Replacing fat with muscle?

So, my way of thinking is this....you are Burning fat and Gaining muscle. I am not sure if replacing is exactly the right word. As far as how much muscle women can pack on, that depends on your body type, genes play a huge roll in that. Obviously there are women bodybuilders out there that have put on a ton of muscle, but the "average" woman won't put on a whole lot. Also, I think part of it may be that we have a good deal of muscle to begin with but it is well "insulated", when we strip off the fat we see more. Does that help at all?

I know that I look a lot different since I've been working out. About 8 years ago, I went on Weight Watchers and lost 50 pounds. But I didn't exercise at all. This time around, I started exercising before dieting. Now I am wearing clothes at 167 lbs that fit me when I was 155. I don't think it is the same for everyone but I notice about a 10 pound difference. I hope this makes sense and kind of answers your question.:flowerforyou:

This is going to be far more then you really needed to know, but oh well, here I go.


Technically you can't replace fat with muscle, and (this is VERY important to note) you won't put on significant muscle while in caloric deficit.

What you CAN do while at a deficit is build muscle density, and increase the mitochondria in your muscle cells (mitochondria are what converts glycogen and oxygen into ATP, the energy muscle use as go go juice). This makes muscles more dense, heavier, and thus you gain lean mass but not volume.

So what happens is this, when you work out at submaximal levels (aerobic workouts), your body burns fat stores and directly ingested glucose first, becaues the body never runs out of oxygen, the muscles never fill up with lactic acid, and thus the body can continue for a long time producing ATP at a sufficient level.
this burns fat and stored glycogen pretty well, this is why cardio burns fat better then weight training.

BUT,
When we work out maximally (anaerobically), our muscles burn ATP faster then our body can produce more, leading to a build up in lactic acid (the byproduct of ATP consumption), and thus the "burn" you get when you say... lift weights, or sprint for an extended period.
This doesn't really burn too much fat, simply because the body isn't able to keep up this activity for long enough to need to dip into fat stores significantly. BUT what the body will do is recognize that you didn't have enough muscle mass to do the task you gave it without running out of fuel, thus it will add volume to the muscle, as well as increase density, which makes you bigger, and stronger in that specific muscle.

So if you are at a caloric deficit and trying to build muscle, you have a conflict, your metabolic processes need the calories for daily function, but your muscles are screaming for more stuff to build them up, this hampers both processes, and will lead to other areas being neglected and can even cause the body to canabalize muscles that aren't used as often.

All that said, the two types of exercise have a meeting point, a place where you can do both to a degree, sometimes called interval training, sometimes call High Intensity Interval Training, it utilizes both technique, and is actually quite effective, BUT you should be at a relatively small deficit (or none at all) when doing this kind of workout as it will tax your body pretty harshly.

That is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. So am I correct...you aren't really putting on muscle, or increasing muscle density, enough to use the "excuse" that you aren't losing weight because you are gaining muscle? Or is that a valid excuse? Is it possible to increase muscle density in let's say a week, to account for not losing weight that week?

Ahh, probably not. You can increase muscle volume, and often when you change from a cardio heavy workout to a anaerobic workout schedule, your body chemistry alters (you generally store more water this way, and I think a little more glycogen too), so that can account for weight gain at the beginning of a change, but straight muscle gain while losing fat? I doubt it very much. It took me 5 months to gain 4 lbs, and I work out pretty hard, and eat at an actual surplus.

That is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. So am I correct...you aren't really putting on muscle, or increasing muscle density, enough to use the "excuse" that you aren't losing weight because you are gaining muscle? Or is that a valid excuse? Is it possible to increase muscle density in let's say a week, to account for not losing weight that week?

Ahh, probably not. You can increase muscle volume, and often when you change from a cardio heavy workout to a anaerobic workout schedule, your body chemistry alters (you generally store more water this way, and I think a little more glycogen too), so that can account for weight gain at the beginning of a change, but straight muscle gain while losing fat? I doubt it very much. It took me 5 months to gain 4 lbs, and I work out pretty hard, and eat at an actual surplus.

So why do we keep telling each other that our weight is unchanged due to replacing fat with muscle? Ok, this is my new pet peeve.

Because nobody believe in the power of water weight.
Also because nobody understands that it takes at a minimum, weeks for substantial changes (in the absence of extreme changes)
And because people don't read the historical threads on here.

don't sweat it, trust me, after a while you get used to it. It used to piss me off too. Eventually you learn that, a certain percentage of people in life believe what they choose to believe, no matter how many hard facts you lay down infront of them.

This takes me back to cellular respiration in Biology. And I was convinced that I would never, ever need that information in 'real' life. Was I ever wrong.
:laugh:

I agree, you really don't need to completely eliminate weight training. And yeah, while doing cardio, just by the way our body's work, you will burn some lean tissue as well, so the weight training is beneficial in that it keeps your fat to muscle ratio in balance. You probably don't need to do a lot, but 1 or two days a week is still a good idea.

If you have a lot of fat to lose, then yeah, concentrating on cardio is probably the right way to go, but giving up muscle building activity won't really help that, it will just slowly reduce your muscle mass, which will make you weaker, which will reduce the amount of cardio you can do and also make you look far less fit (as singfree said) after the fat does come off.

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