Burn Fat & Build Muscle Diet

To burn fat and lose weight, you have to undergo a calorie deficit--eat fewer calories than your body needs for its daily activities. On the other hand, to build muscle, you need a calorie surplus. Author and bodybuilder Marc Lobliner believes that to build muscle and stay lean, you should eat "clean calories"-- nutritious food that contains significant amounts of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. For example get complex carbs from a sweet potato instead "dirty calories" from a sugar-filled cream pie.

Considerations

According to fitness trainer and author Randy Herring, you should eat four to six meals a day, spaced out every three hours. This keeps your metabolism active throughout the day and ensures a steady stream of muscle-building nutrients.
You should always have breakfast. This first meal of the day stokes up your metabolism. Skipping it deprives your body of muscle-building nutrients, slows down your metabolism and reduces your body's ability to burn fat.

Protein

Herring stresses the importance of protein in your diet. Protein is second only to water as the most plentiful substance in the body. It builds and maintains muscle tissue and also provides energy. Protein sources include beans and legumes, meat, poultry, fish, eggs and diary products. You should include protein with every meal.

Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates should be your main source of energy. Foods like brown rice, sweet potatoes, oats and other whole grains are slowly broken down into glucose to provide sustained energy for your fat-burning and muscle-building workouts. Limit your servings of complex carbohydrates to twice a day to accelerate fat loss. Fibrous carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables provide energy and fiber, which aid the elimination of waste, antioxidants, which scavenge exercise-induced free radicals, and vitamins and minerals, which are essential for an optimally functioning body.

Fats

Omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids and coconut oil play significant roles in the body's ability to metabolize fat and should be included in your diet. According to Patrick Holford, author of "The Optimum Nutrition Bible," omega 3 fats help control blood cholesterol and fat levels, improve metabolism and maintain water balance. Sources of these fats include cold-pressed oils derived from flax, hemp and pumpkin seeds. Fat loss expert Mike Geary highlights the benefits of coconut oil in his e-book, "The Far Burning Kitchen." It contains a unique saturated fat, medium chain triglycerides, which boosts exercise performance, is readily used by the body as energy and does not lead to accumulation of fat on the heart or arteries.

Water

Exercising to build muscle and burn fat will increase your need for water. To prevent dehydration and reduced exercise performance, drink about eight glasses of water a day. Water also plays a significant role in helping your body flush out toxins.