By Adam Young

The vast majority of people wish to lose a little (or a lot) of weight. There can be great benefits to your golf performance if you are on the more athletic end of the spectrum physically. Carrying around an extra 20 or 30 pounds of weight is a sure way to get tired towards the end of the round – not mentioning the added stress to your joints and increased risk of injury. Also, as we age, we tend to pile on the pounds naturally. This can result in a change in our swing mechanics, which can be highly undesirable. So, let’s have a look at what a golfer, or anyone, can do to lose some weight, get back in shape, and do it in a way which ensures they maintain as much athletic ability as possible.

The Goal

Most people enter a diet with the goal of losing as much weight as possible. I prefer to think that a better goal is to lose as much fat mass. Ideally, we would want to retain as much of the muscle mass we have, as this is both beneficial to performance, health and aesthetics (should you care).

We should aim to keep as much muscle when losing weight

For this reason, I would tend to use the weighing scales with caution. Water fluctuations and lean body mass/fat mass ratios cannot be measured using a scale. It is a decent tool for sure, but understand that…

Read the rest of what Adam has to say about Weight Loss for Golfers in the April 2015 Monthly Handicap Improver here:
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