Can Muscle Turn To Fat?: "Can Muscle Turn To Fat?

By Steve Baldwin

Posted on NaturalStrength.com on June 20, 1999

Dear Mr. Baldwin,

I have enjoyed particpating in strength training since 1992. I love being strong and appreciate what strength training has done for my appearance. My husband, who works in the medical field, claims that if I stop training my hard earned muscle will turn to fat. Is there any truth to this?

Leah Stewart

Dear Ms. Stewart,

Thanks for writing. Muscle turning to fat is a long time myth that continues to endure. Muscle and fat are distinctly different tissues. Muscle tissue is approximately 70 percent water. Conversely fat is over 70 percent fat with less than 25 percent water. A pound of muscle contains under 700 calories whereas a pound of fat will yield 3500 calories. In addition a pound of muscle is approximately 18 percent smaller by volume than a pound of fat.

Just as wood cannot turn to iron, muscle cannot turn to fat. Dr. James A. Peterson, Dr. Cedric X. Bryant and Susan L. Peterson use a great analogy to explain away this persuasive myth in their book, Strength Training For Women (1995-Human Kinetics). The explanation goes like this: 'If you don't use a muscle, it will literally waste (atrophy) away. When someone has a cast removed from a leg that had been broken, the unused leg muscles look smaller than they were before the injury. If muscle turned to fat, you would see a 'fat ball' when the cast was removed, not atrophied leg muscles.

I sincerely hope that you will never have to stop your strength training program. If for some reason you do have to stop don't worry about your muscles turning to fat. It is not going to happen.

Sincerely, Steve Baldwin"