“Can You Burn Fat And Build Muscle At The Same Time?”

If there is one question that I’ve been asked the most, it’s how to burn fat and build muscle at the same time. It seems there is a lot of confusion about whether or not one can actually burn fat while building muscle at the same time.

Well, it’s no wonder. Just take a look around the internet and you’ll find 101 different answers to this question. Some sites say you can build huge amounts of muscle while reducing fat and others say you can’t build muscle if you are trying to lose body fat. So, who’s right?
Where do I stand on the issue of burning fat and building muscle at the same time? Well, I find myself caught in the middle of this question. That is, it is sort of like a balancing act when it comes to building muscle and burning fat. You see, it all depends on what you want and where you currently stand with your training program. Now, there are a whole lot of you out there who want the best of both worlds - Including me, which is to build the maximum amount of muscle while burning fat.

However, I can’t possibly say that you can actually build the maximum amount of muscle while at the same time, losing the maximum amount body fat. I tried this and it doesn’t work. Well it worked when I first started training but that soon stopped.

Now, I mean, when a person is training hard and heavy, their body is relying on a huge supply of nutrients to fuel and build their bodies. In order to grow, you need to feed your body the correct amount of nutrients that is required for growth. You cannot grow by reducing your overall caloric intake that is needed to lose weight and burn fat.

However, with that being said, there is a very fine line between gaining muscle and gaining body fat. You see, in order to get big muscles, you need to get strong first. When you are training, your muscles start to get strong and when they start to get strong, they get bigger and bigger to meet the demands of more weight being stressed upon them. Once this happens, they need more and more nutrients to keep growing. This is the only way the cycle of getting big muscles work.
As you get stronger, your muscles will start to get larger and your body will actually demand that you feed them a certain amount of nutrients to sustain this new growth. If you don’t feed your body the nutrients that it demands, it will get weaker. Once it gets weaker, your muscles will start to get smaller and it will draw on other sources of energy.

The general line of thinking to building muscle is this. To build muscle, you need to create what is called a calorie surplus. That is, you need to ingest more calories than your body is burning per day. Let’s say you need 2,500 calories on a daily basis, taking into account your exercise levels, to sustain your current body weight. Now, if you want to add body weight and build the maximum amount of muscle, you will need to adjust your training schedule to exert new demands on your body but more importantly, ingest more calories to support these new demands. You will need additional calories on a daily basis to support new growth.

Now, if you want to burn fat, you have to create what is called a calorie deficit. That is, you must ingest fewer calories than your body is burning on a daily basis. Of course, your training regiment will have to change but to alter your body fat levels; you will need to cut down on calories to burn the maximum amount of body fat.

So, to build muscle, you need to get strong. Once you start getting stronger, your body will demand more nutrients to sustain these new strength and muscle levels. However, this is where the balancing act comes into play. You know that in order to build muscle you need more and more nutrients to support new strength levels that is needed to get bigger muscles. Ok, now, that means more and more food. Let me be very clear about this. You need clean, powerful, muscle building food to support this new growth. All increase in calories should come from clean, body building foods.

You see, muscle is a very active tissue and once they start working, they turn into mini metabolism machines that are constantly going. Once they start to get strong, they crave more and more nutrients to keep that machine going. And if you feed them the right nutrients and in the right order, they will keep on going.

However, this process depends on a variety of factors such as age, gender, training styles, and so forth. But, all things being equal, the process of building muscle stands the same which is:

Get strong with hard and heavy weight training;

• Muscle gets larger to sustain strength levels;

• Body needs more nutrients to sustain new growth;

This is the basic process of growth. Now, this is very important for you to remember. The foods you choose to sustain new growth will have a direct impact as to how much fat you gain as compared to how much muscle you build. Yes, the foods you choose will be one of the deciding factors as to the kind of mass you want to gain. I’m a firm believer that calories are not all created equally. And this is where most people get confused when it comes to building maximum amount of muscle while losing or maintaining current fat levels.

You want to eat just enough calories to help with the growth process. If you ingest more calories than your body can use to sustain new growth, some of it will go to fat. This is the trick to maintaining body fat levels during growth phases. By gorging yourself with high fat foods, you will ultimately ingest too many calories to sustain new growth. However, if you eat clean, muscle building foods, your body will use up most of those calories for fuel and growth.

Yes, there are some sites on the internet will insist that all calories are created equally and the body doesn’t recognize one calorie from the next. I cannot agree with this statement. Eating 3,000 calories from cheeseburgers and Hagan daze is not the same as eating 3,000 calories from whole foods such as lean meat sources and complex, fibrous carbohydrates.

If you want to eat fatty, high calorie foods, you will gain a lot more fat than muscle. I think this is where most people get confused. When you get right down to it, it will come down to the foods that you choose that will be the deciding factor when trying to build the maximum amount of muscle while maintaining current body fat levels. A diet high in quality nutrients will produce much better results for building muscle mass and maintaining body fat levels than a diet high in fat and processed foods. Don’t believe me? Try cutting out all high fat foods and sugars from your diet and replace them with lean protein sources and complex carbohydrates. Do this for a week and see how it impacts your training. I can say with 100% certainty that you workouts will improve drastically and your body will take on a whole new look.

Now, there is an exception to this rule. It is during this period of growth that certain individuals can actually experience a certain level of body fat reduction while building muscle. However, before you get confused with this statement, let me explain. For beginners and those of you who are already out of shape, this is very possible.

That is, your body is in a state of growth from the weight training and your testosterone levels are increasing. Since your body is using up everything to build muscle, your fat levels are actually being reduced. For those of you who have been training for awhile, you can probably remember how fantastic those times were. You could eat just about anything and still build muscle without getting really fat.

But, this happens only for a certain period of time before your body needs more and more food to sustain strength levels and where most people experience plateaus. By not feeding your body the necessary nutrients to grow, it will stop growing. That means no more strength gains and why a lot of you reading this page now, are not getting stronger and bigger.

Now, most sources on the internet and other fitness publications will say that you have to choose one or the other - Build muscle or lose fat. It is true, you have to decide what you want to do and since you want to build muscle, you need to increase overall caloric intake. However, you have to be smart about this. Increasing caloric intake doesn’t mean increasing your consumption of cheeseburgers and chili fries. You have to increase calories from high powered, clean body building foods.

So, if you want to build the maximum amount of muscle you are going to have to increase your overall caloric intake. The trick is to increase your calorie intake with only quality, high powered muscle building foods. If you can do this, while training hard and heavy, you will gain quality muscle mass while maintaining current body fat levels. Choice of food is the real key to building lean muscle mass.

This is what I suggest. You don’t want to consume so many calories that you become fat. You want to consume enough calories that will support new growth but keep fat levels to a minimum. If you simply gorge yourself with food, it can be difficult to get rid of those extra pounds when it comes to stripping off body fat. I suggest you do the following:

1) Find your starting point;
Multiply your body weight by 20 to get your base starting caloric intake for adding mass. If you weight 165 pounds, multiply that by 20 to get 3,300 calories. This will be your base caloric intake.

2) Decide who much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you need.
You should be consuming at least 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That is, if you weight 165 pounds, you should be consuming anywhere between 165 grams to 198 grams of protein per day. You should also be consuming about 3 to 5 grams of quality complex carbohydrates per pound of body weight. Keep fat down to about 15% to 20% of your overall caloric intake.

You will also need to eat, at the minimum 5 to 6 meals per day. If you skip breakfast, this won’t work. If you wait 4 to 5 hours in between meals, this won’t work. If you skip a meal or two, this won’t work. You must, eat 5 to 6 meals per day, spaced 2 to 3 hours apart. No questions about this part.

3) Decide on what kinds of foods you want to eat
Cut out all junk foods! This is a priority. Cut out all sugars and processed foods. Eat only high quality protein, carbohydrate and fat sources. Remember, you don’t want to add a lot of fat but muscle. I can guarantee all of you who are reading this page now that if you cut out all junk food and sugars, and replace them with whole foods such as lean protein sources, fibrous carbohydrates, and clean fats, your workouts will shoot through the roof.

For more information at www.building-muscle101.com