There are a lot of interesting facts about fitness that the general public doesn’t know about. These are the facts you won’t hear about in a late night infomercial, but I think you will find them enlightening and intriguing.
I also want to create the impression that while we don’t know EVERYTHING about the science behind fat loss, muscle gain etc., we know a lot.
Here are 5 fitness facts that can make some great trivia questions:
Fitness Fact #1:
The only place fat is “burned” in your body is in the mitochondria
The mitochondria, which is the “powerhouse” of each cell that helps your body produce energy is the only place where fat is burned in your body (are you getting flashbacks to high school biology?). Assuming you’re following the tips on BuiltLean.com, fatty acids in your body will be transported to your mitochondria to undergo oxidation, which is a process where two-carbon molecules are repeatedly split apart from the fatty acid in a chemical reaction.
What if there was a way to increase the number of mitochondria in your cells so your body essentially becomes a larger fat burning furnace that more efficiently burns fat? Well, there is a simple way to increase the size AND number of mitochondria, but I’ll have to save that tidbit for a future post.
If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can check out a very dense primer on fat metabolism, which is the science behind fat loss here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid_metabolism.
Fitness Fact #2:
Muscles can only “Pull”
When I first learned this interesting factoid, I was confused as to how the heck this is possible. I mean, if you do pushups, aren’t your muscles pushing? Well, not really. Even during a pressing motion, your muscles contract, which pulls against a lever that ends up pushing. Muscle can contract and relax. That’s about it.
Fitness Fact #3:
The number of fat cells you have is constant
Researchers used to believe that as you gained fat, the number of fat cells in your body increased. In addition, they used to think that fat, or obese people had more fat cells than lean people. Well, we now know this is not the case from research out of Sweden (Spalding, K. L. et al. Nature advanced online publication, doi:10.1038/nature06902 – 2008).
Fat cells can only get bigger, or smaller, die, or be created, but their number stays constant throughout the span of your life. When someone “puts on fat”, the number of lipids within their fat cells increase, not the number of fat cells. We continually create new fat cells to replace those that are breaking down, at about 8% per year. It turns out fat, or obese people’s fat cells die at a faster rate and are created at an equally faster rate.
Fitness Fact #4
The number of muscle cells you have is constant
Similar to fat cells, researchers used to believe (some still do) in a concept called “hyperplasia” where muscle cells could split into two to create more muscle cells when subject to increased demand. No clear evidence exists that this is possible.
Muscle cells can only get bigger, known as hypertrophy through an increase in (1) sarcoplasm, which is the fluid in the muscle cell, like cytoplasm in a normal cell, or (2) the number of myofibrils within each muscle cell. There is a limit as to how large each muscle cell can grow, which has important implications for an exercise program focused on building muscle. There are also different types of muscle fibers (Type 1 & 2) that can increase in size depending on what rep ranges are used to train them and one’s nutrition.
Fitness Fact #5
Lactic acid does NOT cause the burn in your muscles, but helps the burn decrease
That burning sensation you feel in your muscles during intense exercise, referred to as “acidosis” is not caused by lactic acid build up. In fact, recent research has conclusively shown that lactic acid does not exist as an acid in the body, but exists in another form called “lactate”, which decreases the burning sensation, or acidosis in the muscles. Not only does lactate help decrease the burn in your muscles, but it’s an important fuel that can be converted in the liver to glucose, which is then used as an energy source. For a more information on lactic acid and its role in exercise, check out the “Exercise and Lactate” here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid.
Did you know any of these facts, or find any particularly interesting?
Thank you Marc, this article is very interesting and valuable!!
Wow, thank you for the food for thought!
Great information! I am looking forward to future posts.
so, just curious – what happens after liposuction? Assuming that the person maintains the same caloric load and metabolic output as before lipo, the body should still work on storing fat. Will it store in the fat cells left, or does the body recreate the fat cells that were sucked out in the abdomen or thighs?
@Holly Ferguson – I don’t know is the short answer. I came across an article that points to fat being stored in other areas of the body more than the areas that underwent liposuction http://www.liposuction4you.com/fat_grow_back.htm. At the end of the day, as you mention, more calories than one burns will lead to overall fat gain in those who underwent liposuction.
Interesting stuff. Do you have any references I can check out for fact #5?
@Zo – There are tons of references (too many to mention in my Essentials of Strength And Conditioning Textbook by the NSCA) but am having trouble finding something on pubmed.com. For a physiologist discussing lactic acid in more detail, check out this article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-lactic-acid-buil.