can too much excersize really make your body eat your muscles?

Question

If so how does that work?

Answer 1

not in and of itself... it happens when you aren't eating enough food to keep up with your activities, particularly carbohydrates.

The point of eating carbohydrates is so that your body can break it down into it's fundamental sugars for energy, most specifially glucose. There are other basic sugars of course (fructose, galactose, etc), but glucose is the only sugar that is used by -all- your cells; think of sugar as currency in Europe with glucose as the Euro, fructose as the French franc, and galactose as the German mark. Fructose and galactose are only accepted in certain locations of the body, but glucose can be used everywhere.

Glucose is also the only sugar that can be used by the brain and the central nervous system... and it's the primary system, so the brain gets first dibs.

When you don't eat enough carbs, your brain still needs glucose... where can it turn? Muscles and Fat!! Glucose is composed of 6 Carbon atoms, 12 Hydrogen atoms, and 6 Oxygen atoms. To get Carbon for the glucose, the body breaks down the proteins into amino acids and fatty acids into separate carbon chains to remove the Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, which it can then use to 'construct' glucose.

There is another downside besides muscle loss; because of the chemical reagents, one of the by products are ketones. A ketone is an oxygen double bonded to a carbon with an alkyl(CH-, CH2-, CH3-) group on either side (Example, acetone: CH3-C=O-CH3). Ketones aren't good for the body...

I'm too tired to keep going. ^_^ hope this at least sheds some light

Answer 2

Yes! Actually, this happened to me a few months ago. When you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight. Muscle and fat tend to go off together and on together. So if you lose a lot of weight, you're probably going to lose a lot of muscle too.

More to the point of your question, if you are lifting weights, you breakdown the muscle and your body needs to build them up. But if it doesn't have sufficient protein and other resources, it can't do that and the broken down muscle is never restored.

If you run a lot, sooner or later you begin to wear down not only the fat, but also all of that muscle. That's why a marathon runner often has skinny skinny legs!

As with most things in life, you need to seek a good balance. If you are training hard, be sure to get enough calories to support your body's maintenance and repair functions!

FWIW, I was able to put the muscle back on in record time once I got my calories back up again and have since advanced gains.

Answer 3

?" Many other teenagers, besides Beach, are unaware of the hazards of fad diets due to media misconceptions and bogus workout mantras like "no pain, no gain."

Over-exercising rarely results in a perfectly sculpted six-pack or a modeling contract. The physical dangers of the disorder include less glamorous consequences like stress fractures, torn muscles, and malnutrition. Heart problems can even occur if an individual doesn't eat enough to sustain his or her workout. Furthermore, females can develop irregular periods, and males may experience a significant drop in their testosterone level.

As if those reasons aren't enough to stop teens from "running themselves into the ground," there are also extensive emotional dangers. Compulsively exercising is an addiction that can lead to an obsessive-compulsive disorder, an eating disorder, and a warped state of mind wherein only looks and performance matter.

Even though the Village People put a positive spin on how fun it is to stay at the "Y-M-C-A," working out more than once a day for extended periods of time is downright taxing on the body. For healthy alternatives, a teenager may benefit from the following tips: participate in physical activities that are enjoyable, not ones that are done as an obligation; don't attempt to exercise when one's body is in pain or severely tired; and drink plenty of water during the workout.

When you excercise, you are actually causing tiny tears in your muscle that heal themselves and get stringer, but if you excercise you will not get the chance to heal these tears. Plus you are burning soo many calories that your body panics because it is not getting enough and eats your muscle because muscles takes a lot of calories to maintain

Answer 4

No.

However, when you don't eat enough to fuel your muscles then your body will "eat" your muscles because your muscles require more energy than anything else for fuel. When you are not getting enough energy your body's survival reflex kicks in and dumps the most costly (muscle) thing it can so it can adapt to the lower supply of energy and nutrients.

However what does happen when you don't allow your muscles adequate time to heal and rest after a workout, you aren't gaining anything as the muscle fibers you tore/expanded during your workout have not had a chance to fully heal, so you are negating part of the effect of the first workout.

Don't worry, the "afterburn" of a weight workout lasts for up to 48hours after your workout (approximately).

Answer 5

If you don't eat your body will be forced to feed on muscle instead of feeding off of carbs for energy....if you love to exercise alot make sure that you are replenishing your body with what it wants for fuel like carbs and protein and to keep your muscle mass. That is why very thin people have no muscle....your body will naturally burn fuel from foods and if it doesn't have these foods it will start feeding off of those muscles that you work so hard for!EXERCISE ALL YOU WANT BUT MAKE SURE TO TREAT YOUR BODY WITH LOVE!

Answer 6

Yes, If you are not eating properly. If you under eat and then do a strenuous workout your body will run out of nutrients and then resort to lean muscle to produce fuel.

Proper nutrition is important for any training program.

Answer 7

Well yes it really can if you aren't eating enough .Your muscles have more nutrient's in the than fat does. I used to be anorexic and I learned the hard way.

Answer 8

no no you got it all wrong to much exircersize isn't bad for you its really good for your heart and your body so you can stay healthy

Answer 9

i dont no but i think so once i read a book called practice makes pain try ask.com

Answer 10

no it doesnt. read tips on exercises and more to help you on this site