Lurisia Dale wrote:

>It is very difficult to
>add muscle and lose fat at the same time, though some people can.
>
>

Adding muscle is an anabolic process and losing fat is a catabolic
process, so it's true that you can't do both at exactly the same time.
But you can certainly alternate between the two states even in a single
day.  This is, incidentally, the concept behind Ori Hofmekler's "warrior
diet" which encourages overeating once a day and undereating (nearly
nothing) the rest of the day.  The purpose of the one big protein-rich
meal is to cause an insulin surge, since insulin is an anabolic hormone,
and to use that to push amino acids into the cells that need them.
During that time, muscle is being built.  The rest of the time, the body
switches into catabolic mode, to liberate fat from fat cells for energy,
and to release stored glycogen.  Working out increases the demand for
the amino acids, and thus increases protein uptake.  Thus, on this sort
of plan, the metabolism is anabolic for 4 hours out of 24, and catabolic
for the other 20.

Todd Moody
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