Group: General Fitness & Exercise

General Fitness & Exercise
Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 382, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Body fat to spare

2005/08/05, 07:55 PM
Hello Everyone.
I am female, 5'6, 171 lbs with 32% body fat. I weight train for half an hour and then do 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Is there still danger of catabolizing the muscle that I am trying to gain/maintain? It's not like my body's going to run out of fat to burn for energy anytime soon.
Zenkei18
Zenkei18
Posts: 277
Joined: 2005/06/22
United States
2005/08/05, 08:35 PM
Your body would much rather break down lean tissue instead of fat to survive. To your body, at least in ancient times, excess lean muscle tissue than what you were born with was by no means necessary, whereas fat in many geographic locations was needed to insulate the body in colder climates.

Your body will try to break down lean muscle tissue before fat if it is readily available, the trick is to eat low carb foods so your body uses the fat for energy and make sure your foods have plenty of protein to maintain and possible build any lean muscle you already have.
2005/08/06, 12:00 AM
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the info.