When you feel like it’s time to lose some weight, diet and exercise are the way to go. And it can be exciting to watch yourself shed pounds on the scale, but unfortunately, getting on it won’t always tell you exactly what you need to see. You may be losing weight, but it doesn’t mean you’re losing fat – it’s just water weight. When this happens, you can see the scale go back and forth between weight gain and weight loss. Trying to figure out if you are really on your way to your weight goal can be a frustrating experience.
5 signs you’re losing fat and not just excess water
Luckily, there are some tips and tricks to find out if you are losing real fat or weight, or just losing water weight. These are 5 signs that you are losing real weight.
1. Consider the last time you weighed yourself
If you weighed yourself earlier in the day, and lost a few pounds overnight, it could just be that you shed the weight of the water. The actual weight will not be lost overnight, but it is definitely possible that your body can shed up to 2.5 kilograms of water weight. To make sure you’re really losing fat too, consider weighing yourself weekly instead of nightly.
Your weight loss or gain will be more accurate, rather than having your scale tricked by recording only the weight of water overnight.
2. Your weight loss is stable
The weight of the water tends to fluctuate. If you’ve lost 2 kilos overnight, and then gained them back at the end of the day, chances are you’re not dealing with the actual weight loss. Actual weight loss is more stable, and will only show fluctuation in terms of grams rather than the large amounts that water weight loss can show.
To make sure you’re getting the most out of your weight sessions on the scale, try weighing yourself in the morning just after waking up, before eating breakfast. Make sure you’ve already gone to the bathroom. This will show a truer number in terms of your actual weight loss.
3. You feel more energetic
With a weight loss including fat and not just water, comes more energy. If you are losing real weight and not just water weight, you will feel explosive energy, as well as a change in the duration of that energy.
Since water weight is just a fluctuation of water in your body and not fat, you will not feel any significant change in your energy levels if the only thing that is fluctuating is whether or not you have gone to the bathroom or are dehydrated. When the real weight loss starts to happen, you are definitely going to feel more energetic.
4. You feel stronger
The fluctuating weight of the water is not going to have any effect on your ability to perform physical tasks. Once you start to lose real weight or are losing fat, you will find that you are able to stay more eager to do things for longer periods of time than you could before, or walk longer, or run better.
Strength comes in various forms, and once you really start losing weight, you will find strength where you least expect it. Tasks that seemed to take a lot of your strength and energy will now be easier to complete, like climbing stairs or going for a run.
5. Your clothes start to look big
Since the weight of the water tends to fluctuate, you won’t notice if your clothes are a little looser than normal, because the weight of the water will not really affect how your clothes fit on your body. When you start to lose real weight, you will notice it on your clothes immediately. You’ll go down a pant or dress size when the actual weight starts to come out. This is the best indicator that the weight you are losing is not the weight of water.
Tracking your weight loss progress can be frustrating and exciting. Being able to know when it really is a weight loss or just a water loss can help prevent frustration from becoming too overwhelming. Stay tuned with the indicators that show you that your weight loss is genuine, and that it is not that your body only suffered a significant elimination of water, which, in that case, you should check that it has not left a dehydration that could affect your health.
Keep a photo diary of your progress so you can look back through the months and weeks and see the visible difference from the beginning, the middle and the end of your fantastic weight loss journey. Good luck!
