do calories taken from fat go towards muscle growth?

[damac]

I don't know why but after a year+ in dealing with fitness and having some ups and downs with health and being overweight I never really found the answer to this.


Lets say I have 40 pounds of fat on me that I want to lose.

I want to bulk up my muscles and train hard with weights.

I diet through calories and exercise to create a deficit each day.

I lose fat cause my body needs more calories.



Now if Im eating well 90% of the time and doing my thing and am putting a strain on my muscles, Can they pull what they need to grow from my fat stores as in number of calories over what my food intake is, thus accelerating fat loss that much more than just cardio?



I guess thats a little different then the guy who gets lean but wants to bulk up and doesn't have that much fat to throw around so has to get the extra food in and manage things more closely.


Do I have that wrong or is the fat just goop that can't be used for the energy needs and functions of repairing the body? I thought a calorie was just a calorie though.

 

[Par Deus]

Fat will not really be used while you are working out, but it will be used as your metabolism stays elevated for the rest of the day.

In addition, having adequate fat stores signals to the body that it is in the fed state (via leptin), thus anabolic hormones remain relatively high without a large caloric intake -- which is why fat people can gain muscle on a diet (or at least not lose any) while lean people cannot.