Excercise Bikes

[LiverpoolLou]

Hi all at AB. About 8 weeks ago, I started a low fat diet, the first 5 weeks where brilliant, I lost 11LBS, I went to my hairdressers, and yenno you get talking about this and that, and I said to my hairdresser, I go on my excercise bike every other night, just for light excercise, she said "Oh don't do that, you will turn the fat into muscle", I stopped using my exersise bike and for the last three weeks have stayed the same weight. I decided tonight to start again on it, which I did for 15 mins just to get started again. Can anyone tell me if what she said was true, because to be honest I was feeling brilliant the way I was, before she said that. Thanks all at AB, I know I'll get good advice, you all have always come up trumps for me before.

[Clanad]

Fat is stored excess calories and cannot be "turned into muscle".  It can be burned by the body as fuel though, just as muscle mass can increase with exercise.  The two are distinctly different and one cannot change into another.  Get on that bike an pedal!

[LiverpoolLou]

Thanks Clanad.........I'll be peddaling for england now.....:)

[natalie_1982]

Muscle does weigh more than fat, but as Clanad points out your burn fat and increase muscle.  However, I have always found it a more encouraging way to lose weight by measuring your waist/ bust/ thighs etc, insteadof weighing scales as it can disconcerting to know you may have only lost 1lb that week, yet can fit into a size smaller clothes!

At the end of the day, any exercise is better than no exercise and if you feel good about yourself then ignore what other people say and tell your hairdresser to stick to cutting hair!  ;-)

[Gevs1966]

Pay no attention, in my experience 90% of hairdressers are thick anyway. Get on that bike!!

[Englishbird]

As the others have said, I think your hairdresser has got her wires crossed.  What she's heard is that  Muscle weighs more than fat, and therefore if you're dieting and exercising the scales may not go down as quickly if you're building muscle.

The answer to this is certainly not to stop exercising.  As Natalie has said, the answer is to not be a slave to the scales, which (because of the above) are not always a true reflection of how much weight you've lost.

You were absolutely doing the right thing to start with and i'd politely suggest that your hairdresser sticks to cutting hair!!!!

[milly143]

Fat is fat. it doesn't turn into something else.

[Loosehead]

Keep up the cycling. Fat does not turn to muscle or vice versa. Aerobic exersize will not add muscle anyway, it will perhaps tone up what you've got. Hair dressers!?

[LiverpoolLou]

Thanks All, you are brilliant   :)