Can You Turn Fat Into Muscle?

Another horrible fitness myth that is pretty common is the theory that you can turn fat directly into muscle. It is hard to say where a myth like this originated, but it surely had no scientific basis to support it. In order to gain muscle one must workout that specific muscle and supply your body with adequate calories and nutrients to properly repair that muscle to become bigger and stronger. To lose fat you have to consume less calories than you burn over a decent period of time. To suggest that the human body can take adipose tissue and directly covert it into muscle cells is a ridiculous statement that I hope nobody truly believes.


This myth may have been given some attention because those who are fat eat a lot more calories than they need therefore allowing them to put on muscle if they choose to workout. If that overweight person does start to lift weights they will be putting on some muscle as they will continue to eat more calories than they burn through the day. Once that person decides it’s time to lose weight they choose to eat fewer calories and slowly start revealing a muscular body. The same goes for the other way around. If a person who has lifted weights for a while and put on some mass decides to stop working out they usually keep eating as much as they did in the past. People will then assume that all the muscle is simply turning straight into fat. They are simply now packing on fat because they are not working out and instead of creating muscle they will add fat. At the other side a naturally skinny person does not eat a lot of calories so it might be harder for that person to put on muscle because they are not used to consuming enough calories to pack on some weight. It has nothing to do with the fact that they didn’t have a lot of fat to convert into muscle.

Fat cells (adipose cells) can be found under the skin as subcutaneous fat, around internal organs as visceral fat and even as yellow bone marrow. Fats can insulate, cushion organs, but its main role is to store energy. Fat cells, as you would assume, are composed of lipids. Fat cells are capable of producing the hormones leptin, resistin, and cytokine TNFa. Lipolysis (break down of fat) is done in your body to create more energy to be burned when you are not getting enough through your diet. The fatty acids that come from the breakdown of fat can be used to make glucose (gluconeogenesis) to use to fuel your body.

Muscle is contractile tissue that can be classified as skeletal, cardio and smooth muscle. The purpose of muscle is to produce force and in turn cause motion of some sort. Within muscle cells are myofibrils that contain sarcomeres which are made of actin and myosin. ATP is used in muscles to power the movement of myosin heads. Muscle can actually contain some fat in them as they will use that fat as an energy source if needed. Muscle can be broken down into amino acids to create glucose for our bodies to use as energy for body functions.

The point is that muscle and fat are two completely different types of cells and that your body can in no way convert one to the other. Your body cannot convert muscle into fat and you cannot convert fat into muscle. Those who may be overweight can put on muscle easier probably because they already eat enough calories for growth so the introduction of exercise will promote muscle growth. If you want to put on muscle workout properly, and eat enough calories to promote growth. You cannot eat fast food and other calorie dense foods for a month, put on fat, and then magically turn that into muscle.