Cronus said:
Where are you getting this? I am not flaming, I just want to know. I have never heard of this. From what you are saying it sounds possible, I just don't see it happening however. In order to make strength or muscle gains, it requires lots of calories to rebuild your muscles. In order to lose fat you cut calories. If you can show me studies of people actually controlling when they are burning fat and when they are building muscle at different times of the day, I would love to add it to my routine.
What is it with people and studies.. lol. I didn't even KNOW about studies before I got onto internet message boards.
Okay, I'll give you a simple example.
Assume you've done some heavy training sufficient to put a growth demand on your body. When you wake up in the morning, have some green/white tea or caffeine to rev up your metabolism, take some protein if you feel it's necessary, then go and walk briskly around your neighbourhood (or get on the treadmill etc).
You've got no carbs in you so you'll be burning fat from the off; 30-40 mins of walking will burn fat directly and also indirectly through the 'afterburn' effect of cardio. Catabolism will be avoided since a) it's such a light exercise anyway and b) you took some protein before which the body can use as fuel.
I can't remember the numbers but your metabolism will be increased by the cardio and you will continue to burn fat for a period of time afterwards. After your walk, take a shower, have a shave, whatever, wait at least 30 mins and then dive into your breakfast. You'll still be burning fat until there's a sufficient insulin rise to stop it (through carb intake - so if you want to continue lypolysis have yourself a protein+fat meal like a shake with olive oil or some eggs or whatever). For this part of the day you're burning fat.
Now what'll happen if you eat your arse off for the rest of the day? Protein from complete sources, low GI carbs, good fats, a surplus of calories to rebuild the muscles you stimulated through your training. Eating proper meal combinations, high protein, water, veggies, timing carbs etc will help keep your metabolism roaring and avoid adipose storage while still providing aminos for muscular growth. For this part of the day you're building muscle with the surplus.
This way you can slowly chip away at your fat stores while still packing on lean mass. Now don't expect miraculous results, this is a slow process, however it's much easier on your body and fairly easy to maintain.
Don't think you can put on 50lbs and get down to 4% bodyfat simultaneously either - but for the average guy who wants more-than-average muscle and a six pack, this is the way to do it. Again I repeat, it requires clean eating, dedication with the cardio (since you won't be cutting calories to burn fat, this is your biggest fat burning tool) and precision with the eating (this is not a bbing.com 'bulk').
Now if you're an extreme endomorph or ectomorph then this might not work for you - endos don't generally need a surplus to gain muscle and ectos can't do too much cardio. In both of these cases there are other things to do BUT I don't believe that such extreme cases are as a common as people make them out to be .. 'extreme endomorphs' are generally lazy people with ****ty diets and 'extreme ectomorphs' are generally people who claim to 'eat like a horse' but their daily intake is less than my puppy's.