The Battle Between Muscle and Fat

The easiest way to describe the average person is ?skinny-fat?. This may sound like a contradiction. Why not just say ?fat-fat? or just ?skinny??

Why? Most people lose muscle each year of their life. So even though you may not look skinny, technically you are, at least when it comes to muscle.

Let?s look at a typical case. Without realizing it, the average person loses 6 pounds of muscle between the ages of 30 and 50. To put that in perspective, that?s about the same amount of muscle on your right arm.

Keep in mind; contrary to popular belief, muscle does not turn to fat. But lose it, and it will likely be replaced by fat over time, according to a study in the ?American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Trading muscle for fat not only makes you look flabby, but it also increases your pant size, even if you somehow manage to keep your scale weight the same. The reason behind this illusion is each pound of fat takes up 18 percent more space in your body than each pound of muscle.

This situation can get worse: Fat cells secrete hormones that signal your body to break down muscle tissue. So, the more fat you gain, the greater the risk for muscle loss over time. All of which creates a never-ending cycle that leads to even more fat and less muscle. The final result: ?skinny-fat?.

It is easy to see that weight gain can sneak up on so many people. This may seem like it happens overnight, but adding notches to your belt usually occurs over time. Some studies have shown that, on average, men gain about a pound of body weight annually from ages 25 to 45.

The average gain for women is only slightly less. An extra pound a year is hardly noticeable on a month-to-month basis, but one day, you might suddenly realize that you are carrying around an extra 20 pounds of flab since your high school days.

We have to ask ourselves why this now seems to be the norm, despite the fact that most Americans are more health conscious than ever? There might be a simple answer. It may that be the way you?ve been taught to eat and exercise is nearly the exact opposite of what science actually shows to be most effective: for both losing fat and building muscle. Most of the health and nutrition experts promote methods that are not supported by scientific research, or even by the most basic laws of human metabolism and physiology. To fully understand the reason we turn to the effects of glycogen.

Uncovering the Secret Reason You?re Fat

Glycogen is the name for carbohydrates that are stored in your muscles. To understand glycogen just picture it as a storage tank for sugar, the form of carbohydrate your body uses for fuel. In the same way you have fat stores, you also have sugar stores. Unlike fat, however, unlike fat stores, which are able to expand, your glycogen tank has a limited capacity to store sugar.

And there we see the problem: A full glycogen tank signals your body to use incoming carbohydrates for energy instead of your stored fat. If this is not done your glycogen tank will overflow. As a result, your body not only stops burning fat, it starts conserving it; just in case of starvation. This is one of the main reasons for our growing obesity problem. Most people?s diets are excessively high in carbohydrates; therefore, their glycogen levels are always at peak capacity. This in turn will not allow their bodies to use the stored fat for energy.

Another ramification is the serious health issue that comes with high glycogen levels. When excess carbohydrates from your diet can?t be stored as sugar in your glycogen tank, the overflow causes blood sugar to build up in your bloodstream. This is turn can cause chronically high blood sugar, which in turn can damage the large blood vessels of your heart and brain, and the small vessels of your kidneys and eyes. Your body then starts to send the overflow of sugar to your liver, where it is then converted to a blood fat known as triglycerides. Elevated triglycerides are a risk factor for heart disease and an early predictor of future diabetes. The bad news is that once sugar becomes triglycerides, of fat, it can be stored as fat. Don?t believe anyone if they tell carbohydrates cannot make you fat!

There are a lot of reasons why we have gotten so far off track: the misrepresentation of data from nutrition and exercise studies, good intentions gone bad, or valid scientific research that has been ignored or dismissed. In order to get back on course we need to understand exactly why much of what we have been told about diet and exercise is wrong.

How to Burn Fat When Exercising

Science shows you lose fat faster by exercising in the ?carb-burning? zone. This is when you are exercising hard, often going nearly all out for 30 to 60 seconds at a time. The reasons for this are simple. One, even though you burn a lower percentage of fat during this type of high-intensity exercise, the total amount of fat you burn is similar to that of light and moderate activity. This makes sense in that the harder you go, the more calories per minute you burn. So even though the percentage of fat you burn is smaller, it is in relation to a bigger number of total calories.

Two, if you primarily burn fat during exercise, you are automatically burning fewer carbohydrates. That means you are not significantly reducing your glycogen levels. And this diminishes you ability to burn fat. Suffice it to say, exercise in the ?carb-burning? zone, and you will deplete your glycogen tank. This allows you to burn more fat while you are sitting at your desk or lounging on the couch.

The upside is that the harder you exercise, the more glycogen you burn. Interestingly, German researchers reported this very same finding in 1934. Surprisingly, this is not new science. It is just a better interpretation of the science as it relates to fat loss and exercise.

There is much more to this story about the battle between muscle and fat. In my next article I will go into more detail about what to do to avoid weight gain due to fat. The types of foods that you should eat and the types you should avoid. This is not about turning fat into muscle. This is learning the difference between them and how to maintain muscle mass well reducing your chances at becoming overweight from fat.

Source: http://fat.ezinemark.com/the-battle-between-muscle-and-fat-7d38255111ae.html

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