Does muscle turn into fat? And vice versa?

June 6, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

It doesn’t make sense. The math is all there:

You take in fewer calories than you burn, and you magically morph into a Bond girl.

Right?

(“Actually, I cut off all my fat with this knife…”)

Unfortunately, the answer to this misconception puts the “no” in Dr. No… Granted, it’s true that – to lose weight – we’ve gotta gobble less energy than we put out. However, it doesn’t end there. See, it’s not enough to just go on the fashion week diet (AKA celery sticks dipped in baby food) and let your only exercise be roaming Rodeo drive. Not if you wanna nix that jiggle in your middle. (Or buns. Or love handles.) And why the health not? Well, a common misconception’s that your muscle’s turning to fat. But the truth is, fat and muscle don’t turn into one another. It’s just that our habits feed one thing versus the other (fat cells versus muscle fibers). And, whatever we’re feeding, is what we’re seeing.

For instance, if you quit working out and decide that your miserable diet’s as far as you’re willing to go… guess which layer of body tissue you’re nurturing? That’s right. The body blubber will blubber up, faster than you can say, “Ummm, how many calories are in this Midnight Mocha?” (Granted, there may be less of it. But, trust, it’ll be visible.) On the contrary, if that diet of yours isn’t miserable (but balanced) and you are rocking your cardio and strengthening alike, guess which tissue wins? That’s right. That firm, enviable muscle you’ve been after will sheath your physique in schmexy armor.

See, what happens when you quit working out and still eat like a beast – is that the actual fat cells grow. They get bigger. They expand. And, as a result, so do you. (Cue to Dr. Oz visual demonstration moment in 3, 2, 1…) Imagine your body’s covered in a bunch of balloons. They start out nice’ n flat. But, slowly your bad diet’s been filling them up with lumpy pancake batter. That’s what happens on a crappy diet plus no working out. The fat cells fill. But, then, even if you do begin to eat a bit better, you might put a minus sign in front’ve your mass… yet it won’t fix the jiggle of those “balloons”, will it? Then, finally, if you up your game and suddenly munch a bunch’ve healthier stuff (balanced macros, including muscle building proteins) and hit the gym on the regular, those portly orbs slowly deflate… and so do you. Mind you, they don’t actually go anywhere. You don’t lose the fat cells themselves. But they get smaller. And, at the same time, ya know what comes to the surface to make its big debut, shoving out the blubber? That’s right. The coveted muscle you’ve been missing. That said, as you now know, the fat doesn’t actually go away. So, if you start slacking (like I did this week), guess what’ll show up again like an unwelcome relative on the holidays? That’s right. Auntie adipose.

So, no, my darlings. Muscle and fat – which’re two different tissues – don’t magically transmogrify into one another. But what can transmogrify is your body – depending on which tissue you’re building with your habits every day. In other words… if you want a hot body and don’t wanna bid your brawn adieu, do work and diet right, on the daily.

That’s your formula for firm weight loss.