Grandma's opinion, my wondering

[skuruza]

my grandma says that if you train a muscle, the fat in that area is replaced by muscle. like a stomach... if you train muscles on your stomach, the fat there will "go away". (lol had to say that:) )

anyway my question- is this true?? coz i do not know what to believe.

:banana:

[joey11223]

well kind, ur fat isnt turning into muscle, its just your fatis being used up because your bigger muscles need the energy. So muslce isnt replaces fat, you dont grow new muscles, but the fat is being used to produce more muscle tissue.

So... she kind of right, as in if you train loads then the fat around your stomach will disappear because the muslces around your stomach are using up energy in growing.

[Replicon]

Your grandma is wrong, sorry. Having more muscle mass means you burn more calories a day just sitting there, which may translate to fat loss, given the right eating habits. But there is no such thing as "spot reduction", and there is CERTAINLY no such thing as "fat turning into muscle". In fact, I think (not 100%) that once your fat cells form, they don't go away. They can get drained of fat, but the cell structure will stay there. The tissue is completely different, and for fat to "turn into" muscle, it would pretty much have to de-grow into a stem cell, and then reprogram itself as muscle. Which.. um... no.

Also, muscles don't use "the fat around them" - they use energy just like the rest of your body uses it - by grabbing whatever's available in your blood. So if you're out of blood-sugar, and are doing cardio, your body will start "burning fat" (i.e. turning it into basically glucose), injecting it into your blood, and feeding it to your muscles.

So DO lift weights, and DO interval training, but realize that you won't be losing fat from the specific areas you train. That's a good thing, when you think about it, because very few of us do a fully-balanced full body workout, so really, there would be a lot of deformed people out there :lol:.

[joey11223]

well i didnt mean physically take it, but they are causing your body to se up fat for energy as they require more since they are bigger and when theyare exrcising, so they are using the enrgy you stores as fat, so they are kinda using the fat:p

[Replicon]

They do, but not localized in the spot that's being used (i.e. doing situps won't focus fat loss on your belly, and doing bicep curls won't focus the fat loss to your arms).

[.:Rob:.]

Basically calories are energy, the more muscles you have the more calories are used up to keep you going. The more calories you use up the more fat you burn and the leaner you are.

[skuruza]

lol thought so... me and her have a littloe conflict because she says that its so, i say that its not so.

lol

[Replicon]

The latest theories are that the best way to burn fat is high intensity interval training. I'll gladly subscribe to this theory, cause HIIT gets you in great shape for martial arts anyway :D.