How do u know if you're burning muscle or fat ?

bump

Very interesting topic I loved the guy that said fat bursts into flame and muscle just smokes

When you burn fat it will catch on fire and cause a huge flame.

when you burn muscle it generally just smokes.

very nice!

i have heard one quick way to tell if you are burning fat, is that even while sweating, your skin feels cool. i've noticed this during zumba and running (it was 80 out, so no reason i should be cold!!)

I've never heard that but it would be awesome if that's true. I typically focus on just weight training and I'll be sweating buckets and feel like my body is a furnace but my skin always feels cool to the touch.

Thanks! I got Jillian's killer buns/thighs last week. Did some, hard to modify a Mtn climber, but I did :-). I drink a lot of water thou I don't always record. My dr said do yoga. So I'm going to start that too. But as most say, it starts in the kitchen. I think for the past 3 wks I was at 1000 cal a day deficit, according to my BB. I think (?) eating more to close the gap a bit will help. A month ago I put my goal as losing 23 lbs, can't believe I'm not 1lb closer than April 28th! Part of me thinks a shoulda done south beach , at least I'd lost a good 10. But I'm trying to get away from the fad stuff. Wanting 2beleive this eat more to lose more deal.

Yoga definately sounds like a good idea - and maybe pilates.

If you are at a deficit you will lose - sometimes its just hard to tell becuase of various fluctuations in weight that have nothing to do with fat loss.

Sound like you have a good plan - hang in there

Additionally, I'm not sure it's even important to know whether or not you're burning fat in a given snapshot of time. As long as fat oxidation exceeds fat storage you will eventually have a net loss of fat.

big picture >> acute.

You can have ketones in your urine for a variety of reasons: hyperglycemia, prolonged vomiting, dehydration, starvation, hyperthyroid, or even certain meds (like prednisone), folks on low carb/high protein diets will also have ketotic urine, women who are breast feeding.... Thus is not a reliable indicator for whether or not you're burning fat. In fact ketotic urine could indicate you're not adequately hydrated.

One would assume they should know the things they can rule out. You should know if you are hyperglycemic, if you throw up a lot, if you starve yourself, if you are breastfeeding, or what meds they are on etc.

bump...very interesting post...and the answers are pretty interesting, also...

You can have ketones in your urine for a variety of reasons: hyperglycemia, prolonged vomiting, dehydration, starvation, hyperthyroid, or even certain meds (like prednisone), folks on low carb/high protein diets will also have ketotic urine, women who are breast feeding.... Thus is not a reliable indicator for whether or not you're burning fat. In fact ketotic urine could indicate you're not adequately hydrated.

One would assume they should know the things they can rule out. You should know if you are hyperglycemic, if you throw up a lot, if you starve yourself, if you are breastfeeding, or what meds they are on etc.

Agreed,presumably everyone knows what meds they are on and usually knows what medical problems they have (unless they're undiagnosed) and they certainly know if they're puking their guts out or if you're breastfeeding but maybe they don't know that the aforementioned will cause ketones to show up in your pee . my saying ketones in urine are not a reliable indicator is kinda misleading as well because ketones ARE the end product of fat metabolism... but that being said I would warn against buying urine dip strips and checking for ketones because while a healthy person who's burning fat and receiving adequate nutrition may have ketotic urine so will someone who's undereating and underhydrated.... Hope the FYI didn't come off as pretentious or preachy