“If I stop working out, will my muscle turn to fat?” I have had a lot of people ask me over the years about muscle, and whether or not it can turn into fat, either with age, or if they stop working out.
I am going to keep this explanation simple and straight to the point. This is not my opinion, this is science!
The Truth Revealed
Look at the picture above. The yellow chunk is fat tissue, while the red one is muscle. They are literally two different types of tissue. No matter how hard you try, you CANNOT turn one into the other, PERIOD!!!
What Can You Do? Now, you can shrink one and grow the other, which is usually the goal. Let’s take a quick look at how to do that.
You are born with a certain amount of fat tissue, and a certain amount of muscle tissue. When you eat junk, and you don’t exercise, the calories that your body does not burn are stored as fat. The more calories that you store up, the bigger your fat cells get. By eating healthy, and reducing the number of calories that you take in, your fat cells can actually shrink. They don’t go away, and they definitely DO NOT turn into muscle when you workout. They can shrink and they can grow, those are your options! Exercising burns calories, which, in addition to a proper diet, will maximize the calories that you are burning, shrinking fat cells even more, and now we can start looking at your muscles. But first, there are a ton of diets and workout programs out there. The easiest to follow one, especially if you struggle with nutrition, is The 21 Day Fix. Here is a quick look at it.
To Learn More, CLICK HERE For My 21 Day Fix Review
OK, we talked about if muscle can turn into fat. NO, IT CAN’T!!! Similarly, fat cannot turn into muscle. Remember, they are two completely different types of tissue. It would be like turning your lungs into a kidney, or your liver into a heart. It’s just not happening. However, just like you can change the size of your fat cells, you can also change the size of your muscles. This is a 2 part process. First you need to break down your muscle fibers. This is done by using them, AKA EXERCISE! When you workout, you actually create tears in your muscle fiber. Step 2 is the repair process. This is where your muscle repairs itself, and, assuming you are eating properly, you will build bigger, stronger muscles. Ladies, I know that many of you get scared when I talk about building muscle. You don’t want to bulk up. I interviewed competitive figure model Vide Savoie, and here is what she said about that.
“If you’re a women or teen that thinks this, it’s simply not true. Women dont have enough testosterone to make them that big. We just get toned. There is a big difference. So, if you’re one of those women that think that then get it out of your head. Weight lifting is excellent for you! My boyfriend and I both work in a gym. He is a personal trainer and he trains me. He is my motivation. I lift weights three times a week. My workouts are 45 min. max and on the off days I do no more than 20 minutes of cardio.”
It is typically women that I talk to that have the fear about muscle turning into fat. It doesn’t happen, so don’t be afraid to grab some weights and start lifting. If you are looking for a program to teach you how, CLICK HERE.
Let’s do a quick recap.
Can muscle turn into fat? NO!
Can fat turn into muscle? NO!
Remember, fat and muscle are different types of tissue, and one can’t turn into the other!
Have a nice day!
