You’ve probably seen countless people talking about how they, and you too, can build mounds of muscle while at the same time burning off that terrible, unsightly fat you have. You’ve also probably seen the many supplements and pills which claim to be able to help you in this quest.
Well, I’ll tell you now – it is an impossible quest. Here’s why:
It all comes down to calories. Whether your goal is to put on muscle mass, or to lose fat, everything you do comes down to how many calories you are consuming. If you consistently eat a slightly to moderately less amount of calories than your body is used to, the result is that your body will begin burning it’s fat storage, because there simply isn’t enough calories to sustain it.
On the other hand, if you are trying to put muscle on, you will need to consistently eat a calorie surplus. Doing so gives the recovering muscles the nutrients and energy they need to repair and grow.
Those are the basic rules of how fat burning and muscle building work. So, now you understand what it takes to do both, you surely now understand that it is simply impossible to have a calorie surplus, and a calorie deficit all at the same time?
Having said that, a common practice is to build muscle for a period of time (known as bulking), and then when the fat accumulation becomes too much (fat will accumulate on a bulking diet), then the diet is changed to a cutting diet – where the sole aim is to lose fat.
So, you have a choice. You can do one or the other for a period of time, but, you can’t do both at the same time or your results are very likely to stay the same, whichever your goal is.