Source: Camera Infinix HOT 20i, Canva and, Unsplash
This whole post would be over if I simply said that fat is a different tissue from muscle...but some of you need more than that to hold yourself because this is something you have been told from when you started working out and till now you are still riding on that information.1 2
I have heard it repeated in the gym. They say if you lift weights repeatedly you can change your muscles to fat.
Which usually sounds like a bonanza, "Lift weight repeatedly and stand the chance of changing your fat to muscle".
You never see the same sentiments in the market when people are buying meat. There would have been a way to physically change the fat tissue to muscle tissue somehow. Imagine if you went to the market you just spent time shaking the fat till it changed from fat to muscle.
The fact of the matter is that because they are different tissue they do not even form similarly. Fat is formed by different things and muscle is formed by different things. If I said there are some things that you will do to your plastic chair to make it your steel door...you'd be looking at me like "What the hell are you talking about?".
It is not particularly like this information is harmful to anyone per se but we just know that it is not the case. It is also important to hold this as a marker that whoever is educating you about fitness might not know exactly what the person is talking about when they say things like this.
That also does not mean that the person does not know what the person is saying at all. The person might not be a science-based fitness instructor and I find that though they may not be wrong...they just don't like to stay in their lane, cause they don't know their lane because the whole non-science-based fitness instructor thing is flawed...Fitness and health is a science.
I am writing this post so that non-scienced-based fitness instructors and people training can know exactly what happens when it looks like fat is being converted to muscle.
In The Gym
Camera Infinix HOT 20i
For your "fat to have converted to muscle" you probably have a cardio and strength training plan. Maybe for all 7 days of the week or maybe for 6 days or 5 days. Some people like to have rest days where they do cardio and to some others it's not a rest day if they do cardio. Find out what works for you!
To me, it depends on how hard you are going on those days. If your cardio intensity is very high then it will be very hard to convince you to not have a rest day and go 5 to 6 days a week.
The gym-bro term for this is "Maingaining" You are maintaining your weight while gaining muscle and losing fat. While doing this you will probably not see your weight on the scale change. That is fine...especially if what you are looking for is the aesthetics of being lean.
This TikToker explains this so well...it is why some people stop working out. The scale doesn't show it but you can see it in the mirror. You shouldn't be hyper-vigilant to the scale. Check your clothes and your energy levels at the gym.
You should also know that muscle has more density than fat. So losing fat and gaining muscle (especially as a newbie) will have you static on the scale.3
Also building muscles helps you to be faster while running, jump higher and increase your heart's activity...thereby doing more cardio. Some would argue that this is by a negligible amount...I don't think you should let that stop you.4
So long as you are not injuring yourself, you sleep well and you eat right...trust me you are in the right place.
What Happens Cellularly
Image by kjpargeter on Freepik
We have already gone through this when we said that muscle and fat are two different types of tissue. That should be enough to understand that they do not do the same thing to the substrate they are handed.
The first one is carbohydrates (the one we hate so much) when our muscles are handed over carbohydrates they oxidise them, breaking them to yield energy however if the muscles are given excess carbohydrates they send them to the liver where they are used to synthesise glycogen which is stored in the muscles or the liver.5
Fat or Adipose tissue does something else because it can not use carbohydrates as energy so it is taken to the liver and converted to fatty acids. This both increases the volume and number of adipocytes overall.6
Both the muscle and fat send carbs to the liver but the liver will preferentially handle either depending on different factors like exercise and the specific composition of your meal.7 8
Let's talk about the most beloved proteins.
When proteins reach the muscle they are broken down into amino acids, which are then used to synthesize muscle proteins (which happens more at ages less than 20), and then these proteins are used to grow myofibrils (muscle cells). The process can be stimulated by exercise.9
When Adipocytes (or fat cells) get hold of proteins they use them not only for their structural development but also for their secretory proteins. These adipokines are involved in inflammation. This is why you are more prone to infections when you have very low body fat percentages (around <5% in men and <10% in women).10
As we know too much of anything can be bad because Adipokines at higher levels however also lead to insulin resistance which contributes to why people who are over tend to have Diabetes Mellitus.11
Come And Collect Your Take Away
Old Zoomed in Picture of me
Transformation video from TikTok
Fat and Muscle are different tissues and do not convert from one to the other. It is a myth that needs to be done away with.
It does however appear to look as if you are converting your fat to muscles when you strenth train but what is happening is what the gym bros have always called "maingaining".
Fat and muscles do different thing with the food substances that we hand them. The difference is particularly clear when you look at what fat does with protein.
While keeping this myth in your mind will not lead to you resurrecting Hitler to be your gym buddy, it helps to know more about your body as you work your way through fitness.
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