OK aside from being the title of an old ebook, is it possible to burn the fat and feed the muscle or is this just slick marketing?

The focus of this title is more on diet than exercise.  To say burn the fat and FEED the muscle implies but doesn’t commit to growing muscle which is what most of us really want to do.  However, I don’t want to get caught up in semantics here we need to discover whether you can burn fat and grow muscle at the same time.

To simultaneously grow muscle while burning fat off your body, you need to exercise.  This is non negotiable.  And more importantly, at least half of your exercise needs to be resistance training (a. k. a., weight lifting).  Cardio and the ever more popular HIIT (high intensity interval training) can help your body burn fat but they don’t do much to build muscle.  Resistance training is key to build muscle.  As you build muscle, your body will become more shapely and defined.  As you build muscle, your body will actually burn more calories 24 hours a day.  So if you are serious about burning fat and feeding or growing muscle you need to incorporate resistance training.  This is important for both men and women.

As you start any resistance training program, it’s important to do two things.  First you need to make sure you hit all your muscle groups.  Oftentimes I see guys way to focused on their upper body development and not focused enough on their lower body.  Research has shown that there is a connection that develops as you exercise your lower body your upper body can grow more aggressively.

The second thing to appreciate is that guy or gal, you need to work your muscles hard.  Women have been conditioned by society to avoid lifting heavy weights for fear that they will get too bulky.  This is not possible for the vast majority of women.  REALLY!  Let go of your fear of waking up some morning looking like some muscle bound guy because that isn’t going to happen.  And even if your body type is one of the very few that does add muscle more easily than most women, you’ll know when to cut back.  You never wake up suddenly muscular, it develops slowly over time.  So if you really want to make your body look good, lift as heavy as you can while maintaining good form.

To get the ‘job done’ from an exercise perspective, I highly recommend Beachbody’s P90X program.  It’s well designed to hit all your muscle groups and incorporates a 50/50 ratio of resistance training to cardio.  This is an intense program that will work if you work it.

Of course, exercise is only half of the equation.  If you really want to burn fat and grow muscle, you need to eat to do so.  Here’s the interesting thing that most people don’t seem to know.  Consuming high quality whey protein will help your body do both – burn the fat and feed the muscle.  The reason why I recommend whey protein is that it’s extremely well (and quickly) absorbed by the body which means there’s more amino acids getting to your muscles to grow them.  And most whey protein powders are very low fat and low carb.  So if you mix your whey protein with some skim (0% fat) milk, you get a little sugar in the milk to help transport the amino acid to the muscles and you don’t add fat to your diet.

My Vote for Best Value (I buy Vanilla):

Body Fortress Whey Protein Powder, Vanilla, 32 Ounces (Pack of 2)

My vote for Great Taste in a Protein Drink (Chocolate is my fav):

Muscle Milk-High Protein Shake Mix

Each person needs to calculate what and how much they should eat.  I’ve covered how to calculate how much you should eat here and how much protein you need here.  Also while you will need to eat low fat, some fats need to be included in your diet.  Find out more about that in my article on how to burn fat faster with fats.

There is not silver bullet or magic bean when it comes to burning fat and feeding muscle.  It’s a process that any of us can master if we take our time to exercise and eat properly.