Does muscle turn to fat? They teach in school that it does!

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realworksuks

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I was talking to my sister today and she said that she learned in anatomy class that muscle turns to fat.

I've always thought that if you build a bunch of muscle and don't lift muscle just deteriorates and doesn't turn to fat.

Is this one of those issues that nobody knows yet? Not proven either way? Or what?

Edit: And if it's proven that it doesn't turn to fat, what happens to it?
 
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They are two separate things, no its a ridiculous statement and your sisters school if they really did teach that is a sad institution.
 
theleip said:
They are two separate things, no its a ridiculous statement and your sisters school if they really did teach that is a sad institution.
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Yeah.. I couldn't believe that she told me that because I thought it was proven.

Is it proven? What happens to muscle when you quit training it?
 
Yeah, it's probably one of those "stay healthy kids" speakers who doesn't know **** or dumbed it down for kiddies.

Just for recap. Muscle and fat are two different entities, not two different states (like water is liquid or solid). They do not change from one to the other. It would be like... steel, changing to key lime pie. can't happen
 
AZN_Dave said:
Yeah, it's probably one of those "stay healthy kids" speakers who doesn't know **** or dumbed it down for kiddies.

Just for recap. Muscle and fat are two different entities, not two different states (like water is liquid or solid). They do not change from one to the other. It would be like... steel, changing to key lime pie. can't happen
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exactly.. muscle and fat are different types of tissue! So they cant magically switch to one another.
 
realworksuks said:
Y
Is it proven? What happens to muscle when you quit training it?
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What do we call gaining muscle... Muscle Hypertrophy. What is the opposite of this? Muscle Atrophy.

Atrophy of the muscles occurs when it stops receiving signals to the nerves, in short you don't use them you lose them. It is also lost through protein degradation which is why protein synthesis and feeding the repair of muscle tissue is so important to maintain and build muscle mass.
 
HANG ON!!

firstly what is she learnig that stuff in anatomy.

Maybe the wording is wrong, the body wouldnt turn muscle into fat because the break down of muscle into energy which is the least prefered option for energy, would defeat the whole purpose of supply much needed energy...NOT turned into fat where the energy is unavailable.

They probably meant that excess protein can be turned into fat.
 
Eh, I'm not surprised that your sister was taught this. A co-worker told me the same thing and said he learned it in a college health class!
 
matt182 said:
HANG ON!!

firstly what is she learnig that stuff in anatomy.

Maybe the wording is wrong, the body wouldnt turn muscle into fat because the break down of muscle into energy which is the least prefered option for energy, would defeat the whole purpose of supply much needed energy...NOT turned into fat where the energy is unavailable.

They probably meant that excess protein can be turned into fat.
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Where do you get this stuff? I read that muscle is the first option that your body turns to if it gets hungry.
 
You get hungry all the time, thats just a signal to your brain for more food because your probably low on carbs or something.

Protein wasnt made specifically for energy. There is no protein in the body that is stored for energy, they all have their own specific roles such as muscle, heamoglobin, enzymes etc, so obviously the body would prefer not to disrupt protein as it currently serves thousands of vital functions.
 
now you guys know why noobs like us come to you guys and this site for help becouse we want the whole nine yards and no fakers^^ serioscly I'm tired of the school systems letting some 500lbs fat guy run gym.I honestly think the only reason why people sign up to be gym teachers is so they can yell at the kids.the only reason why America A.K.A us have so many obese kids in this country is becouse there aren't enough motivaters for the obese kids.they just get a "move fat ass" from someone.when someone is trying to fullfill a goal towards health or getting into shape your not sapposed to make the person feel terrible. this was why this site was created to help people get in shape,get more healthy,and push ta get stronger.We Are The Motivaters.^^
 
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realworksuks said:
Where do you get this stuff?

I ' read ' that muscle is the first option that your body turns to if it gets hungry.
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Where did you ' read ' that ? From somewhere else on this forum ?

Cause it's wrong.....protein / muscle tissue is never a " first option " of energy for your body.

Under normal circumstances your body's preferential fuel ( i.e in terms of proportion ) is fat - and thereafter - sugars. Protein is typically increased as a source of energy ( beyond what it would normally be...which is very little ) only under what might be considered ' atypical ' situations - i.e. in response to severe caloric deficits, as fuel source of increasing proportion for longer duration sessions of endurance cardio etc.
 
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Wrangell said:
Where did you ' read ' that ? From somewhere else on this forum ?

Cause it's wrong.....protein / muscle tissue is never a " first option " of energy for your body.

Under normal circumstances your body's preferential fuel ( i.e in terms of proportion ) is fat - and thereafter - sugars. Protein is typically increased as a source of energy ( beyond what it would normally be...which is very little ) only under what might be considered ' atypical ' situations - i.e. in response to severe caloric deficits, as fuel source of increasing proportion for longer duration sessions of endurance cardio etc.
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actually the body uses carbs as energy primarily. this is because its the easiest to "burn" and thus convert into energy.. there are 4 calories in 1 gram of a carb whereas there are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat..

now this means that carbs would be burnt in preference to fat for energy simply because it would take half the time to release the same amount of energy...all this is proportional to the amount of energy which can be burnt..

even if u stop or seriously limit ur carbohydrate intake, the body will first burn all stored carbs in the body.. in other words the glucose which has been converted to glycogen is first burnt.. not the fat.. of course for glycogen to be actually used as a source of energy it must be converted to glucose first.. when glucose is burnt, water is lost as well because 2.5 grams of water is attached to a gram of the carbohydrate.

after carbohydrates are burnt, protein is next in line..this means that the body uses muscles for energy as well.. this would basically leave the person looking skeleton-like.. when fat is lastly burnt, what difference would it make??what good, in terms of muscle building, can one do with the body? (I'm not even sure whether it should be called body!)
 
prash_rm said:
actually the body uses carbs as energy primarily. this is because its the easiest to "burn" and thus convert into energy.. there are 4 calories in 1 gram of a carb whereas there are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat..
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No it doesn't - at least not in the context I was referring to. . Read what I said ....


" Under normal circumstances your body's preferential fuel ( i.e in terms of proportion ) is fat - and thereafter - sugars "​


....so, as I'm sitting here typing - " i.e under normal circumstances " - I'm burning about 70% fat and 30% carbs as energy. Thus, fat is the preferential fuel we use day to day.

However, if I would exercise in steady state cardio and as intensity ramps up and I start going into oxygen deprivation, the % of fat use declines and the sugar use % ( i.e for energy ) increases as I go more anaerobic.

prash_rm said:
now this means that carbs would be burnt in preference to fat for energy simply because it would take half the time to release the same amount of energy...all this is proportional to the amount of energy which can be burnt.
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If ( during steady state cardio ) you have adequate oxygen to do it, your body burns fat to a larger degree than carbs - fat is the preferred fuel.. And, once the available ( or lack of ) oxygen is such that you can't burn fat anymore, then carbs become the preference.



prash_rm said:
even if u stop or seriously limit ur carbohydrate intake, the body will first burn all stored carbs in the body.. in other words the glucose which has been converted to glycogen is first burnt.
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Again, I'm talking about ' normal circumstances ' - i.e something like an intake of 55% +/- carbs, 25% +/- or so of fat and 20% +/- protein and and NOT a situation where people slash carbs i.e " seriously limit ur carbohydrate intake " to the extent that their body is somehow triggered to conserve fat.

To train for optimum performance in training hard - the bulk of your diet should be from carbs IMO - you would never slash carb intake during serious training for performance IMO

prash_rm said:
. not the fat.. of course for glycogen to be actually used as a source of energy it must be converted to glucose first.. when glucose is burnt, water is lost as well because 2.5 grams of water is attached to a gram of the carbohydrate
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A fact perhaps...but not sure how this is relevant fact to this discussion.

prash_rm said:
after carbohydrates are burnt, protein is next in line..this means that the body uses muscles for energy as well.. this would basically leave the person looking skeleton-like..

when fat is lastly burnt, what difference would it make??what good, in terms of muscle building, can one do with the body? (I'm not even sure whether it should be called body!)
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O.K....just so I'm clear on your views.

So, according to you the order of fuel being burned preferentially by your body goes ( in order )...

CARBS ----> PROTEIN ----> FAT ???​


So, when DOES the body use fat as the primary fuel during exercise ...in your view ?
 
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The whole our bodies store fat so easily is because it wants an emergency storage to take energy from later if times are bad. If muscle was burned before fat then it would be extremly hard to cut bodyfat and keep muscle mass (which is something people do time and time again) and you would lose more muscle than fat! This makes no sence if you just look at all the real life data out there.

The preffered way is: Crabs - fat - muscle/protein
However, that's just a rule of thumb or guideline (call it what you will) since it doesn't mean that the body will wait until there's 0 carbs left, then start burning fat, then when there's 0 fat left, start burning muscle. It doesn't work like that, the 3 kinda flow into eacother more.
 
Karky said:
The whole our bodies store fat so easily is because it wants an emergency storage to take energy from later if times are bad. If muscle was burned before fat then it would be extremly hard to cut bodyfat and keep muscle mass (which is something people do time and time again) and you would lose more muscle than fat! This makes no sence if you just look at all the real life data out there.

The preffered way is: Crabs - fat - muscle/protein

However, that's just a rule of thumb or guideline (call it what you will) since it doesn't mean that the body will wait until there's 0 carbs left, then start burning fat, then when there's 0 fat left, start burning muscle. It doesn't work like that, the 3 kinda flow into eacother more.
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Well said.

I'd simply add that my statement that fat is our body's preferred fuel source was more in the context of how our body is wired in terms of how it ' defaults ' to access energy ( assuming a normal circumstances and adequate diet / calories of course :)) for it's most basic needs - i.e BMR, RMR.

Which as I said before, within that context ... it's about 70% fat being burned at rest......which is why I said fat is your body's preferential fuel source.
 
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This is why I came to the conclusion that our bodies burn muscle if we skip meals or go into "starvation mode" from the book "Burn the Fat Feed The Muscle"

Intentionally
starving yourself to lose weight, or even innocently missing a single meal puts you in a
catabolic state – you literally eat your own muscle tissue - the muscle you worked so hard
in the gym to develop.

So everybody thinks that when you go catabolic your body feeds mainly on fat? I thought it fed mainly on muscle mass..
 
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