Is it true that muscle can turn into fat?
Sport And Fitness / / December 28, 2020
It is believed that by pumping up muscles and abandoning training, you can gain a lot of excess weight, or even even earn obesity. It is speculated that this is because muscle is converted to fat. And since there was a lot of muscle, then there will be a lot of fat. Such a statement did not arise from scratch, but the reason is actually quite different.
Why is this statement a lie
Muscle and fat are two fundamentally different tissues, and each has a different function. Muscle cells receive nerve impulses and contract, allowing our body to move. Fat cells store energy stores as fat.
They have a different structure, and not a single muscle cell can simply physically turn into fat.
With the same success, one can assume that some lymphocyte suddenly becomes a neuron and instead of protecting the body from viruses will begin to transmit nerve impulses. In this case, the scenario with the accumulation of fat after the termination of training is still possible, but the reason here is not at all in the fantastic conversion of tissues.
Why you can swim fat by stopping training
Building muscle implies a positive calorie balance - in other words, people eat more for it. At the same time, part of the consumed energy is spent on physical activity during training, and part on the maintenance of increased muscle mass.
When a person stops exercising but does not change the diet, the unspent energy is stored in fat cells. In the same time muscleleft without load decrease in volume.
Our body is geared towards conserving energy, and if muscle mass is not used, the body will not waste calories to maintain it.
This process is slow - the first changes beginExercise Break: How Long Does It Take to Lose Muscle Mass? 3-4 weeks after stopping training. However, if you do not resume activity, the body will gradually get rid of excess muscle baggage.
But even before the muscles shrink in volume, they can hide under a layer of accumulated fat, so that an athletic physique turns into a blurry figure with unaesthetic folds.
Can these changes be prevented?
Can keep normal weightif you adjust your diet to a new level of physical activity. In this case, the muscles will lose some in volume, but excess fat will not accumulate. In addition, if you change the type of load, for example, instead of strength training, introduce aerobic ones - jogging, triathlon, cardio sessions, you will not be able to gain excess fat even without reducing the calorie content of the diet.
So there is no point in being afraid of power loads. If you monitor your diet and adjust it in time to the level of physical activity, weight training will only benefit you.
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