Does Muscle Turn Into Fat When You Stop Exercising?
Maintaining muscle mass is something that requires constant exercise. If you suddenly stop working out, you will lose muscle and gain fat. However, this is not because your muscle has converted into fat – muscle and fat are two different types of tissue that cannot turn into one another.
So what is happening when you stop exercising? This post explains what happens to muscle and fat when you stop exercising, and what you can do to maintain it if you can no longer work out.
What happens to muscle when you stop exercising
If muscles are not regularly used, they will start to waste away. Your body no longer sees them as important, and so stop fuelling them with energy. This is known as muscle atrophy.
If you use your muscles every day, it may only take a few days for muscles to start wasting away. However, you won’t see any serious muscle loss unless it’s a few weeks or months. Long-term sickness and injuries are common reasons for this. However, you could also experience muscle atrophy after quitting a physical job or quitting a sport that you were previously very passionate about.
Why do people gain fat when they stop exercising
People gain fat when they stop exercising largely because they continue to consume the same amount of calories. If you’re not exercising, you’re not burning the same amount of calories. As a result, the calories that would have been converted into energy end up being stored as fat cells.
This is why it’s important to adjust your diet if you suddenly stop exercising – those several hundred extra calories are going to go straight to your waistline.
How to stop weight gain after stopping exercise
If you are no longer exercising as regularly as you were, it could be important that you reduce your calorie intake. This can be tough as you’re likely to be used to eating a certain amount of food per day, however it is the only way to stop you from gaining fat if you’re not exercising.
This is known as cutting. Just be wary that a cutting diet could reduce your muscle mass if you are also not exercising. To maintain muscle mass but reduce fat, you need to keep exercising. This is something that bodybuilders often do when cutting for competitions.
How to stop muscle loss after stopping exercise
Unfortunately, you can’t maintain mass unless you are continuing to exercise your muscles. The best thing you can do to reduce muscle atrophy is to try to keep your muscles active, even if you’re only gently exercising them.Regular exercise may not be possible if you’ve got an injury, however you may be able to still engage in low impact exercises like yoga or swimming. These can keep muscles working without risk of straining an injury, reducing atrophy from kicking in. You can also continue to train around injuries – keeping other muscles strong will help support those muscles that you cannot train and delay any atrophy. Just be sure to listen to medical advice as to which activities you can still do – if a doctor recommends complete rest, it’s best to listen to them.
