A commonly held myth by most people is that you can turn your fat into muscle. They believe that if you do weight exercises you can get this done. This is exactly why those ab exercise machines are so popular - their whole marketing campaign plays on the ignorance of people, even when they themselves know that this is not true. Don't feel bad if you've fallen victim and have actually ordered one - I ordered not one, but two!

The truth is that losing fat and gaining muscle are two entirely separate things. It's very rare you ever see it happening at once. And there's a simple reason for that.

To gain muscle you need to eat more calories than you put out, because you body needs the raw materials to grow the muscles. But if you want to lose fat, you have to cut your calories to a level below what you spend in energy.

These two are clearly conflicting. You can't have both at the same time in the majority of cases.

There are only a few occasions you might see that happen. One of these times is when a beginner is first starting off. That's because their body is very responsive to any new exercise, and to a new nutrition plan. Usually though this only occurs for a short while, until your body adjusts.

It's much more usual to have a large drop in body fat, with little change in the lean body mass. You can also see increases in lean body mass, with little change to the amount of body fat. But to get a large drop in body fat, with a large increase in lean body mass is very unusual.

So what do you do if you are currently overweight and want a lean, solid figure with nice muscles? Do you get bulky first, and then lose the fat, or do you firstly focus on getting lean, and then put on muscle?

Research has shown that you should first focus on shedding your body fat. Once you your body fat percantage is down to the level you want it, you can focus on growth. This has been the path of those who have had the most success for those who have the goal of losing weight and building muscle.

This of course does not mean you should ignore weight training when you are trying to lose weight. Weight training should be a crucial part of your exercise program for weight loss because of its effects on increasing your metabolism rate. Just don't expect to get the growth you would get if you were putting in excess calories.

So if you don't have an exercise program for fast weight loss, what do I recommend?

As mentioned above, your exercise program needs to incorporate both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic exercise (weights) in your training. To really get into the difference between them, please visit our article "Aerobic Exercises Vs. Anaerobic Exercise". That will give you an appreciation of why you might need both in your program to have fast weight loss, and still be healthy.

As far as particular exercise programs go for controlled, long lasting weight loss, I recommend two programs.

Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat" ebook is the first recommendation because apart from containing a great section on exercise (he's a natural bodybuilder and personal trainer), he also has the best overall book on weight loss - from the many I've reviewed.

If you're only interested in the exercise section, then I believe Craig Ballantyne's "Turbulence Training" is best for you. His nutrition package may not be as comprehensive as Tom's book, but his exercise section is just killer. It is the best one I've seen that's targeted for weight loss. He even covers bodyweight exercises in his course (which is using your own bodyweight to simulate weight training without the weights).