Fat into Muscle. Myth or fact?
When a client says they want to turn their fat into muscle what they are really saying is that they want to lose fat and gain muscle!
Now, there are really two goals in that sentence;
1. Reduce fat
2. Gain muscle.
This is a great goal and losing fat and gaining muscle is the fastest way to improve your body composition. But can it be done at the same time? Well the question is what you need to do to:
1. Loose fat
2. Gain muscle
To lose fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit.
For muscle gain, you need to be in a caloric surplus.
Weight gain or weight loss is essentially calories in vs calories out. When we burn more than what we consume, we lose weight & when we consume more than what we burn, we gain weight!
So you can see that these two goals are in opposition to each other and after 7,500 DEXA scans we know that for long-term body composition changes it is best to lose fat first and then build muscle! So how many calories do I need to be consuming to lose fat, and how many calories do I need to gain muscle? Well, this is a very individualised and person-specific question.
Factors that affect your ability to lose fat and to gain muscle, include:
- your age
- amount of lean tissue mass
- hormonal profile
- gut health
- visceral fat levels
- current fitness levels and
- your gender
The most accurate and reliable method to understand your metabolism is with a “Metabolic test”. This test takes the guesswork out! It measures your metabolism accurately, based on where you are at today! It’s quick and easy and the results are given to you on the spot.
To summarise. You cannot directly convert fat into muscle (or muscle to fat) and the best way to improve your body composition is to know exactly how many calories to eat for fat loss and how many calories to eat for muscle gain. The best way to know this is to come in and get a metabolic test, and have your results explained with one of our sports scientists at Body Measure.
