Weight loss and muscle building are two widely divergent fitness goals involving different exercise and diet requirements as well as widely different biochemical processes. A large number of people wonder whether it is really possible to lose unwanted body fat and build rock-hard muscles at the same time.

Muscle building (anabolism) requires more calorie intake than what gets exhausted everyday; while on the other hand, losing extra weight requires fewer calories intake than what you are able to burn each day.

The process of losing weight and building muscles are interconnected. You will need to first damage your muscles to a certain extent through your workouts and then replenish them with lots of protein rich diet and ample rest to allow your muscles to recover and grow back healthy. You may even need to use muscle building supplements along with your diet to meet the increasing nutrient requirements of your growing body. As you develop more muscles, your body's metabolic rate increases because muscles are inherently very active tissues. As a result of the high metabolic rate, the fat burning process gets hastened and your body begins to lose all the unwanted fat.

When you are under a weight loss program, your body is in a state of deprivation, as a result of which the carbohydrates, proteins and fats present in the cells of the body get used up for energy production. If you can manage to replenish the proteins and carbohydrates content in your body and allow only the excess fat to be used up for energy production during rigorous workouts, then your body can achieve the desired objective of weight loss as well as muscle building.

If you are interested in building great muscles, then in addition to a high calorie, protein rich diet, you must also undertake appropriate strength training exercises and rigorous workouts, and allow ample rest periods for your muscles to recover and grow.

During every single workout, try to increase the intensity of your workout by implementing the principle of "progressive overload". When you increase the intensity of your workout, you can start noticing you muscles getting stronger and bigger.

The rigorous exercises undertaken by your body will cause a lot of wear and tear and therefore, you will need to take a lot of rest in order to facilitate repair and growth of the muscle tissues in your body. It is recommended that you take at least 2 days of rest between subsequent workouts.

If you are ultimately interested in losing weight as well as in building muscles, then you must engineer your diet regime in such as manner that you do not allow the proteins to be used up for energy production in your body. Rather, the proteins must be made available for the repair and growth of the muscle tissues in your body through protein supplements. Most experts recommend consuming a mixture of protein and carbohydrate immediately after a workout session in order to provide the body with sufficient energy as well as to facilitate maximum muscle repair.

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