Unveiling the secrets of weight: Understanding tissue composition and 24-hour metabolic patterns

Before embarking on your "Revolution to a New You," you need to understand some basic common sense. Why do you say you're fat? Because of your weight on the scale. But that number contains many "secrets of weight." If the scale shows your weight as "100 pounds," do you know what those 100 pounds are made of? Your weight comes from two parts of your body: fat and muscle tissue. Muscle tissue includes muscles, bones, water, and connective tissue. When you lose weight, you may lose fat or muscle tissue, or both. Among these structures, the weight of bones and connective tissue remains relatively unchanged. If your weight decreases, you are reducing the weight of fat, muscle, and water. Water plays a very important role in the normal functioning of the body. And this weight comes in and goes out. Losing this part of the weight is not very meaningful. Whether for health or a beautiful figure, your main goal should be to reduce fat and maintain or increase muscle. Your body retains water every day, week, and month. This is perfectly normal, and everyone does it. Since you can't control this number, there's no need to worry about it too much. In fact, an increase in your body's water weight often tells you that your actual weight has decreased. Besides the natural fluctuations in water weight, when you start exercising regularly, or when you've already started exercising and are now increasing the intensity, your body signals to retain more water. This is because your body is preparing to retain enough water for your normal exercise needs. This can result in an increase of 2-5 pounds of water weight. This phenomenon, which occurs early in the exercise cycle, can be very confusing for people trying to lose weight. They might think that exercise is making them fat. But the truth is, most of the time, this indicates that they are losing fat. If your lifestyle becomes more active, you will also gain some muscle, which will also retain some water. This excess water is "good water"; it helps you burn fat. Don't let your body's water weight fluctuations mislead you; you need to be mentally prepared. This is also why you shouldn't trust the weight on the scale and shouldn't let the scale control your emotions. If you understand the concepts I just explained, it actually provides very useful information. When the scale tells you a weight you don't want, don't give up. Your willpower becomes stronger when the results are slow or nonexistent. Mornings are a good time to weigh yourself because your weight is less volatile. Don't weigh yourself more than once a week. Mondays are a good day to weigh yourself, as they remind you over the weekend to stay on track with your weight loss efforts. Whatever time you weigh yourself, maintain consistency. Use the same method and the same scale at the same time every time. You can weigh yourself with or without clothes on. Don't worry too much about temporary weight fluctuations, and don't give up because of them. Don't let the scale dictate your life; focus on how you feel. Your body will always produce changes you can't understand. Believe in yourself; as long as you do what you're supposed to do each day, you will succeed. Your body is a miracle; it can regulate everything from water and electrolytes to body temperature. So, of course, it can regulate fat accumulation too! How does your body regulate fat accumulation? Your body has a balance point; this boundary regulates the amount of fat your body stores. When you occasionally eat a lot, although your weight will increase, it won't exceed a certain limit. Similarly, when you eat very little, such as when you strictly restrict your diet, you will lose some weight, but after a certain point, it becomes very difficult to lose any more. When you diet, especially when you strictly restrict your diet, you will only lose a relatively small amount of fat, and then you will start breaking down protein (muscle) and losing water. Your body is like a precise radar (in fact, it should be even more precise than radar), able to very accurately detect how many calories you are giving it. If you give it a lot of calories, it will store some as fat and use the rest to speed up metabolism and burn calories. If you give your body too few calories, it will detect it immediately. It will slow down your metabolism to ensure that the major organs of your body function properly. If the calories are still not enough for the major organs to function properly, your body will not destroy you; it will break down muscle to reduce calorie consumption and prevent fat loss. Therefore, if you diet to lose weight, your muscle mass will decrease, your metabolism will slow down, and it will become more difficult to maintain your weight loss results. Maintaining muscle requires a lot of calories, which helps you burn fat. So you don't want to lose muscle. This is why dieting is not conducive to weight loss in the long run. You might say, "If my body fat is regulated by this equilibrium point, why should I change my lifestyle?" Because this equilibrium point cannot be changed. It's determined by various genetic factors, but your metabolism can be altered. Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. By changing your metabolism, you can change this equilibrium point. Imagine a thermometer inside your body that rises and falls with changes in your lifestyle. Raising the thermometer speeds up your metabolism, lowering the threshold, and you burn more fat. Conversely, lowering the thermometer slows down your metabolism, causing your body to accumulate fat. So our goal is to control this thermometer, raising it to speed up metabolism and lowering the threshold to reduce fat accumulation. Your metabolism not only changes constantly, but it changes every day. Every day, your metabolism operates according to a predictable pattern. Before you wake up, your metabolism is at its lowest point. Your metabolism needs you to wake it up. As the day progresses, your metabolism gradually speeds up, peaking after dinner before slowing down. It then slows to its lowest point while you sleep. This cycle repeats itself throughout the 24 hours. You can alter this cycle through diet and exercise, thereby accelerating your overall metabolism. Because your metabolism is simply the rate at which your body burns calories, it speeds up during, after, and after meals (as your metabolism accelerates when your body consumes calories). Therefore, if you start exercising and eating shortly after waking up, you're essentially accelerating your metabolism earlier and for a longer period. This is why it's best to exercise in the morning and eat a little more during the day.