Losing weight is no easy feat. Counting calories, skipping dessert, and waking up to exercise when most people would rather be sleeping, is not exactly fun. While these six facts can’t help create a calorie free cookie, they will at least help make dieting a little more interesting.

Six Interesting Weight Loss Facts:

All weight loss is not good weight loss

When losing weight, dieters need to aim towards fat loss, not just overall weight loss. Even if a person loses 20 pounds, if half of these pounds are muscle, their body won’t necessarily look better. It will only look smaller. To measure good weight loss, dieters need to stop depending on the scale and start measuring their body percentage fat.

It is possible to lose weight while eating chocolate, pizza, and potato chips

While the best way to lose weight is to make healthy food choices, a person could technically lose weight on a diet that consists only of “junk” food. To lose weight, a person much create a caloric deficit. If they choose to eat unhealthy foods, they will simply need to decrease their portion sizes. Unfortunately, this diet will provide little, if any, nutrition to the dieter.

Not all fat is bad

Unsaturated and polyunsaturated fat is healthier than saturated and trans fat. Dieters don’t need to cut all fat from their diet. Instead, dieters should be getting their fat from nuts, produce, and healthy oils, instead of from fatty cuts of meat and fried foods.

The average woman’s fat cells are five times larger than the average man’s

While many women think this is unfair, the female body is built for pregnancy and childbirth. Women even store fat in different areas than men. Women tend to store fat in the thighs, hips, and buttocks, while men store fat mostly around the stomach. Unfortunately, because a woman’s fat cells are larger than a man’s, most women have more difficulty losing weight.

People spend around $60 billion dollars on weight loss products, in the United States alone

Market data, a research firm that tracks consumer spending, has been watching the weight loss market for years. In 1992, consumers spend around $30 million dollars on diet related products. Less than 20 years later, the market has doubled.

Males can lose 1% - 2% of their weight in fat per week, while females can only lose 0.5% - 1%

Therefore, a 175 pound male should only aim for a weight loss of 3 pounds each week. A female of the same weight should aim for a weight loss of around 1.75 pounds. If a person loses more weight each week, some of this weight will be water weight, muscle, and other tissue. While many dieters may want to lose weight much faster than this, a slow and steady weight loss will produce much better results.