Building Muscle and Burning Fat

Reneefit135

I know we probably talk about this all of the time but I'm still not clear on it and it may be a case where everyone is different. First of all regarding building muscle and burning fat does it work completely differently for men than women. . My husband was a serious twig and then started to get a fat belly around 30 now he is 34 and doing a great job working out regularly his chest and arms are solid muscle really beautiful. The fat on his stomach however comes and goes. He wants to eat more bc he is trying to build muscle so I'm not sure how to feed him. He is eating pretty clean bc he eats pretty much whatever i eat but in larger portions. He is doing cardio...should he just cut out carbs?

Secondly as a female trying to burn fat can i still build muscle bc i read that if you are eating in a deficit you can't build muscle but then building muscle is what causes fat loss but I'm afraid to not eat in a deficit that i won't lose the weight - so confused...

SOJohnston

I am certainly no expert, but essentially you burn or lose fat by doing cardio and build muscle through strength training. If you are doing strength training and eating at or below your calorie intake for the day you should be spot on. That is the beauty of MFP, it makes it so easy to see what you are doing right or wrong.
I have been doing more strength training than I ever have over the past few weeks and I can really feel my body changing from the inside out, I know sometime soon it will really start to show and i also know that it is helping to burn more fat even at rest.
I hope this helps and I am sure others will comment, too.
Susan

ctooch99

I will say up front I am not an expert and there are a ton of really informed, educated fit people on here who will better know the physiology. But there are a couple bits of information I have found to be really accurate (and have worked for me) so here goes:

1) Belly fat (especially in guys) is the hardest area to reduce. I know in my case, when I was heavier, most of my weight was stored in my mid section. Even fit now, I still want to improve my lower stomach area. I am not exactly sure why this happens, but I do know that you cannot "spot" reduce in an area either through exercise or diet - your fat percentage reduces over time over your whole body.

I would say that in terms of diet, carbs (particularly sugars) are the big culprit. Healthy fats like those in fish, nuts, avocados and coconuts actually help burn fat. Too much carbs (in the form of processed sugar) gets converted quickly to fat by the body. So if I was going to suggest anything it would be to make sure to increase his healthy intake of good fats and proteins and reduce his intake of sugars (more specifically, hidden processed sugars). Here's a great recent video on how harmful refined sugar is to the body:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MH_tks_wE

As far as fat reduction vs. muscle building in gals - in my opinion it happens simultaneously if you are doing the right things. First, you need to make sure you are taking in enough good food. People on here debate the "starvation" or "famine" mode the body goes into during weight reduction. I don't know the science, but I do know personally, that if I did not take in enough calories, my weight reduction would actually come to a halt. You need to fuel the fire properly to reduce weight.

Secondly, I would focus more on strength training and not over do the cardio. Interval type strength and fitness training seems to be the most effective in both building muscle and reducing fat. I do a program called P90X and the changes it made in my body are really noticeable. It incorporates the right amount of weights, fitness and cardio for overall benefit.

Good luck!

Wonderob

I am certainly no expert, but essentially you burn or lose fat by doing cardio and build muscle through strength training. If you are doing strength training and eating at or below your calorie intake for the day you should be spot on.

That's completely not true I'm afraid on a few points

You can burn fat whilst weight training
http://weighttraining.about.com/od/fatlossweighttraining/a/Weight-Training-And-Fat-Burning.htm

You cannot build muscle on a calorie deficit (except for a small amount for total newcomers)

You do however need to weight train whilst on a calorie deficit to retain the muscle you already have whlst losing fat

It's surprising the amount of muscle overweight people will already carry - keep most of that whilst losing fat and you will begin to see great muscle definition as you shed the pounds

icculus19

belly fat is the hardest for guys to lose especially once you hit 30. for guys, fat is first stored around the midsection. the fat will come and go depending on the amount of carbs / bad fats he eats and how cardio is done. remember cals in vs. cals out.

if he wants to build muscle and stay lean he will need a diet with cetarin macros (pro/carbs/fats) he should eat a higher protien diet. his daily protien in take should be 1g to 1.5g x his body wieght. for example if your husband is 180lbs his protien in take shoul be between 180g-270g. to give you an idea of a meal plan to follow he should try 50%pro 30%carbs 20%dietary fat. if he has a 200 cal per day meal plan 50% of his cals should come from protien (1000cals or 250g) 30% form good complex cabs maninly veggies of the non starch variety (600 cals or 150g) 20% from dietary fat (google dietary fat) (400 cals or 45g).

1g of pro = 4 cals
1g of carbs = 4 cals
1g of fat = 9 cals

RobynMWilson

I just finished a program called ChaLEAN Extreme (my profile pic is Day 60 of the program)...it's based on the concept that muscle burns fat. I did not eat in a deficit...like Chalene says "you can't starve yourself lean". Muscle revs the metabolism and therefore you're burning more fat around the clock. I would still say cardio 2-3 times per week but then heavier weights to failure before the 12th rep to build muscle. Unfortunately, most programs tailored to women concentrate on light weights and many reps, which only build stamina rather than lean muscle mass.

I don't believe in cutting out carbs but refined sugar can def lead to belly fat, even if you're on a lowfat eating plan. I prefer my carbs to be naturally occurring sugars in fruits and whole grains. Hope that helps...it works for me...

mmapags

I am certainly no expert, but essentially you burn or lose fat by doing cardio and build muscle through strength training. If you are doing strength training and eating at or below your calorie intake for the day you should be spot on.

That's completely not true I'm afraid on a few points

You can burn fat whilst weight training
http://weighttraining.about.com/od/fatlossweighttraining/a/Weight-Training-And-Fat-Burning.htm

You cannot build muscle on a calorie deficit (except for a small amount for total newcomers)

You do however need to weight train whilst on a calorie deficit to retain the muscle you already have whlst losing fat

It's surprising the amount of muscle overweight people will already carry - keep most of that whilst losing fat and you will begin to see great muscle definition as you shed the pounds

This^^^
Also, as a woman it is more difficult to "build" muscle as you do not have much testosterone. That being said, both of you can realize many benefit from strength training. You can develop the muscle tissue you have. You can gain bone density. You can burn fat. You can improve your hormonal profile. You cannot though, build muscle and burn fat at the same time with the exceptions being slight newbie gain, obese individuals (excess energy reserves) and atheltes returning to training after a layoff. The rest of us need a calorie surplus to fuel new muscle tissue growth.

tmpayton

hmmmm

kierstin1976

I strength train and do HIIT cardio to burn fat and build muscle. I'm not at a calorie deficit.

Wonderob

I strength train and do HIIT cardio to burn fat and build muscle. I'm not at a calorie deficit.

You can't be building muscle then

Could you share your stats so we can see ?

Starting weight - fat percentage
Current weight - fat percentage

ChefSuzzieQ

MFP does not set your protein goals high enough. My trainer had me eating 40% protein to build muscle while burning fat.

morganadk2_deleted

Bump

Wonderob

MFP does not set your protein goals high enough. My trainer had me eating 40% protein to build muscle while burning fat.

But you can't build muscle whilst burning fat

HMVOL7409

MFP does not set your protein goals high enough. My trainer had me eating 40% protein to build muscle while burning fat.

But you can't build muscle whilst burning fat

Ad you've became an expert on the subject when?

Laces_0ut

I strength train and do HIIT cardio to burn fat and build muscle. I'm not at a calorie deficit.

You can't be building muscle then

Could you share your stats so we can see ?

Starting weight - fat percentage
Current weight - fat percentage

what am i missing here? why cant she be building muscle?

mmapags

MFP does not set your protein goals high enough. My trainer had me eating 40% protein to build muscle while burning fat.

But you can't build muscle whilst burning fat

Ad you've became an expert on the subject when?

Feel free to do the research. When you eat at a surplus, you gain muscle and some fat with the right workout routine. It is called a bulk. Pretty much impossible to gain only muscle, although you can gain primarily muscle and minimize fat gain. If you are eating at maintenance, you can likely not gain muscle as there is not the excess fuel for tissue growth. There are protocols that theoretically enable slight fat burn with muscle building. They involve calorie cycling with eating substantially over TDEE on training days (resistance) and substantially under on non training days. They are slow working and most do tradiationl bulk/cut cycles as they seem more efficient.

PS: The sarcastic tone of your post was unessesary.

DavPul

Don't worry about it. People here tend to get bogged down in the science when they should be more concerned with results. Go on a calorie deficit. Go ahead and start strength training *now*. You will make significant improvements and like how you look. Just do it.

Whether you are "building" muscle is so completely, totally irrelevant in these cases. You will be stripping off the fat that covers the muscle while maintaining and toning the muscle you already have. You will look better. A lot better. You will be happy with the results. Just do it.

And ignore every "can't build muscle on a deficit" thread posted. There will be 18 more today. It's irrelevant. Just do it and do it now.

meshashesha2012

if i'm not mistaken the reason why most people cant do both (besides the really obese who just start exercising and the total newbs to exercising) is because building muscle requires your body to be in 1 state (anabolic) while losing fat requires your body to be in the total opposite state (catabolic).

to put it another way, in order to lose fat you have to eat on a slight calorie deficit but to build muscle you need a surplus because muscle is more metabolically active and you can't just create it out of thin air.

at least that's how i understand it. i think people assume they are building all this lean muscle when they exercise and eat right because they can feel/see the muscles. but really that's because they have less fat covering the muscle.

ChefSuzzieQ

I beg to differ since I dropped my body fat over 3% in the two months and increased my muscle mass. It is visible and measurable.

DavPul

I strength train and do HIIT cardio to burn fat and build muscle. I'm not at a calorie deficit.

You can't be building muscle then

Could you share your stats so we can see ?

Starting weight - fat percentage
Current weight - fat percentage

what am i missing here? why cant she be building muscle?

Wonderob is usually on point, so I think he might have read her post too quickly and thought she said she was ON a deficit. Because she can totally be building muscle on her current program. I think it was just a misfire

Athena413

I will say up front I am not an expert and there are a ton of really informed, educated fit people on here who will better know the physiology. But there are a couple bits of information I have found to be really accurate (and have worked for me) so here goes:

1) Belly fat (especially in guys) is the hardest area to reduce. I know in my case, when I was heavier, most of my weight was stored in my mid section. Even fit now, I still want to improve my lower stomach area. I am not exactly sure why this happens, but I do know that you cannot "spot" reduce in an area either through exercise or diet - your fat percentage reduces over time over your whole body.

I would say that in terms of diet, carbs (particularly sugars) are the big culprit. Healthy fats like those in fish, nuts, avocados and coconuts actually help burn fat. Too much carbs (in the form of processed sugar) gets converted quickly to fat by the body. So if I was going to suggest anything it would be to make sure to increase his healthy intake of good fats and proteins and reduce his intake of sugars (more specifically, hidden processed sugars). Here's a great recent video on how harmful refined sugar is to the body:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MH_tks_wE

As far as fat reduction vs. muscle building in gals - in my opinion it happens simultaneously if you are doing the right things. First, you need to make sure you are taking in enough good food. People on here debate the "starvation" or "famine" mode the body goes into during weight reduction. I don't know the science, but I do know personally, that if I did not take in enough calories, my weight reduction would actually come to a halt. You need to fuel the fire properly to reduce weight.

Secondly, I would focus more on strength training and not over do the cardio. Interval type strength and fitness training seems to be the most effective in both building muscle and reducing fat. I do a program called P90X and the changes it made in my body are really noticeable. It incorporates the right amount of weights, fitness and cardio for overall benefit.

Good luck!

Well said!