In the case of "losing weight" people tend to look at the scale and make decisions about what to eat or how to adjust their fitness routine. This comes across as ridiculous when we know that our "weight" is highly variable and means little in the overall scheme of our health.
I could rip out all of your bones and take your empty, organ-filled skin back and set it on a scale and your "weight" would have gone down drastically. That doesn't mean that you're any healthier. In fact, your not better of in any way...things would be much, much worse for you.
As a practical example, consider the fact that if you ate a teaspoon of salt, your body would respond by hording a full liter of water (or more) in order to balance out the sodium until your kidneys had time to process it out with your urine. I dunno if you've picked up a 1-liter bottle of water lately, but it's not exactly light. Eat a teaspoon of salt in the middle of the day and then step on the scale before bed and your "weight" readings could be a FEW pounds heavier than the previous day...but that doesn't mean your really heavier.
People need to focus on "losing fat" and they need to talk about "losing fat" if their goal is to get lean. Nothing else matters except eating things and doing exercise routines that optimize fat loss. This usually means putting on muscle in order to do it and putting on muscle very often means adding weight on the scale.
You would rather be lean and weight a couple lbs more than you do now than weigh less and have just as much fat on your frame, right?
