Q: I'm to the point now that I don't want my body weight to change. I'd like to replace each pound of fat lost with a pound of muscle, but am not sure how. I guess I'll be monitoring my fat loss / lean gain more regularly now. Any suggestions?

A: Being able to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time is a myth. Let me explain.
There are several fundamental problems with the idea of "turning fat to muscle". First the obvious one - fat does not turn to muscle. You need to burn fat and build muscle. However, more importantly, these two processes can't really happen simultaneously.

To loose the fat, you need a calorie deficit. And conversely, to add muscle, you need a calorie surplus. The training methods to gain muscle are radically different from the ones used to loose fat.

The key is to loose maximum fat while retaining muscle in one phase and then gain maximum muscle while minimizing the fat gain in another phase.

When gaining muscle, invariably you will gain some fat at the same time. This is due to the high calorie diet you need to build muscle. To gain muscle, you must train with heavy weights to effectively break down muscle tissue and stimulate muscle growth. Furthermore, you must eat to re-build the muscle tissue, but not to eat in excess so that fat accumulates. During muscle building, you must have the proper protein available, limit your fat intake and limit your sugar intake so as not to store excess fat.

On the other hand when loosing fat, invariably you will loose some muscle in the process. This is due to the low calorie diet you need to burn fat. You must train with weights to maintain muscle mass and cardio to deplete your glycogen stores to shock your body into burning fat. As part of the fat loss process, you must limit the fat and sugar intake to enable your body to burn fat.

Although you have reached your ultimate weight goal, I would recommend that you continue to loose fat until your body fat is more or less where you want it. Then go in on a gaining phase where you add muscle until you are at your desired weight.

Keep in mind that in loosing body fat it comes off from everywhere on your body. With building muscle, you pick where you add it. Thus knowing these things, you can sculpt your body the way you want it to look.

Konrad