Will my muscles become fat when I stop working out?

I've heard it countless of times. "Oh you better not workout so much or drink so much protein, you'll turn fat once you stop working out." No other myth can be more frustrating than this. News flash; eating protein or having muscles doesn't make you fat after you stop working out, not working out makes you fat. Most people who mentioned this to me don't spend much time in the gym or care about their nutrition because "they don't want to be fat when they stop working out". Well let's clarify how large a misconception that is. 1. Fat and muscles are two entirely different types of cells

Fat cells and skeletal muscle cells are like apple and orange. You can't convert them to each other by some mingo magic. It's like how bone doesn't convert to muscle, or how fat doesn't convert to nerve cells. Do you see how illogical it sounds now. Interestingly enough, fat and muscles are similar in one way, that both "grow" predominantly by hypertrophy and not hyperplasia. This means that both fat and muscle cells enlarge rather than grow in number (we're talking about after puberty here). It is believed that at a certain age after puberty, the total number of fat cells in a body are fixed and will only grow or shrink in size after. This means that if you choose to workout and achieve significant hypertrophy, and then start to have a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle, the gain in body fat is a hypertrophy (growing) of fat cells and atrophy (shrinking) of skeletal muscle cells. Two separate processes occurring for two separate entities, so let's clarify that fat does NOT convert to muscle or vice versa. 2. Protein dislikes to be converted to body fat Some have told me drinking protein shakes will make you fat if you don't work out. I've even gotten looks and questions when I take a protein shake in the day given I didn't work out. Let's clarify this issue. A protein shake is a supplement to your diet, to ensure that you have enough protein ingested for the day. As long as I need to top up that protein, I can get it either through meals or supplements. You don't stare at a guy for eating chicken rice without working out either. Protein also hardly gets converted to fat unless certain circumstances. In an extremely inefficient form of energy production (given no other way of achieving energy), the amino acids broken down from protein can convert to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. If this glucose is not used up for energy, alas, it converts to body fat for storage through a process called de novo lipogenesis. This is an extremely inefficient process and usually gluconeogenesis only occurs when the body is deprived of glycogen stores and desperately needs it. If the body desperately needs it, do you think it'll have left over to store as body fat anyway? Bulk of excess protein will be secreted through waste. The only time you want to avoid high protein, is when you're on a glycogen depriving diet, like ketogenesis, because any chance of gluconeogenesis, in a reasonable amount, can knock you of ketosis but that's a topic for another day.

3. Skeletal muscle is a huge player in increasing metabolism This is so important for the people who do not recognize the importance of muscles. More muscle mass means higher base metabolic rate. That means to just keep those muscles present, your body passively burns more calories. Guess what that means, more calories means more fat burning, and more food allowed in your diet. This also explains why frequent gym goers who suddenly turn sedentary start to become fat. Having been able to consume so much food while they were active, many continue to consume the same amount while inactive. The calories from the diet are not burned off, leading to building up of body fat. As the body becomes inactive, muscles will start to atrophy as well, as these muscles take up energy and the body tries to preserve energy. Muscular atrophy leads to energy preservation in the form of lower metabolism. Combine this with the same large diet and you get the fat transformation. All these misconceptions are sadly keeping people away from weightlifting and exercising because the significance of working out and maintaining a healthy amount of muscle is not often understood. Obesity isn't a joke. Apart from its image, it brings about cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Stop waiting to workout the next day and start acting now. Contact me for personal training and enquiries. (: - Jonas Ng, Fitness Trainer

#weightloss #muscleturntofat #mythbusting #obesity #stopworkingout