One of the most common questions people ask me as a personal trainer is: “Hey Jam, can I turn the fat on my body into muscle?” To which I break the unfortunate truth to them. If your dad Joe walks out of the living room and your mum Jane walks into the room, did Joe magically transform into Jane? No, it’s impossible. Why? Because they’re two different people.

It’s for that same reason that it is scientifically, physiologically impossible to convert body fat into muscle tissue – they are two different types of cells, just like oil and water are two different types of liquids.

Fat cells are made up of triglycerides which are fatty acids that are stored as a layer of fat around your body whenever you consume more calories than you burn.

Muscle tissue is made up of amino acids that contain nitrogen. Since fat has no nitrogen, it can’t be transformed into muscle. Sadly body fat isn’t just a squishy pile of muscle waiting around to be transformed into a harder, leaner version of itself. You can’t turn potato gems into Tiffany diamonds.

You will have to lose fat and gain muscle using two separate and very different processes. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that you can lose fat and gain muscle at (almost) the same time. I say almost because as mentioned above, the process for losing fat is very different – almost the complete opposite – to gaining muscle. To lose fat you have to follow the most basic rule of energy balance, which is to burn more fuel (ie. calories) than you consume. So if you ate 2000 calories for the day, you have to burn 2500 to make any dent on your current body fat stores. Remember, going the wrong way on the energy balance scale is what got you into this problem in the first place, right? Eating 2500 calories while only burning 2000 of them (or less), day after day and year after year. Of course your body was going to store that excess 500 calories as fat tissue, x 365 days or however long this pattern went on for. It makes sense that now you have to do the process in reverse, for an extended period of time.

But Jam, you said you can lose fat and gain muscle at ALMOST the same time.  Is there a way to achieve both goals within a set period of time, without sacrificing or sabotaging the progress of one over the other?

Yes, there is a way you can make both happen within a reasonable amount of time, like say 2-3 months. Which I will explain more of in my next myth buster: “You can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time!”