From Stay Puffed to Hercules all at the same time?

Yesterday I was watching The Biggest Loser at a friends house. There was a moment when one contestant being weighed gave the excuse that she was turning fat into muscle which is why she isn’t losing as much weight as the other contestants. The trainers freaked out and said that it was untrue and she was just making excuses.

One of our friends asked if that was true, if you can’t gain muscle while losing fat? Or rather can you “turn fat into muscle”?

Unfortunately this is impossible. To burn fat you need to be in a negative caloric state. In other words you need to be ingesting fewer calories than you are expending. Through this process your body utilizes fat as an energy source by breaking tri-glycerides (fat) into it’s four basic components, glycerol and fatty acids. This reaction is called Lipolysis.
Glycerol follows the glycolytic pathway (glycolysis). During this process it is converted into pyruvic acid. For entry into the Krebs Cycle, the pyruvic acid must be converted to acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA then enters the krebs cycle and forms ATP. Fatty acids are converted into Acetyl CoA via a process called beta-oxidation. During this process the fatty acid chains are broken apart, forming two acetic acid molecules. They then become acetyl CoA which can enter the krebs cycle and become ATP.

Here’s the kicker, in order for you to build muscle you need to be ingesting extra calories. Your body cannot make something out of nothing. Skeletal muscle has cells surrounding each muscle fiber called satellite cells. Satellite cells function to facilitate growth, maintenance and repair of damaged skeletal muscle tissue. Usually these cells are inactive, but they become excited when the muscle fiber receives any form of damage, such as from resistance training. Especially in an overloaded state. This satellite cell activation period lasts up to 48 hours after the trauma. There are a number of other reactions that occur during this trauma period. The immune system causes a sequence of events in response to the injury of the skeletal muscle. Macrophages move to the injury site and secrete cytokines, growth factors and other substances. This is called phagocytosis. Cytokines stimulate the arrival of lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, and other healer cells to the injury site to repair the injured tissue. Growth factors stimulate the division and differentiation of a particular type of cell. With skeletal muscle hypertrophy, growth factors involved are: insulin-like growth factor (IGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Hormones such as testosterone help to increase protein synthesis which leads to hypertrophy. This whole process requires a significant amount of energy to take place. Without the appropriate energy there can be no growth in the muscles.

So the trainers were absolutely right. No muscle gained in a negative caloric environment. Which is why when an athlete asks how to gain muscle mass you tell them "EAT EAT EAT EAT…"

Now this doesn’t mean eat anything, stick to high protein diets with adequate carbohydrates, dairy proteins and vegetables. Also no alcohol but more on that later…

-SM