What Is going On?

[Menjo]

it is physiologically impossible to turn fat into muscle.

you can replace the weight you lost from fat with hypertrophy(increasing the muscle size), but you cannot convert.

I dont know much about this sort of topic, however I do have a valid question.

First of all:

I never knew this info you posted, thanks.

Is there a process where you have to lose fat first and then build muscle or does it all happen at once?

[lordtariel]

I cut the pop out of my diet and lost over 20 pounds in about 2 1/2-3 months. Started in with Karate as well, but weight's increased rather than decreased... (dang muscle weighing more than fat)

[patusai]

How your clothes fit is a very good indicator as one person mentioned. As you exercise mussle replaces fat and it weighs more than fat. You may notice clothes fitting better and yet your weight is the same. That's normal.

[dragons_wrath99]

Yeah, all this diet stuff is great, but you've seriously got me worried with your sleeping habits. Whatever happened to 'early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise'? Six hours of sleep is not enough to be truly healthy. At least try going to sleep at 11:30. You can develop a bedtime routine (personally I find that a cup of tea and a good book work very well) that tells your body that it is time to wind down and sleep. Seriously, you will feel so much better if you get an adequate amount of sleep.

[SatyagrahaKF]

Cut out candy, chips, soda, white breads, whole milk, basically any food that is junk. Eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, skim milk, and try to avoid red meats. Crash diets are not a good idea so don't go overboard. Good luck.

[granmasterchen]

you may be losing fat and building muscle, in that case there may be no weight loss but you are still getting healthier. If you want to lose weight and fat focus on the aerobic exercises that greatly raise the heart rate and test your endurance like running,swimming, and similar activities. Lifting weights and many calistenics will give you more muscle. I'm not saying to not do them at all, you definitely need to in order to keep your muscles in prime physical shape, you just need to intensify and add more of the cardio type workouts.