The Funny Thing I Heard About Burning Fat Vs. Muscle In The Gym Last Week

January 16, 2012
Blog Author
Mike

The events of this story occurred last week while I was in one of my gym's studio rooms prepping to do some dumbbell lunges. I was doing my typical lower body stretches when these two guys walked in. They looked fairly young, probably in their low or mid 20's, both in average shape. Not overweight but not very well defined either. They walked to the opposite side of where I was to each grab a yoga mat and an exercise ball and their conversation began. It went something like this:

  • Guy #1: "So what should we do next after this?"
  • Guy #2: "Let's so some cardio, I want to trim down so I can have my muscles pop more."
  • Guy #1: "What do you want to do for cardio?"
  • Guy #2: "Let's hit up the treadmill."
  • Guy #1: "No dude, let's do the stepper. The treadmill will burn muscle and the stepper burns fat."

At this point I stopped listening to their conversation. I was very close to asking Guy #1 his reasoning behind his muscle vs. fat burning statement. In any event, I completed my dumbbell lunges and they were gone, probably on the stepper burning away fat but not muscle. Let's investigate why this guy's statement is wrong in so many ways.

The stepper and treadmill are both excellent machines for burning calories. They both offer a substantial benefit aside from calorie burn which is the ability to tone muscle. The repetitive nature of this kind of cardio equipment allow the muscles to contract hundreds of times a minute which is similar to weight lifting using the 'high rep, low weight' method. Both machines burn calories but the edge must be given to the treadmill as it can allow for a higher calorie per hour burn rate. So if both burn calories, why would the treadmill burn muscle while the stepper burns fat? It's simple: it doesn't.

Performing any activity from walking, to running, or even sleeping burns calories. When someone is trying to burn fat, they must burn through the easily available carbohydrates first, and then the body will attack the fat reserves for energy. The only time protein or "muscle" as this gentlemen stated would be used as energy is if someone were starving themselves and no other sources of energy were available for use. To be completely technical, even at this point the body would not use muscle as energy, it would use the protein required to build and maintain muscle as energy. Muscle loss or "burn" would occur only when the body does not have adequate amounts of protein available to build or repair muscle.

The world is full of people that "know" all about nutrition and exercise. I say this sarcastically as this is not the first time I have heard something silly come from the mouth of a fellow gym patron. I implore everyone to take what they hear spoken by friends, co-workers, or random people at the gym with a grain of salt. Be sure to perform your own research and analysis regarding anything you hear as rumors and myths run rampant in the fitness world.

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