Muscle building vs fat loss question...

That's a new one to me. I've always heard that you are still burning fat when you build muscle, but you don't see the same kind of weight loss, because muscle weighs more than fat (per volume). That's why inches are just as important as weight. They show the building of muscle AND the burning of fat. As dense, heavy muscle replaces fat, inches can decrease significantly while weight can actually increase.

I've also always heard that the more muscle you build the more efficient your body becomes at burning fat, so building muscle should burn MORE fat; not less. I'm no professional, but I sure hope this is true. I am in the process of completely revamping my workout schedule based on this idea!

If you're operating in a calorie deficit you will lose both fat and muscle. The ratio depends on many factors, some you can control (lifting weights) and others you cannot (genetics).

Thanks evryone!

I read a little further and one guy said that when you burn fat, you your body is in a catabolic state, and when you build muscle, you are in an anabolic state. He didn't elaborate, but I'm guessing the anabolic state is also a lower metabolism, therefore the calorie defict you were running is less or even gone even though you haven't changed your diet. Can anyone confirm this?

This is exactly right. The specifics are a little complicated but I'll try to keep it as simple as possible

the human body is governed mainly by hormones. Glands and organs (and cells themselves, which are considered part of the glandular system when they produce hormones) can produce certain chemicals that act as catalysts in the body. When you are in an anabolic state, the body produces more of the hormones that elicit growth, either muscle growth or fat storage or what have you. Unfortunately these hormones tend to counteract the hormones that the body produces to trigger extra fat burning. So while it's POSSIBLE in the abstract to both burn lots of fat, and build muscle, it's not very likely. What you can do to limit fat storage while building muscle is to be very careful and accurate with your calorie burn and nutrient intake, by that I mean make sure you have enough macronutrients coming in in the right amounts (fats/proteins/carbs) and are doing the right kinds of exercises at the right levels. For obvious reasons this is a little harder than simply losing weight (fat), it's why bodybuilding and weight training are much more in depth processes than just losing weight.
Exercising the right muscles will help them grow to a point, but at a certain level, you must correctly feed and exercise your body in order to pass thresholds.

I can go far deeper into this if you like. Let me know.

Fat loss is all about diet. The way to make sure the weight you lose is mostly fat is to stay out of the zone where the body can't make up the difference between deficit and calories available.

the reason why we can eat at a deficit at all and not suffer consequences is because the body stores energy. It stores it as fat, but there's only so much fat the body can extract and use at any one time, regardless of the total amount.

So even if you have quite a bit of fat to burn off, you can't go crazy with your deficit or you'll start burning muscle mass. This means, don't expect huge results, stay consistent, keep your calorie deficit modest, and keep doing weight training. Why weight training you ask? Because muscles in a state of repair won't be canabalized for energy, the more muscles you have in that state, the less opportunity your body has to canabalize them.

Remember, the body is an efficiency engine, it'll only keep muscle around if it's serving a purpose. Dormant muscle mass is a drag on your body's metabolic economy, and it'll try to expel it quickly. So keep using those muscles, keep working hard, and you'll be fine. Fat is basically metabolically inert, so the body doesn't see it as a drain on the system, as far as your body is concerned, if the fat isn't causing any active harm, it would rather have that than unused muscle mass. Weird, I know, but it's true.