Is it true that … muscle turns into fat if you stop working out?

If you take a break from the gym you may lose muscle and gain fat, but it isn’t as simple as one turning into the other ‘This is not true,” says Prof Leigh Breen, a specialist in muscle physiology at the University of Leicester.

But it’s a statement he hears a lot, particularly from people who have taken a long break from exercise.

“They’ll often refer to the notion that their muscles have ‘softened’ or don’t feel as toned.” The reality is that there’s no biochemistry linking the two types of tissue.

Muscle and fat are distinct.

“There’s no known process in the human body that would support muscle turning into fat, or vice versa,” says Breen.

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