Why is weight loss and fitness always talked about as if they are interchangeable?

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Replies

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,811 Member
    pebble4321 wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »

    This is me as well, if I couldn't exercise anymore I would have to be put down. LOL

    Being you are from New Zealand? of course you don't know who he is. gxw3dmelrtcw.jpeg

    I'm Canadian-Australian ... a Canadian who moved to Australia 7 years ago, and just recently became an Australian citizen. :)

    The name sounds vaguely familiar, but if someone had randomly come up to me and asked who he was, I would have guessed "author". :lol:

    I guessed politician.

    That would have been my second guess ... and third would have been journalist. :)
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,811 Member
    jtoo13 wrote: »
    Weight loss and fitness are usually used together to complement each other. While you can lose weight by diet alone you really should be focusing on fat loss not how much weight you lose. Exercise with diet helps you to build muscle and get rid of the fat. Focus on the type of weight you lose not the amount. If you build muscle you probably will not seem to be losing weight but you are losing fat. Do not focus on your weight but how you feel and look after exercising and dieting together.

    I think your observation was great. Thanks for a sensible angle. The main reason I asked the question is because this link drives us to the calories in calories out thought process when it comes to "why we get fat" that is a book by Gary Taubes.

    Yes it is true that some people can play the calories count game and stay at a reasonable weight but are they healthy?

    On the flip side you can be over weight and have no health markers that indicate disease.

    The human body has a system for storing fat. Exercise or the lack there of is a small part of it.

    Well ... prior to losing weight, I visited my Dr who ran tests and told me that my cholesterol was a bit high and that *something* was wrong with my liver.

    She suggested that perhaps losing weight might rectify the situation.

    I returned to her several months later, about 12 kg down ... she sent me for bloodwork ... and then rang me at work all excited to tell me that my cholesterol level had dropped into the normal range!!

    I returned to her about 8 or 9 months later, about 25 kg down ... she sent me for bloodwork ... and whatever was wrong with my liver is gone. My liver is in great shape ... as are all my other organs. :)

    So it would appear that losing weight improved my health.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
    Define fit. It's subjective.

    A bodybuilder is fit looking, but are they clean on the inside or are they chemically polluted and sick? Who's to say they would be more fit than a thin marathoner, who is trained for extreme endurance? A bodybuilder who trains for looks only most likely can't do what a person who does Crossfit does, even though body types may overlap slightly. "Fit" is in the eye of the beholder and depends on your goals.

    This is a good arguement for thickness, skinnyfat and getting skinny for skinny's sake. You can be a dieted down rack of bones or a size 0 ball of fluff. You also could have lost some weight but not too much (ie, choosing to remain overweight or obese to some extent) because you want to "keep your curves". But would they be fit enough to run for the bus?

    I exercise with weights and cardio to stay functionally fit, and yes my idea of fit and attractive. But the idea that thinness/weight loss equals fit is a no, IMHO.
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    Define fit. It's subjective.

    A bodybuilder is fit looking, but are they clean on the inside or are they chemically polluted and sick? Who's to say they would be more fit than a thin marathoner, who is trained for extreme endurance? A bodybuilder who trains for looks only most likely can't do what a person who does Crossfit does, even though body types may overlap slightly. "Fit" is in the eye of the beholder and depends on your goals.

    This is a good arguement for thickness, skinnyfat and getting skinny for skinny's sake. You can be a dieted down rack of bones or a size 0 ball of fluff. You also could have lost some weight but not too much (ie, choosing to remain overweight or obese to some extent) because you want to "keep your curves". But would they be fit enough to run for the bus?

    I exercise with weights and cardio to stay functionally fit, and yes my idea of fit and attractive. But the idea that thinness/weight loss equals fit is a no, IMHO.

    I like the way you think.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited June 2016
    Define fit. It's subjective.

    A bodybuilder is fit looking, but are they clean on the inside or are they chemically polluted and sick? Who's to say they would be more fit than a thin marathoner, who is trained for extreme endurance? A bodybuilder who trains for looks only most likely can't do what a person who does Crossfit does, even though body types may overlap slightly. "Fit" is in the eye of the beholder and depends on your goals.

    This is a good arguement for thickness, skinnyfat and getting skinny for skinny's sake. You can be a dieted down rack of bones or a size 0 ball of fluff. You also could have lost some weight but not too much (ie, choosing to remain overweight or obese to some extent) because you want to "keep your curves". But would they be fit enough to run for the bus?

    I exercise with weights and cardio to stay functionally fit, and yes my idea of fit and attractive. But the idea that thinness/weight loss equals fit is a no, IMHO.

    I like that word "functionally fit". It is amazing how our bodies adapt to help us function when we condition them. Who wants to be skinnyfat/fluffy? It would be my personal preference for me to get to mid normal BMI AND be fit.
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    DebSozo wrote: »
    Define fit. It's subjective.

    A bodybuilder is fit looking, but are they clean on the inside or are they chemically polluted and sick? Who's to say they would be more fit than a thin marathoner, who is trained for extreme endurance? A bodybuilder who trains for looks only most likely can't do what a person who does Crossfit does, even though body types may overlap slightly. "Fit" is in the eye of the beholder and depends on your goals.

    This is a good arguement for thickness, skinnyfat and getting skinny for skinny's sake. You can be a dieted down rack of bones or a size 0 ball of fluff. You also could have lost some weight but not too much (ie, choosing to remain overweight or obese to some extent) because you want to "keep your curves". But would they be fit enough to run for the bus?

    I exercise with weights and cardio to stay functionally fit, and yes my idea of fit and attractive. But the idea that thinness/weight loss equals fit is a no, IMHO.

    I like that word "functionally fit". It is amazing how our bodies adapt to help us function when we condition them. Who wants to be skinnyfat/fluffy? It would be my personal preference for me to get to mid normal BMI AND be fit.

    I like the way you think.
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    jtoo13 wrote: »
    Weight loss and fitness are usually used together to complement each other. While you can lose weight by diet alone you really should be focusing on fat loss not how much weight you lose. Exercise with diet helps you to build muscle and get rid of the fat. Focus on the type of weight you lose not the amount. If you build muscle you probably will not seem to be losing weight but you are losing fat. Do not focus on your weight but how you feel and look after exercising and dieting together.

    I think your observation was great. Thanks for a sensible angle. The main reason I asked the question is because this link drives us to the calories in calories out thought process when it comes to "why we get fat" that is a book by Gary Taubes.

    Yes it is true that some people can play the calories count game and stay at a reasonable weight but are they healthy?

    On the flip side you can be over weight and have no health markers that indicate disease.

    The human body has a system for storing fat. Exercise or the lack there of is a small part of it.

    Well ... prior to losing weight, I visited my Dr who ran tests and told me that my cholesterol was a bit high and that *something* was wrong with my liver.

    She suggested that perhaps losing weight might rectify the situation.

    I returned to her several months later, about 12 kg down ... she sent me for bloodwork ... and then rang me at work all excited to tell me that my cholesterol level had dropped into the normal range!!

    I returned to her about 8 or 9 months later, about 25 kg down ... she sent me for bloodwork ... and whatever was wrong with my liver is gone. My liver is in great shape ... as are all my other organs. :)

    So it would appear that losing weight improved my health.

    I love your story. We should all be so lucky to find the thing that works for us and make it our new way of living.
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    I'll throw in my 2 cents and add that the term fitness lacks a clear definition. What are the exact parameters of fitness? does it include bodyfat% or do you have to beable to accomplish a particular thing? what is fitness exactly.

    To me this is why we need to separate health from fitness. In marketing they teach you to keep things murky.

    To me health can be measured and tested. Fitness is a vague term that being used to manipulate people to spend money.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    I'll throw in my 2 cents and add that the term fitness lacks a clear definition. What are the exact parameters of fitness? does it include bodyfat% or do you have to beable to accomplish a particular thing? what is fitness exactly.

    To me this is why we need to separate health from fitness. In marketing they teach you to keep things murky.

    To me health can be measured and tested. Fitness is a vague term that being used to manipulate people to spend money.

    Fitness can be measured too
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    I'll throw in my 2 cents and add that the term fitness lacks a clear definition. What are the exact parameters of fitness? does it include bodyfat% or do you have to beable to accomplish a particular thing? what is fitness exactly.

    To me this is why we need to separate health from fitness. In marketing they teach you to keep things murky.

    To me health can be measured and tested. Fitness is a vague term that being used to manipulate people to spend money.

    Fitness can be measured too
    My point is it is subjective. LeBron James is fit. So is my mail man. How do they compare? It become a bar that can be moved all the time.

    Compare that to A1C, or blood pressure. A healthy limit for LeBron or the mail man is the same.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    I'll throw in my 2 cents and add that the term fitness lacks a clear definition. What are the exact parameters of fitness? does it include bodyfat% or do you have to beable to accomplish a particular thing? what is fitness exactly.

    To me this is why we need to separate health from fitness. In marketing they teach you to keep things murky.

    To me health can be measured and tested. Fitness is a vague term that being used to manipulate people to spend money.

    Fitness can be measured too
    My point is it is subjective. LeBron James is fit. So is my mail man. How do they compare? It become a bar that can be moved all the time.

    Compare that to A1C, or blood pressure. A healthy limit for LeBron or the mail man is the same.

    And yet even there - their genetics may cause that limit being hit to be nothing to them, or a huge deal for problems.

    Limits are based on averages.

    Fitness needs to be specific to what you are doing. Fit in what - good VO2max because you do endurance cardio, high Lactate Threshold because you do sprinting, strength for power or functional?
  • walker1world
    walker1world Posts: 259 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    I'll throw in my 2 cents and add that the term fitness lacks a clear definition. What are the exact parameters of fitness? does it include bodyfat% or do you have to beable to accomplish a particular thing? what is fitness exactly.

    To me this is why we need to separate health from fitness. In marketing they teach you to keep things murky.

    To me health can be measured and tested. Fitness is a vague term that being used to manipulate people to spend money.

    Fitness can be measured too
    My point is it is subjective. LeBron James is fit. So is my mail man. How do they compare? It become a bar that can be moved all the time.

    Compare that to A1C, or blood pressure. A healthy limit for LeBron or the mail man is the same.

    And yet even there - their genetics may cause that limit being hit to be nothing to them, or a huge deal for problems.

    Limits are based on averages.

    Fitness needs to be specific to what you are doing. Fit in what - good VO2max because you do endurance cardio, high Lactate Threshold because you do sprinting, strength for power or functional?

    Ok, so if fitness means something to ever person then there is no stsndard. I think that was the point I was trying to make.

    Healthy is an scientific established thing in most cases. Fitness is not, thus these 2 things should be separated in conversation.

    What we do to get fit, should be a side note to what we do to be healthy. They should compliment each other but not connected.

    You can't eat junk and think your going to lift weights to get healthy. Just as you can't eat perfectly healthy and do no exercise and expect to be fit.

    You need to target each goal individually not as a combination.