Can You Turn Fat into Muscle?

 

The short answer is no – fat does not get transformed into muscle.     Fat and muscle are two different tissues.    You can increase muscle mass while you decrease fat mass, but fat is not converted into muscle.  In the same way muscle cannot be converted into fat.    Fat is created whenever we take in excess calories from fat, protein, carbohydrate (or alcohol).    In this case the calories ultimately end up being converted to triglyceride and stored in fat cells.

 Each molecule of triglyceride (fat) consists of a carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  To get rid of a single molecule of triglyceride takes many enzymes and biochemical steps to completely oxidize fat.    The complete oxidation of 10 kg (22lbs) of fat requires 29kg of oxygen consumption and the production of 28 kg of carbon dioxide and 11 kg of water (H2O).   The carbon dioxide is excreted by the lungs while the water is excreted as urine, sweat, breath, tears or other bodily fluids.  

Building muscle is a whole different process.     Three key mechanisms are responsible for initiating muscle growth:

 Muscle Tension – all forms of resistance training force muscles to create tension to support and move the load.    When enough tension is created causes changes in the chemistry of the muscle allowing for growth factors to be secreted such as mTOR and satellite cell activation.   Tension can come from active tension where muscles actively contract and also from passive tension which is stretching which tends to occur during the lengthening (eccentric) phase of a resistance training exercise.    

 Active tension tends to result in muscle fibers becoming wider while passive tension can make them longer.

 Muscle Damage – damage to muscle cells causes a release of inflammatory chemicals and immune cells that activate satellite cells to come into action.     This also initiates muscle growth.

 Metabolic Stress – When you feel the “burn” or the “pump” when lifting weights, you are feeling the effects of metabolic stress.     Metabolic stress from high levels of anaerobic energy production helps contribute to muscle growth without necessarily increasing the size of the muscle.   This is from the addition of glycogen (multiple glucose units linked together in the muscle), which helps to swell the muscle.     This type of growth is often referred to as “Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy” and can increase the appearance of larger muscles without increasing muscle strength or the size of muscle fibers.    Increased fiber growth is referred to Myofibrillar Hypertrophy referring to the fact that myofibrils (muscle fibers) and growing.

 

In summary, for muscle building to occur you must force your muscles to adapt by creating stressors including increase tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress and then eating properly and resting to allow the muscles to recover and grow.  

 

How Strong Bones Rejuvenate the Mind and Body!

 

Scientists have discovered a hormone that helps your muscles stay stronger, your brain more alert and nimble, keeps your blood sugar under control, and makes your bones stronger.      

This hormone is called osteocalcin, and it is somewhat of a fountain of youth for your mind and body.  Bones create osteocalcin, and you can take steps to secrete more of it!

Osteocalcin tends to decrease as we age with the decline beginning in the thirties for woman and in the fifties for mean.   Scientists believe this decline is one of the main reasons older people lose mental and physical function.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center did animal tests and showed that injections of osteocalcin into older animals and showed that it resulted in dramatic improvements in muscle function to the level of younger animals.   The injections also improved animal brain functions like recall and learning to levels that rivaled younger animals.

Research from Europe and Australia showed that woman in their 70’s with the highest levels of osteocalcin had better mental skills that allow processing of information and decision making.

How to Increase Osteocalcin

The most important step to increasing osteocalcin in exercise!  Research from the Medical College of Georgia showed that running or walking twenty minutes per day increase osteocalcin.

But aerobic exercise is not the only way to increase osteocalcin levels – resistance training can also increase osteocalcin particularly if it is coupled with adequate intake of key minerals such as calcium.

Choline - An Essential Nutrient Many are Missing!

Choline is a nutrient needed for the brain to produce a key neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.  Acetylcholine is synthesized from choline and involved in memory, circadian rhythm and muscle control. Each of these specific functions contribute to the impact it has on cardiovascular health, liver diseases, neural tube defects and cognitive health.

There are synapses between nerves throughout the brain that rely on acetylcholine to communicate. Scientists have found using drugs that inhibit levels of enzymes that break down acetylcholine increases acetylcholine in the brain, and this has proven useful in the treatment of Alzheimer’s dementia.

Further many drugs, including most over the counter allergy medications, have an anticholinergic action meaning they cause decreases in acetylcholine.   Research has proven that regular intake of these medications increases the risk of dementia in people 55 years and older.  

To make matters worse studies have show that up to 90% of US Citizens have a choline deficiency.   When you combine deficient choline intake from diet with commonly used drugs that deplete acetylcholine you set-up the perfect storm for dementia!   The good news is that with targeted eating or supplementation it is easy to take in adequate choline levels to help prevent dementia!

There are several foods with high levels of choline.   The food with the highest level of choline is liver with a whopping 356mg per 3 ounces.   Another food with high levels is egg yolks.    Beef, seafood, and poultry are also good sources of choline.  Unfortunately, many of these foods, such as egg yolks, have been unfairly demonized and incorrectly connected with causing high blood cholesterol.    This is NOT the case! One egg yolk contains about 130mg of choline which is 25% - 30% of your daily requirement. 

For adults the daily requirement is 400mg for female and 545mg for males.

Choline Supplements

Another way to ensure adequate choline intake is to supplement.    There are four types of choline supplements.    Plain choline and choline bitartrate are the least expensive but do not support production of acetylcholine as well as DFP-choline aka citicoline or Alpha GPC choline.

 

Exercise and Covid

Learn about the recent published research proving that regular exercise helps prevent Covid Infection,  Covid Serious Illness, Covid Hospitalization, and Covid Deaths.     Also learn how regular exercise improves immune response to vaccination!