How to Turn Fat into Muscle

In order to understand how to turn fat into muscle, you first have to understand how the body uses energy depending on the type of activity. When your body does work of any kind it needs energy. The types of energy your body uses are carbohydrates, such as glucose, fat, and oxygen for combustion. These forms of energy aren't equal however, and the body actually prefers burning glucose over fat, and will do so happily until you exert your muscles beyond their normal routine.

Your body stores energy all over the place. Short term glucose energy is stored in every muscle cell, ready to be used at a moments notice. When you need energy to do some kind of work, your muscles will burn mostly glucose and the fuels they have immediately on hand. But this is an inefficient, "dirty" burn, which is why when you workout or exert yourself for the first time after a long spell, you're sore the next day. Your body burns the fuels it has on hand, which is inefficient and produces the chemical lactic acid. Since the muscle in that area isn't used to heavy exercise, it burns mostly its quick energy stores of sugar and produces lactic acid as a byproduct.

But your body hates lactic acid just as much as you do and has to do extra work to expel it from the muscles and tissue. So what happens is that after you continue to workout an area, your body starts burning more efficient fuel, fat, and eventually gets into a rhythm where it's burning only clean fuel that doesn't cause you to be sore the next day. In addition to that, you've heard that people who exercise often start to feel more energetic. That's because your body begins to anticipate exercise and starts to move the correct mixture of fuel into place for efficient burning.

Certain types of fat are perfect for building muscle. I personally eat a scoop of fat 30 minutes before every workout. There's a certain type of fat called medium chain triglycerides, which the body prefers to burn rather than store. Primarily found in coconut oil, when these fats are digested and enter the bloodstream, the cells will immediately begin grabbing them and converting them into energy. The boost in energy and metabolism you get from one scoop of coconut oil lasts for almost two hours. I can workout longer and harder and notice considerable gains. Using fat as an energy source like this is perfect for getting your body in the habit of burning fat in order to build muscle. I've written extensively about this. For more info on the subject, check out my article on medium chain triglycerides. Coconut oil is cheap and effective. I've left you a link to my favorite brand just below. If you're going to buy it in the stores though, look for expeller pressed, unrefined oil. That's the stuff that works the best.

So how does one turn fat into muscle?  The best way to get rid of fat in specific areas is to isolate that area and work it out using both aerobic and anaerobic methods.  Wind sprints are a familiar form of exercise for anyone who has every played sports or been in gym class.  Picture going on a 20 minute jog where every 5 minutes, you sprint for 30 seconds and then return back to your normal slower pace.  Studies have shown that this form of exercise is very effective in burning fat.  But in order to get the maximum benefit, you have to isolate the area of the body where you want the fat to be burned.  Why is that?  The reason is because the body will first burn the fat that's most accessible, meaning the fat that it has stored underneath the skin of the area in question.  When you do a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise of the isolated area, you're almost literally turning the fat into muscle.  The quick spurts of intensity will help you build muscle, and the aerobic exercise will help you consistently burn calories.

Most people have trouble with their stomachs.  The body particularly likes to store fat here, probably because the torso is in the middle of the body, making the fat most accessible to all the other areas.  It's somewhat tricky doing a combination of anaerobic and aerobic exercise for the stomach.  Since the stomach is at the core of the body, it gets tired quickly when worked out directly because it has to support the rest of the body.  I prefer doing situps or crunches.  The only way I've been able to burn fat and build muscle on the stomach is to do situps or crunches to music. 

I first pick a song that I really like and do situps throughout the whole song, which I picked a 3 minute song for.  The first time you do this, you'll be very incredibly exhausted, and you'll probably have to rest during the song for about 5 or 10 seconds at a time.  Doing situps for 3 minutes straight is not an easy task.  But after awhile of doing that 3 times a week, you'll notice that you can do situps or crunches at an average speed fairly easily throughout a 3 minute song.  At that point, I like to change it up a bit.  I either put on a much longer song, like 5 minutes, or else do 2 3 minute songs.  I start off at a pretty slow pace, but every minute, I go maximum intensity for 20 seconds.  After a few months, you'll be able to keep up this kind of pace for literally 20 minutes.  I've done almost 1000 situps at a time before.  It doesn't sound possible but it really only took about 3 months to work up to.

It's pretty incredible.  You'll watch your stomach fat melt away and feel incredible as your core is strengthened.  You'll feel much more agile and balanced as well.  This is my preferred method for turning fat into muscle.  And this kind of muscle is the best kind because it's in your core.  Having a strong core is one of the best things you can do.  It will help you prevent all kinds of back problems and will promote energy and vitality to many of your other systems.  When your core muscles feel energetic, your whole body gains a vitality that's difficult to experience with other forms of exercise.