Ask the trainer

Question: Ryan, I currently weigh 125 lbs. I have pretty much been the same weight my entire adult life but over the past 3 years, my body has changed dramatically. Even though my weight gas stayed the same, my body has changed for the worse. I’m flabbier, my clothes don’t fit and I feel bad. How is this possible and how can I turn my fat into muscle?

Answer: Your situation is a very common one and it is not at all strange that your body has changed while the weight stayed the same. I don’t know your age but as we get older, our bodies naturally gain fat. What has probably happened is that over the past few years, you gained bodyfat due to diet and inactivity. You lost lean weight and gained fat weight. Since your total calories probably haven’t changed, your weight stayed the same while your body changed. A good way to look at this phenomenon is to consider this. 5 lbs of fat takes up about 4 times the surface area as 5 lbs of muscle. So if over time, you gain even 5 lbs of fat while losing 5 lbs of muscle, your body will look a lot different while maintaining the weight.

To answer the second part of your question, it’s a common misconception that one can turn fat into muscle. Unfortunately, these are two independent processes which tend to work together but need to be approached separately. The first part is losing fat weight and the second part is building lean weight. Losing fat weight takes a combination of three things. First, the diet needs to be healthy and low in fat and sugar. Second, is that you need cardiovascular activity. Third is that you need to build muscle, in order to increase your metabolism and burn more at rest. The second part, building lean weight or muscle, is achieved primarilly through resistence training with weights. Hope this helps and feel free to comment.