Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bodybuilding legend and cinematic icon, tackles a question he says he hears all the time: Does muscle turn into fat?
In a recent edition of his Pump Club Newsletter, Arnold explains that muscle and fat are two different kinds of tissue. One does not become the other, ever. But he acknowledges people feel softer and weaker as they age, and the mirror doesn't lie.
Arnold points to two separate processes happening at the same time. First, as we age, muscle mass naturally decreases if not trained effectively. Second, fat tissue moves into the muscle itself, threading between the fibers. This makes it appear that muscle turned to fat, but in reality, muscle degraded and made space for fat to accumulate.
The good news: The process can be slowed and steered in the right direction with the same habits that built the muscle in the first place.
Arnold prescribes four key tips to prevent muscle loss:
- Lift weights two to three times per week
- Add intensity, speed, and power to your reps
- Eat plenty of protein: at least 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, up to 2.2 g/kg for the highly active
- Move more every day to push back on fat creeping into muscle
He encourages starting now, noting that the response to training shrinks a little with age, which is an argument for starting sooner, not that it stops working. The evidence runs all the way into the nineties.