Originally Posted by Epoch
When you do cardio with an empty stomach, your body begins to convert both muscle and fat into energy. Both get consumed. If you have plenty of fat, though, your body is able to rebuild your muscles and concentrate mostly on getting rid of the fat. If you're body is getting enough amounts of the proper nutrients (on a longer term scale than just daily or before the exercise), then muscle consumption will be minimized and fat burn will be maximized.
The best way to burn fat, for guys, is to build lean muscle and eat 6 smaller meals a day. Lean muscle consumes fat, and the 6 smaller meals keep your metabolism going at a faster rate. Cardio's inefficient compared to this, but Cardio's easier for most people too...
You're right building lean muscle mass is the best way but that is a long term solution. It takes a while to get to a point where just your extra muscle mass will burn enough calories that you will be losing noticeable amounts of weight.
I have tons of lean muscle mass and putting more muscle mass is the easy part for me. the hard part is getting motivated to wake up early and do cardio. :happysad: