Burn Fat & Gain Muscle At The Same Time - Yes, And No

t has often been said that it is impossible to build muscle while losing fat. They point out to build muscles you must consume more calories than you burn off. Others say that is not true and point to themselves as examples. I have built muscles and lost fat in the same period as well. In the amazing, complex way our bodies work, both parties are right and at the same time "wrong". It is true, according to the laws of mass-energy conservation, you must input more energy than you burn to build mass, whether its fat or muscle. However, several factors influence this process. First, unlike fat stores, when you lose proteins from exercise, there is a deficit your body tries to fill. If you eat quick digesting carbs and proteins, they go immediately to fill this deficit. This is not the case with fat stores; the body does not automatically attempt to replenish fat burnt off from intense physical activity. If your fitness goal is to gain muscle mass, you can in fact do intense cardio several days a week, burn off excess fat, and still eat enough to grow your muscles. This is in fact advisable because gaining fat is linked with growing muscle - you cannot separate the two.
Now, it is true, sort of, muscle growth does not occur at the exact same time as fat is being burnt. Because the body is in a catabolic state during exercise, your muscles cannot grow, they only grow during rest especially during sleep. Your body is still tapping your fat stores, but at much lower levels, at levels where we often say we are not burning fat, though that is technically incorrect.
The conclusion, if you time your eating perfectly, minimize cardio - but not completely eliminate it, you can lose fat, while growing muscles. The most important thing is to keep eating, if you fail to eat enough, you will not have any appreciable muscle growth and all your weight training is for nothing.
Please visit my sites, here or here, to see a real life success story of a guy that went from being medically obese to having an athletic physique.