Weight Training

Will Fat turn to Muscle?

Dan's answer

Dan Wirth, MA, CSCS

Fat will not turn into muscle, and muscle will not turn into fat. Fat is made up of individual fat cells, and these fat cells can either increase in size (increasing your body fat) or decrease in size (decreasing your body fat) depending on several factors including nutrition and exercise.

Each muscle in your body is made up of individual cells called muscle fibers. With resistance exercise, you can increase the size of your muscle fibers, thereby increasing the size of your muscles (this is called hypertrophy). So with proper nutrition and exercise, you can decrease your fat and increase your muscle, but you are not turning one into another.