posted Mon, 08/03/2015 - 15:20
2479
Fat into muscle
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Ok, I have a question that is bothering me, and I don't even know how to begin googling it. So figure I would ask the pro's.
So basically if your trying to gain muscle and fall short in your calorie surplus, will your body burn the extra fat for the calories that you have stored and use it to build the muscle?
Thanks.
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No. Your body cannot turn fat into protein, therefore it cannot use fat to build muscle. Muscle cannot be built without protein.
Depends on the person. Most people will not burn fat stores before glycogen is fully depleted and your in a catabolic state (reducing muscle). The body will try and reduce muscle size because it is going in conservation mode.
If you have trained your body to use fat a primary energy source (Zone or Akins type diet) you will likely have a greater fat burning effect. But to answer your question, NO, if you are in a calorie deficit your body will not use fat to build muscle because by virtue of the calorie deficit you are no longer building muscle, the body's systems have changed.
Drugs of course change things dramatically. You can radically increase the metabolic rate while stoping catabolic effect.
Great stuff, thanks for the help bro!
Steady state cardio anything over 20 minutes start to oxidize fat stores, but you'll lose a little muscle to. HIIT cardio will burn more fat and lose less muscle mass which to me is the best, but it's hard to do for some people that are restricting calories.
Thanks for the response, explains why I get skinny and weaker when I run a lot. I'll research more into hiit.
But let's say if I want to gain 1lb of muscle and I fall short in my calorie surplus by 100 calories or so, and I have a little extra body fat. Will my body break down the fat and use the calories to grow that 1lb of muscle?