This can be a bit tricky, but it can be accomplished with flexible dieting as long as people are patient and willing to put in a little extra effort with the nutrition and fitness aspect of the flexible diet.
First, let’s take a quick look at the physiology regarding fat loss and muscle gain and then we can apply those principles in some practical ways.
Fat Loss
Most people understand that fat storage is a survival mechanism that the body uses to store energy in case of periods of famine. Thousands of years ago this mechanism was vital to our survival as a species because since we hunted and gathered for food, sometimes humans would have to go days or even a week before adequate food was obtained.
Now fast forward to our modern times where food is abundant and little energy is expended to get that food beyond pushing a cart around the grocery store. Our bodies are still hardwired the way they were a thousand years ago.
Excess food energy gets stored in the form of fat.
Fat stores are broken down when the body needs energy it isn’t getting from enough food.
Unfortunately, the body doesn’t have an off switch and fat storage is accumulative. What’s worse, it is far easier to store fat than it is to release fat because we are hardwired to enjoy food as a way to also ensure our survival.
So, to lose fat you have to be taking in less energy than you are expending during any given day.
To make up for the calorie deficit that you are in, your body has to begin breaking down fat for the energy required. There are a few caveats to this and I’ll address those a little later, but in a basic sense this is why we store fat and how we lose it.
Muscle Growth
Biologically, muscle tissue is functional tissue in that it exists to serve a purpose and the extent at which it exists is dependant on the body’s need of it.
The body has no interest in partitioning energy to muscle growth and development unless it believes that the extra muscle is required for our survival, whether in reality or artificially contrived (the gym).
Thousands of years ago humans had to work hard for their survival; hunting, building, farming, laboring etc. and muscle development occurred more naturally.
Today, while some do still labor, most of us have more sedentary type lives which means that the minimal amount of skeletal muscle is required for our survival.
This means that simply eating more will not result in muscle gain. Since more muscle isn’t needed, extra energy will be stored as fat like I previously described.
In order for muscle to grow1 it has to be stimulated in a way that breaks or injures muscle fibers (muscle trauma), so that they are rebuilt stronger with the help of key hormones and amino acids (protein syntheseis)2.
Also, the rate of muscle protein synthesis has to be greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown caused by the trauma, therefore a person’s diet must contain the raw materials needed for protein synthesis.
Since most of us don’t naturally undergo the type of activity that causes muscle trauma in our jobs, we have to simulate this at the gym with strength training and/or weight training.
Therefore, muscle growth in its basic sense requires the right diet and the right exercise.
Build Muscle, Lose Fat in Conjunction
Traditional bodybuilders use two phases to build muscle and then lose fat:
Bulking: which is to eat a calorie surplus while engaging in comprehensive weight training with some fat also being gained.
Cutting: which involves reducing calories drastically and often includes either a very low fat diet or ketogenic type diet while engaging in comprehensive weight training.
The above method can grow muscle relatively quickly and can also remove fat relatively quickly, but it probably isn’t realistic for most, especially those who are not athletic and already have a fair amount of fat to lose.
Reference: http://tinyurl.com/j58dnpm
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