Fat loss and muscle building

Everyone and their dog wants to lose fat, build muscle, and preferably both at the same time.

Sorry mac, ain't gonna happen unless you resort to substances that carry prison sentences.

Pick one or the other.

To burn fat, you need to consume less calories than you burn through living and exercise. To build muscle, you need to consume more calories than you burn through living and exercise.

And there's the problem right there.

Well, okay, a complete and utter beginner can see some rapid and significant gains for the first 6-8 weeks,and most of those in the initial 4 weeks. This state does not persist - once you're past the newbie gains stage, you're going to have to make a choice.

You know what?

Choose to burn the fat. Someone who is 160lbs and 8% body fat is going to look better than someone who is 220lbs and 20% body fat, even if the big guy has 176lbs of lean mass and the little pipsqueak only 147lbs. The visual impact of smaller muscles you can see is always greater than larger ones covered in fat.

Think of Brad Pitt in Fight Club. The skinny runt has about one muscle fibre to his name, but he looks impressive because he's pretty damn ripped. Even if he'd get chewed up and spat out in a real "Fight Club" scenario because he lacks the muscle mass to be competitive, he still looks impressive.

There's two kinds of people who can burn fat and gain muscle at the same time - the complete beginners, and the obese. But you don't stay a beginner forever, and hopefully you don't stay obese either so eventually you're going to have to pick one or the other. But meanwhile, ride it out and burn the fat, while you feed the muscle.