Muscle Doesn’t Turn Into Fat
Many many years ago, someone told me that if you kept bulking up and then stopped, all of your muscles would be converted into fat. That’s right, muscles that were not used would magically turn into fat.
Wrong.
Wrong and a bit insulting to one’s intelligence I might add. Muscle and fat are two entirely different tissues and there’s no way one could convert itself into the other, in either direction, so the mere idea of this is ludicrous.
How did this crazy myth come about? Likely as the result of poor conclusions made from observation. People who lift a lot tend to consume calories. When you stop lifting your muscles will begin to atrophy and the higher caloric levels, if they stay that way, will contribute to more fat in the body. Muscles shrink, fat stores increase, it looks, superficially, as though muscles as turned into fat.
One Person has left comments on this post
Jul 3, 2008 - 03:07:35As you say it’s one of those ‘facts’ that so many people seem to believe without really investigating it any further. There are loads of examples like this when it comes to diets and nutrition – with the wealth of information available today through the Internet and the numerous magazines (although many of these contradict themselves and each other) there’s really no excuse to not be as up to speed as possible.