out to do. And I have a newsflash for you getting a flatter stomach or a more firm booty or more toned arms. Those are not going to come essentially from weight loss. In fact, I think all of these years that you might have been thinking that your goal is weight loss, you actually what you really want to do. And when it comes down to really getting into okay, when you say you want to lose weight, like what exactly are you talking about? And you start going into detail there. What you're really wanting to do is actually change your body composition. And I want to bring this up because losing weight and changing your body composition, those are two entirely different things. They're not the same. And achieving each is going to be very, very different. And the purpose is different. The focus, the methods, the health outcomes, the body appearance, all of those things, those are very, very different. And so that's why I thought I would take this time to just kind of discuss it in further detail. So that is what today's episode is going to be talking about. But before we dive in, you know, I had to share this review. It is from JMJ. Seven, seven, seven. She gave a five star review and said, Powerful. Julie, thank you for making this podcast. For most of my life I let my physical appearance affect me in so many negative ways. Ever since the unexpected passing of someone very dear to me, I made a promise to live a healthier life. I didn't know that the majority of the work would be mindset. I actually came across your Instagram page and found your podcast from there, and it's just so refreshing and encouraging. I'm so grateful to have a resource such as your podcast. On my journey, I started listening today because I needed a reminder to love myself. I love this and thank you for sharing. This podcast is powerful, but I want you to know that this review is powerful and I am so sorry for your loss of someone dear to you. But I want to say I'm so grateful that you are using this hard time in your life to ensure that you are doing the best that you can with what you've been given and that you've made a promise to live a healthier life. And I totally agree with you living a healthy life while so many think it's just physical. Oh my goodness. Does it start with mindset? It is. I don't want to say all mindset because the physical aspect is important, but so much of our journey is mindset. And so I'm thankful that you have come to that realization and that you are taking the steps needed for both, you know, living a healthier life physically, but also mentally. And so I'm grateful that you sent this review in so that I can just encourage you and hopefully this can be an encouragement to other people tuning in. So thank you for leaving that review. If you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts, you can leave a rating and review there. If you tune in on Spotify, you can actually rate this podcast and also make sure you're following the podcast on Spotify. So that way, every single time a new episode goes live, you get the automatic download straight to your phone. So thank you. Thank you, Thank you. Today, I want to dive into kind of the five differences between changing your body composition and losing weight. So let's get straight into it. Number one, the purpose of weight loss and changing your body composition. Those are two very different things, right? The purpose of weight loss is to reduce the overall amount of body weight. And the purpose is really to solely just weigh less, right? The purpose is to simply reduce the number that you see on the scale, whereas the purpose of changing body composition is to improve the balance of fat to muscle mass, a.k.a., you know, building more muscle so that you can burn more fat and actually change the shape of your body by getting more toned muscles, for lack of a better term. Right? The purpose is to build more muscle and get stronger, which not only improves your physical health. But also your mental and your physical health can really increase longevity in your life and also just overall living a more lively life, if that makes sense. Like just living with more energy and more vibrancy and all of those things, right? The purpose of changing your body composition is actually changing the shape of your body and really building the body that you want. Weight loss, you just lose fat, right? But you really aren't shaping your body in any way. So when you focus on your body composition, you can actually finally start to achieve the body that you want. And I think that this is important because we have been told, you know, whether it is naive ness, which we genuinely didn't know or we thought that weight loss, you know, seeing a lower number on the scale would actually bring us fulfillment when in reality it's actually no change in my body composition and feeling more energy and feeling more confident and feeling strong, you know, being able to perform these day to day activities with ease. That's actually what I'm after. And maybe you didn't know that before. Number two, the method used for changing your body composition and losing weight. Those are two totally different things, right? The method used for losing weight, those are typically focused exclusively on like calories in versus calories out. So you're typically focused on eating less food or cutting out certain food groups or, you know, doing a bunch of cardio in order to meet your caloric deficit needs or the caloric deficit you think that you need. These methods typically are not sustainable long term, and they're likely unhealthy. They're not healthy. They're not going to bring you, you know, a sustainable lifestyle. I mean, they're pretty extreme and they can lead you down this toxic path that I often talk about on this podcast of just these extreme, like I'm going to cut out X, Y, and Z foods, I'm going to do a ton of cardio and then life happens or a vacation happens or a celebration happens and all those things go out the window and then, you know, you get out of that habit for one, two, three, maybe up to a month or even more than that. And then you find yourself back at square one and then you start over. Whereas changing your body composition, this is a slow and steady process that really focuses on using methods that build muscle and reduce body fat. Right? These methods include tracking your carb fat and protein intake daily and often times doing some sort of resistance training. In order to change your body composition, you need to build muscle to reshape your body, and you need to, you know, progressively lift harder for you to build more muscle. And you need to continuously provide your body with the right, proper amount of nutrients to fuel that muscle growth. And these methods are typically, you know, easier to maintain long term. They're more sustainable and they actually help to improve your health rather than causing health and mental problems down the road. Which kind of leads me to my next point, which is number three, losing weight and changing your body composition. Those have different health outcomes. We have to be real. The majority of people who are working to lose weight and not doing it in the healthiest of ways. They're restricting calories. They're cutting cutting out food groups, they're depriving themselves, they're over exercising, and the list goes on. This leads to health outcomes like nutrient deficiencies, a lack of essential vitamins and minerals and nutrients, which can overall lead to a range of health problems. If you don't experience it now, you likely will down the road. This can also lead to muscle loss. It can lead to, you know, losing lean muscle mass, which can result in a slower metabolism, decreased strength, decreased physical performance, energy. And as we age, having more muscle actually can increase our longevity, which means losing muscle as we get older can actually lead to a lot of health problems. And I have to repeat this again. It actually directly correlates with a slower metabolism, which is likely not what you want. This can also lead to hormonal imbalances. It can result in the imbalances of high cortisol levels, decreased thyroid function, loss of menstruation cycle, fertility issues like really serious things and also yo yo dieting. It can result in the cycle of weight loss and weight gain and feeling like this cycle is never ending, which often leads to decreased confidence, decrease self-esteem, decrease overall health. And that's something that I think so many people, they don't realize, like the ripple effect that this has on your health. And it starts slow, it's gradual, and then suddenly. Right. Someone brought that up in a different context. And I was like, Man, that's so true. I think oftentimes we are gradually doing something. We're not even realizing it. And then suddenly we feel like we're in a totally different place overnight. And it's like, Wow, how did that happen? Well, it happened gradually and then suddenly, whereas on the flip side. When you are really focused on changing your body composition, there's amazing health benefits because there is really nothing healthier for your body than having a solid base of muscle, right? Changing your body composition and having more muscle in your body. This can increase your metabolism, right? Building muscle can actually increase your resting metabolism, which can help you burn more calories throughout your day, even when you're not exercising. So, you know, you're sitting on the couch. You can actually still be burning more calories if you have more muscle, if you have just done a resistance training session. Right. And it also helps you to maintain your body composition without feeling the need to yo yo diet, which can really help and lead to more stable hormones. This also can increase longevity, improving body composition through resistance training and through a balanced diet. There's been studies that have shown, you know, the reduced risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancer. And so what you do now for your body really happens and really affects your body later. And so if you're working to change your body composition now, trust me when I say like there are so many benefits now, but also you're going to likely live a longer health, a healthier life, and not just a longer life, but you're able to enjoy it and live it to the fullest. With that vibrancy that I talked about. Changing your body composition also leads to better bone health, right? Building muscle can actually improve bone density, which can reduce the risk of osteoporosis and other bone related conditions, especially as you age. Additionally, resistance training can also improve balance and reduce the risk of falls and injury. I was just in Florida. I was visiting my 93. She's going to be 93 year old grandmother. She is amazing. Love her so, so much. She's in great health and she is all of 511, I think, which is so crazy because the majority of the family is pretty tall. But anyways, we were on the topic of weights and I was like, Hey Grandma, are you still, you know, are you still living in those weights? I you know, I see these £2 in your bedroom and she's like, I'm still lifting weights. Julie I need to make sure that I am keeping up and strengthening my bones and I am just so proud of her. And so that is just a perfect example. She is she really prioritizes, you know, just doing her bicep curls to shoulder presses as she is, you know, in the living room watching TV. And so I just can't say it enough. You know, resistance training has so many benefits, but it was really kind of a full circle moment, being able to see and visit my grandmother and just say, she has resistance training. You're still doing it at 93, I'm so proud of you. So had to kind of share that because, man, it is it's so important at any age, but also really, you know, focusing on your body composition, this can also lead to better insulin sensitivity, right. Which can reduce the risk of potential type two diabetes diagnosis and other chronic diseases. And I know many of us like look at nutrition and fitness through through the eyes of what is it doing for me today. But I think that it's important that we also zoom out and we look at the bigger picture of what it will do for you tomorrow and in five, ten, 20, 30, 40 years, because ultimately what you are doing for your body today, it will determine what your body will be when you're older and like you think your habits that you're doing today won't have a lasting effect. But they do. They do have a lasting effect. And I think that you have the opportunity right now to start setting yourself up for your future body, to have success and to have longevity and to have all of these positive benefits, all kind of starting with what you're doing today. And if you really want to increase the quality of life and, you know, live a long, healthy, energetic, vibrant life, even when you're older, what you do now is very, very important, like what you do now, whether you are in your teens, you're in your twenties, you're in your thirties and forties and fifties. And I also want to speak to the older community that listens to this. If you are in your fifties, your six or seven niece, I want to encourage you that there is never a better time to start than today. Today is the day to start. Every journey begins with the one single step. So yes, you might have all these reasons of man, you know, I've already gone this far. I might as well just, you know, keep going down this path. You know, you have the opportunity starting today, starting this moment, to take a step forward in your journey. And don't look back. Just keep moving forward and keep committing yourself to living a long, healthy lifestyle. Number four, losing weight and changing your body composition is going to give you two very different body appearances, right? Losing weight will result in a smaller overall body size, but it's actually not going to give you likely the body that you want. Sure, your legs might be smaller, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be more toned or stronger. Sure, your stomach might shrink, but is it really a. A strong core. You have to remember that changing body composition can lead to a more toned and defined body. Right. It's going to lead you to having a stronger body. But you have to remember, while yes, £1 of fat and £1 of muscle actually weighs the same muscles themselves actually take up less space compared to fat in the body. Right. And plus, weight loss can actually lead to muscle loss, which is likely not what you want when you start living in a Clark deficit. Your body can start eating away at your muscle, whereas changing body composition really focuses on preserving and building muscle, which is what is going to give you and your body all of these amazing health benefits that I just talked about. And lastly, number five, losing weight and changing body composition is going to give you different results in terms of sustainability. Right. Losing weight quickly is often not sustainable in the long term. Living in a constant state of a Clark deficit is especially hard because the second that you eat more calories, right, and you are going down this path of eating more and more calories, you're likely going to gain the weight back. And so to keep the weight off long term, you have to constantly live in this caloric deficit, which is very unhealthy for your body. Whereas on the flip side, changing your body composition, this can lead to long lasting improvements. It takes, you know, on average, about three weeks of inactivity to start losing strength and can take much longer for muscle definition actually disappear. Plus, building more muscle can actually increase your metabolism, which I mentioned earlier. So you're making it easier on yourself like a faster, more efficient metabolism means that you have to actually do less in order to see results. While fat loss can really slow down your metabolism, meaning that you need to do more in order to see results when you're focused on that weight loss mode. And this is why maintaining weight loss can also be very difficult, whereas maintaining changes in your body composition is a lot easier because you're losing weight, which can result in these rapid fluctuations and, you know, regular fluctuations in weight, whereas body composition are typically more gradual and stable and you don't see much fluctuations. For example, if you're just focused on weight loss, you know, eating one cookie can make you feel like you've gained £5. Whereas, you know, when you're changing your body composition, one cookie really has zero effect. And also this is really important because when you're so fixated on the scale, man, that will mess with your emotions. And I'm telling you this from a person who has really prioritized properly feeling my body for the last decade of my life, I still go through fluctuations, of course, like I go I can go through fluctuations, you know, five, £7 in a week. And that's like pretty normal for me, even though I am pretty much the same, depending on where I'm at in my cycle. If I had more water than the day before, if I had more sodium or whatever it is. But I know overall, like my body pretty much looks the same. I don't often get bloated. I you know, I have pretty fairly good gut health in a sense, because I don't struggle with these like, you know, huge bloating episodes that I used to. And that really that was when I was not feeling my body optimally, I was focused strictly on weight loss. And I was so fixated on that, that man, it had such an effect on not just my physical, but my mental health. Like my mental health was in such a hell hole for lack of a better term. I'm just telling you, when you focus like what you fixate on, it really becomes your reality. And when you're so consumed by the scale and so consumed by what that number says. And on the flip side versus, you know, really looking at your overall lifestyle and saying like, is this something that I enjoy? Do I feel strong, my body? Am I getting stronger in my lifts? And really monitoring your progress without this scale, with so many other different ways to monitor progress, it will make your life so much more full. And you'll have like I just keep going back to this word vibrancy, but I don't know how else to describe it because I lived in this dull state for a decade plus of my life. And now on the flip side, I've lived in this vibrant state of a decade plus my life. And I can tell you the contrast between those two things like it is unlike anything you'll ever experience it. Until you actually experience it, you will realize, Oh my gosh, there's so much more to life. Like I see things differently, I feel things differently, I walk differently, I talk differently like I am a different person because I'm living in this vibrancy. So overall, I hope that this kind of gave you just a kind of bird's eye perspective of like the differences between living in weight loss mode. And on the flip side, what kind of body composition, what that would look like. And so I want to quickly recap to kind of give you just some, you know, CliffsNotes on. What I talked about in today's episode, and hopefully this will all kind of wrap everything up and we can put a bow on it so that you can kind of say, okay, now I have a, you know, a good grasp on this topic. So number one, the purpose of weight loss is to reduce the overall body weight, to simply reduce the number that you're seeing on the scale. Whereas the purpose of changing body composition is really building more muscle, which will burn more fat and actually change the shape of your body by getting more toned defined muscles, for lack of a better term. Number two, the methods used for changing your body composition and losing weight are different. The methods used for losing weight strictly are typically focus on exclusively calories in versus calories out. Whereas the methods for changing your body composition really focus on supplying your body with the proper amount of macronutrients to really fuel your body optimally. And also prioritizing resistance training exercise that will help you to build muscle strength. Number three, the majority of people who are working to lose weight are not doing it in the healthiest of ways. They're restricting calories. They're cutting out entire food groups, they're depriving themselves. They're over exercising. And this can honestly lead to a plethora of negative health effects. Whereas changing your overall body composition actually promotes these healthy benefits and can increase your longevity, your vibrancy, your energy, your hormones, all of those things that we talked about. Number four, losing weight will result in a smaller overall body size, but it's actually not going to give you the body that you likely want, whereas changing your body composition leads to a more toned and defined body stronger, you'll feel more energy throughout your day. And lastly, living in a constant caloric deficit is hard, especially because the second you eat more calories, your metabolism is not primed. So you're instantly you're going to go through these rapid fluctuations, whereas changes in body composition are typically more gradual and stable, leading you to see not much fluctuations. Of course, there's going to be some, like I mentioned, you know, I can fluctuate in a week anywhere from 5 to £7. But if I look at the overall, you know, the last decade of my life since I really started intentionally fueling my body, I would say at the end of 2013. So just about ten years. My body hasn't changed that much. Like I've built muscle. I've gone through different phases in my life where I've been in a body fat loss, I've been in a maintenance mode, I've been in a reverse diet. My training style has changed a little bit. But I mean, even if I look back at where I've been, you know, in the last three or four years, I don't change that much. And it's just because I found the most sustainable approach for my life. And I focused on prioritizing my macronutrient intake. I focused on being and staying consistent with my resistance training. And so I want that for you. I don't want you to live in this constant state of, Oh, I need to lose more weight. And I hope that, you know, tuning into this episode has given you an alternate perspective. And if you're ready to actually change your body composition and really break free from thinking that you have to lose weight and instead flip your mindset and say, how can I honor my body and how can I nourish my body properly? I've got the tools for you. If you need workouts, I've got my movement. Julie App dumbbell workouts for you. If you need to properly nourish your body. I've got what I call macro accounting mean simple online academy. We teach you the fundamentals of how to properly nourish your body. And these work together. They work in, you know, in unison together so that you can actually start seeing the results that you want and not only see the results that you want, but maintain the results that you are looking for. That is the biggest flex. When someone tells me, Julie, I've done X, Y and Z, I think that's awesome. But when someone says, Julie, I've done X, Y, and Z, and guess what? I've maintained it for the last six months or one year or three years. That is what I'm impressed at. That is a big flex in my book. I think, man, I have a lot of respect for you to not only achieve X, Y, and Z, but then maintain it. That is what I am here for. So I will link both of those things and the show notes that you can easily go check them out. Both my movement with Julie, my demo workouts as well as my macro accounting made simple online academy. Both of those links will be in the show notes that you can easily go check those out after this, but I hope that this episode helps you. I hope that this gave you some good insight, maybe some encouragement, some education on this topic. And if you have a friend or coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. If you think in general, this podcast will help someone, you can always share it on your Instagram story, share it with your community or someone in particular. That is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next time. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie. A lot better. Yes. It's with an name in the middle for that daily post workout. Real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.