Just wondering …. If our body stores fat to use later as energy, can it also use it later to build muscle? If someone has excess body fat, eats at maintenance levels, and lifts hard, could the body use the fat stores to build muscle?

I have a feeling the answer is no as I have never seen it discussed anywhere else, but just wondering if anyone has any insight into this yay or nay.

Just wondering …. If our body stores fat to use later as energy, can it also use it later to build muscle? If someone has excess body fat, eats at maintenance levels, and lifts hard, could the body use the fat stores to build muscle?

I have a feeling the answer is no as I have never seen it discussed anywhere else, but just wondering if anyone has any insight into this yay or nay.


Essentially, you are asking if it is possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Eh....people will give you lots of answers on this, but the short answer is that it is very difficult for the experienced trainee to gain appreciable muscle while losing a significant amount of fat.

The problem is that your body burns fat when you are on a calorie deficit, and so, given that your body wants to preserve as much energy as possible, it isn't going to use additional energy to build metabolically expensive tissue (e.g. muscle).

Ahhhh .... makes sense.

very difficult for the experienced trainee to gain appreciable muscle while losing a significant amount of fat.


so in a beginner trainee or someone with high levels of body fat to LBM ratio it should be possible?

so in a beginner trainee or someone with high levels of body fat to LBM ratio it should be possible?

Yes, that could (and does) happen.

Aye, it's happening to me right now. Building muscle and trimming down at a very nice rate. I'm enjoying it since it sounds like it's a one-time only deal. :lol:

I understand that there are newbie gains, and that newbies can often build muscle and lose fat at the same time. My question was whether stored fat is ever used as the fuel to build muscles. Given our genetic disposition to store fat and use it as energy as a last resort, JoeSchmo's explanation makes sense to me.

So then it would come down to:- What actually builds a muscle?

Converted calories or amino acids.?

There are those that insist a calorie is a calorie and as long as you are getting the required amount of calories, you're just fine.

But this flies in the face of the protein camp, who insist that the amino acids from 5 sandbags full of protein powder per day is the only thing that will build muscle.

As a layman,I don't see how fat calories can be converted into amino acids...

But stranger things have happened...:eek: