A Weight Training Myth – Guest Post

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Hey everyone! Hope your week is going well! As of last night, I am two finals down and two (my hardest two…) to go!

Another guest post for you today! Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow. I’m sure your lives are empty without me… Today’s guest post is from Annette on Enjoy Your Healthy Life. I love her blog because she has such great fitness and nutrition tips! Be sure to check out her blog!

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Hey friends! What a fun opportunity for me to meet some more great people while Katie is rockin’ her finals at law school!

My name is Annette and I blog at EnjoyYourHealthyLife. If you want to know more about me, why I am passionate about what I do, what services I offer, and how much in love I am with my husband, feel free!

Anyways, I do teach fitness classes –such as BodyPUMP, Zumba, Core Cross Training, Pilates, and other weight training and full-body fitness classes– and I sure love that little side job (on top of being a health coach for a nationwide insurance company and running little FitnessPerks, LLC 🙂 ) !

While working with clients and meeting lots of people through my work I’ve noticed that there are a lot of misconceptions about weight lifting and fat loss out there, so I am here to dispel some of them. Let’s stop the lies, shall we?! 🙂 Enjoy!

While talking about exercise goals with a client a few years ago, we got on the topic of exercise and weight myths…..

 A Weight Training Myth

The weight training myth that is most heard (at least among those I have come in contact with) is this : “when someone stops strength training, his/her muscle mass turns to fat.”

That gets a big, fat FALSE.

Muscle tissue is totally different than fat tissue. This also means that a muscle cell (also known as a muscle fiber) can not turn into a fat cell, willy nilly. This is also true vice versa.

If the person’s daily caloric intake is more than what he/she needs, those calories will eventually end up as fat cells, thus increasing body fat tissue. This is NOTHING to do with the amount of muscle mass the person has.

However, because one pound of muscle tissue requires 3 times (3x!!!) more calories at rest than one pound of fat tissue, this translates into a fat-burning machine operating 24/7! All by having that muscle mass. Sweet, eh?

{To get muscle mass, weight training is needed. Active muscles stay active and ‘fat burn’ when they are used or trained. They atrophy, or decrease power, when not trained or used, and thus become ‘inactive.’}

(source)

Of course if that muscle mass decreases through disease, disuse, or injury, that fat-burning mechanism is decreased and body fat accumulates. It is also true that if more calories are eaten over and beyond what the person needs, more calories are converted to fat cells, and body fat accumulates.

So, if you ever hear someone say “my muscles are turning to fat,” you can now correct them–and tell them how to fix it. 🙂

The exercise myth (and other myths) come from people confusing the science facts with personal experience, biases, and ignorance. But now no longer–knowledge really is power!

Have a lovely day!

Have YOU ever heard of this myth before?? What types of things are YOU doing to keep up YOUR muscle?? 🙂