I am a 30 year old female. 6 weeks ago I started getting back into my routine of aerobic exercise as well as weight lifting/body sculpting 4 times a week, drinking water, and watching what I eat. I gained some weight/inches/fat when I discontinued my routine. I have visibly noticed that my muscles are more defined, and that my strength and energy have increased, a very slight reduction of inches in my upper body and abs but I have yet to see a reduction of inches in my lower body. Will the strength training, aerobics and body sculpting I am doing burn the existing fat that I gained? Or will it only burn the calories that I am currently consuming?

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Originally Posted by mpshorty22

I am a 30 year old female. 6 weeks ago I started getting back into my routine of aerobic exercise as well as weight lifting/body sculpting 4 times a week, drinking water, and watching what I eat. I gained some weight/inches/fat when I discontinued my routine. I have visibly noticed that my muscles are more defined, and that my strength and energy have increased, a very slight reduction of inches in my upper body and abs but I have yet to see a reduction of inches in my lower body. Will the strength training, aerobics and body sculpting I am doing burn the existing fat that I gained? Or will it only burn the calories that I am currently consuming?

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You will replace fat with lean body mass by weight training. In turn, every pound of fat replaced by muscle the body burns 30 to 50 cal. per day more to maintain the lean body mass.

That wasn't quite the answer I was looking for. I understand that muscle burns more calories then fat, and that muscle takes less space then fat, and muscle responds quickly, and that fat can't turn into muscle because they are made of different types of cells and that cells can't change into a different type of cell but can only change size. I suppose I should ask, if I build muscle, will that force the fat to become smaller? Or is it just the increase of metabolism and because muscle burns more calories then fat that there is a decrease in fat? Or both?

With correct diet and exercise like your doing fat cells can be shrunk enough to give a lean look, It just takes time. When we burn fat the amount of fat stored in the fat cells, decrease the fat cells shrink. For instance if your working out with weights you will increase your lean body mass which raises your resting metabolic rate. When you speed up your metabolism, you burn more body fat. So you could so say hundreds of reps for the abs each day but do almost nothing to remove the fat, you need varied exercise like aerobics, jogging, biking, for fat burning, your muscles can be toned with a small layer of fat over them so you won't notice results right away with out the overall body workout.