Are You Losing the “Right” Type of Weight?

People often focus on losing weight to feel healthier and look better, but did you know that the type of weight you lose matters? Specifically, the kind of fat you carry and where it's located in your body can play a crucial role in maintaining long-term weight management, optimizing body composition, and supporting metabolic health.

What are the different types of fat?

• Visceral fat, known to many as stubborn abdominal fat, is stored around the abdomen and organs, making it particularly dangerous to long-term health. Because it’s metabolically active and located near vital organs, it can disrupt organ function and impair metabolic processes, contributing to inflammation, lipotoxicity, and hormone imbalances. Visceral fat is clinically linked to several serious metabolic health conditions, such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. 
  
  
• Subcutaneous fat is stored just beneath the skin, usually around the hips, thighs, and upper arms and is generally considered harmless.

While being overweight or obese puts you at a higher risk for developing serious health conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and metabolic syndrome, it’s important to understand that the type of weight you lose makes a difference. 

The World Health Organization reports that at least 1 in 8 people is living with obesity, evidenced in the growing interest for pharmaceutical solutions like GLP-1s (Ozempic and Wegovy, for example). However, despite being effective for losing overall body weight, these “quick-fix” options usually come with problematic side effects, including loss of muscle mass (more on this below), as well as high recurring costs and strict adherence requirements that make them a less viable long-term solution. The good news is that there’s another approach to effective, long-term weight loss that’s also more beneficial for your overall metabolic health: “weight care,” rather than simply “weight loss.”

Why Focusing On “Weight Care” Is A More Effective Approach

Weight care targets visceral fat while protecting muscle mass, a driving factor for long-term weight management and optimal metabolic health.

Unlike GLP-1 medications, which don’t differentiate between types of body weight is lost, “weight care” strategies specifically target visceral fat while protecting muscle mass. GLP-1s can result in up to 40% of weight loss coming from lean tissue, including muscle, which poses a challenge since muscle mass is crucial for long-term weight management, as it helps regulate blood glucose and boost metabolism. The loss of muscle mass due to GLP-1s can also negatively affect metabolic health, cause gastrointestinal side effects, lead to nutritional deficiencies, and increase the risk of conditions like pancreatitis and gallbladder disease.

How the 5-Day FMD Supports Sustainable Weight Care

The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) offers a scientifically designed approach to weight care, specifically targeting visceral fat without the typical muscle loss associated with traditional fasting or dieting — a critical element in maintaining both long-term weight management and metabolic health.

Results from clinical studies* show that cycles of FMD can lead to sustainable post-fast weight loss even after returning to normal eating patterns, reductions in waist circumference and BMI, and support for healthy metabolic markers, offering an effective and sustainable approach to weight care requiring only 15 days yearly (three initial consecutive 5-day monthly cycles, followed by three cycles quarterly).

For those specifically struggling with metabolic challenges, L-Nutra Health, our medical division, has comprehensive, non-invasive programs that target (and potentially reverse) conditions such as insulin and blood sugar imbalances, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Learn more here.

Explore further resources: 

The Differences Between GLP-1s and the Fasting Mimicking Diet – and Why FMD Programs May Be More Beneficial - Read the article here.

Can The Type of Fat You Carry Impact Metabolic Conditions - Read the article here.