Muscle Growth

Ok so here's the question..

If your calorie burn is greater than you calorie consumption, are you still able to s increase you muscle growth/tone with weight training? Is it the fat cells they take there energy from to grow? or do the muscles get smaller?? oh and one more... being on a calorie deficite, would weight training in various muscle regions only tone/shrink that specific area??

thankyou for any suggestions.

 

yes you should be able to lose fat while gaining muscle...with the proper amount of protein. i am actually working on this right now as well. Think of muscle growth and weight loss as two different things. in order for muscles to get stronger/grow, they need high quality protien. more on this later. if you keep up the cardio, then that will take care of the fat. just make sure you do sufficient weight training to use the protein, or it will turn to fat. as far as the kinds of proteins, i have found what they call a "blended protein mix". it contains whey protein- short term, acts within 30 minutes. soy protein-an intermediate lasting protein, and finally casein protein, which is the long lasting protein. this is probably the best kind of protein, since you only take it twice per day, versus 3 to 5 times per day. just keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, so dont get discouraged if you dont lose weight at first. hope this helps!

 Complete newbies to strenght training can do that. This initial phase lasts no longer than three months, six if you're lucky.

 After that initial period, no. Can't be done, not with any great deal of efficiency. It's why bodybuilders and fitness athletes in general have bulking and cutting cycles - for anyone but a raw newbie it's close to impossible to efficiently cut fat and add muscle at the same time.

 Oh, and the genistein in soy protein acts as a xenoestrogen. Men should stay away from it, period, and women looking to add muscle shouldn't touch it either.

ok great!

but what happens to the muscles when you work out if your not consuming significant protein or calories?? iv been doing this for years so im no "newbie" by any means

but i am interested in the physiological effect weith training and food deprivation has on my muscles.

thanx for your imput,

 

I practically live on soy and I've definitely been gaining muscle.

 Lucky you :)

 Some -a few- men can handle soy, lots more women can. It's not as if it will completely stop any gains you might have either. But it will most definitely compromise them if you don't have the individual biochemistry to process it properly - women can generally tell by their TTOM symptoms increasing.

 Men generally just don't make the gains they ought to for their level of activity as the xenoestrogen effects of soy downregulates testosterone production and hormonal response, important factors in muscle gains.

 You personally could have the biochemistry to handle genistein, but if you're looking to build muscle, why take the chance?

 The lies-to-children explanation of what happens when you're dieting is that your body spends most of its time in a catabolic or energy-releasing state, which means breaking down stored energy for metabolic processes. Unfortunately for us, that stored energy can come from muscle as well as fat, and the body actually prefers burning metabolically expensive muscle tissue over stored fat in a low-calorie situation. This effect can be prevented with resistance training - anything that makes your body work against resistance and use the muscles helps preserve muscle tissue loss.

 But it's difficult adding new muscle mass without spending significant time in an anabolic or energy-storing state - which happens to be conductive to storing fat as well as building muscle.

 Trying to do both at once requires that you manage to balance two conflicting metabolic states at once, and that's very, very close to impossible without the use of serious amounts of illegal drugs and even then it's easier to just go with your body's natural inclinations.

 Newbies and people returning from very long breaks can in fact add muscle while being in a mostly-catabolic state from a calorie deficit, but that's only for a brief while. It's possible to balance calorie input and achieve a moderate change in body composition at caloric equilibrium, but that's also bloody hard to do long-term. It's much more efficient to use bulking and cutting cycles to add muscle mass and then reduce bodyfat  for someone past the newbie response.

maybe I overlooked it somewhere on here but I am having a deficit of 300 cals a day and eating at least 25% of my cals of protien...I am wanting to gain muscle and lose fat...how much strength training do I need to do a day/ cardio too! ANY  help would be greatly appreciatied! Thanks,Amy

Keep your cardio down to 30 mins 2 or 3 times a week.  Try not to do intense cardio on days you weightlift.  You should be fresh for each type of work out.  You are going to need more protien than that.  From what I gather you should eat about .80 grams of protein for every pound that you weight.  For me I weigh 150 so I try to eat 100-120 grams of protein.   For weightlifting Go heavy, go hard and do cardio for heart health not fat loss.

I'm so confused now!

"do cardio for heart health not fat loss."

I thought cardio was for burning fat!

Cardio is also very good for burning muscle as well.