Comment by bityard
2 months ago
I don't mean to target your comment specifically because it's obvious you know the difference, but I'm continually annoyed by the conflation of fat and muscle as "weight," even by medical professionals who should know better.
We should not be talking about losing "losing weight" as a substitute for saying "losing fat," which is what most people mean. Likewise, when people say they want to "gain weight", they almost always mean they want to "gain muscle."
Why does this matter? Trying to manage one's health or fitness as "weight" gives (most) people the wrong idea about what their weight number represents, and what to do to improve their level of fitness and dial in on the anatomically appropriate amount of body fat. As an example, it's possible (although admittedly unlikely) for one to work hard to gain muscle and strength while reducing body fat and stay exactly the same weight the whole time. Their overall health, fitness, and longevity will be significantly improved but pop fitness will tell them that they haven't made any progress at all.
The other thing is conflation between health and fitness. If you are below overweight range, no matter where you are, loosing additional fat is unlikely to make you healthier.
At some level of fat, which is actually more then "thin", you are perfectly fine. Further weight loss is about aesthetic or athletic performance, but has zero effect on health or even slight negative estimated health effect.
That doesn't strike me as a real problem.
Everybody already understands that "losing weight" means losing fat, not muscle. They don't leave the doctors office after a weight warning thinking they need to stop going to the gym.
Likewise, nobody is scared of gaining muscle because they think it will be bad for their health.