What Happens When You "BURN FAT" or "BUILD MUSCLE"?

I keep reading a lot of posts on Facebook lately about how happy people are with the results they're seeing. This is GREAT! One thing I want to make sure of though, is that people are clear about WHAT KIND of results they are actually seeing and WHAT CHANGES they are going through. It's important to know what's actually happening in your body when you're trying to ''burn fat'' or ''build muscle''. Without this kind of awareness, your long term effectiveness during a workout will be diminished. You can build muscle without lifting ''weights'' (ie: free weights/using machines), but you still need to strength train for muscle growth using SOME kind of weight (ie: kids, furniture, gallons of water, sand bags, pulling tires, pulling/pushing/lifting your own body weight,  etc.). 

Contrary to popular belief, fat cells do NOT "turn into muscle". As adults, we no longer go through the process of "Hyperplasia", an  increase in the amount of muscle cells we have in our bodies--this only occurs in childhood/adolescence. Instead, we go through a process called, "Hypertrophy", where the muscle cells themselves increase in size. 'Toning' your muscles is what happens when you BURN subcutaneous fat. Since your body fat percentage is lower, your muscle definition shows through. 

Also, interestingly enough, current research suggests that we don't actually add or subtract more fat cells from our bodies, instead, the scientific community asserts that the fat cells themselves lose or gain lipids within the actual cell nucleus which makes the cells themselves smaller or larger, respectively. That being said, just because you are starting to look ''toned'' doesn't mean you are, in fact, GAINING lean muscle mass.  It could just mean that you are lowering your overall body fat percentage. This, along with fluid loss or "water weight" can also account for staying at ''the same weight" but noticing changes in the way that your clothing fits.

All of this is one of the reasons that learning to tape/measure yourself is imperative during your journey of fat ''loss'' or muscle ''gain''. The scale CAN be a useful tool--especially if you have more than 50 pounds to lose. It's good to know your weight fluctuations, but it's too easy to allow the scale to become a Stalin-like dictator who orders you around on a day-to-day basis, adds to your self-doubt & sidetracks you from your goals. If you're uncomfortable measuring/taping yourself, find someone close to you who will learn to do it for you and take LOTS of pics in the same clothes standing in the same spot--you'll be much happier with your results and more motivated knowing that you're being productive during your efforts.

☼☼☼ ~Coach Lisa

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