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<\/a>Obviously it doesn\u2019t work like that.\u00a0 The idea must have occurred to someone besides me, though.\u00a0 Scientists at Penn State recently published a study they did with rats.\u00a0 They sewed weights into little rat-sized vests that increased the animals\u2019 weight by 36%.\u00a0 They tested their muscles five days later and found that certain proteins that deal with muscle strength gain were present.\u00a0 The rats were getting stronger.<\/p>\nWhen they just made rats fatter by the same amount, though, there was no corresponding gain in muscle strength and the proteins weren’t there.\u00a0 It was as if the fat rats\u2019 muscles couldn\u2019t come to terms with the weight of the animal and didn\u2019t respond properly.<\/p>\n
So we know that lifting an arm that has five pounds of fat on it is not the same as lifting a five-pound dumbbell.\u00a0 Scientists don\u2019t know why — possibly because the fat cells are active little critters and send out lots of chemical messages. Some of those messages may be messing with the way muscles respond to weight.<\/p>\n
Dr. Schilder, who conducted the study, said they haven\u2019t figured out yet how this finding will help overweight people.\u00a0 He suggests, though, that it is just harder for overweight people to move around because their weight is too much for their muscles\u00a0 — and the muscles don\u2019t grow bigger to handle to it. \u00a0He suggested that maybe obese people should be encouraged to do easier, less stressful exercise until they have lost more of the weight.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if that helps much — but it does answer a question I\u2019ve wondered about.\u00a0 Fat doesn\u2019t give you a workout and doesn\u2019t make you have stronger muscles.<\/p>\n
Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n
Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why don\u2019t overweight people have big muscles?\u00a0 If a person is carrying around 50 lbs. of extra weight in fat, why isn\u2019t that like a super workout which burns lots of calories?\u00a0 \u00a0 Just lifting the weight out of a chair should build some muscles.\u00a0 It looks like a certain amount of fat would make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[315,314,313],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-helpful-tips","tag-muscle-strength","tag-penn-state-study","tag-rats"],"yoast_head":"\n
Why Fat Doesn't Make You Lean - Beyond Gorgeous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/12\/why-fat-doesnt-make-you-lean.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Fat Doesn't Make You Lean - Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why don\u2019t overweight people have big muscles?\u00a0 If a person is carrying around 50 lbs. of extra weight in fat, why isn\u2019t that like a super workout which burns lots of calories?\u00a0 \u00a0 Just lifting the weight out of a chair should build some muscles.\u00a0 It looks like a certain amount of fat would make…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/12\/why-fat-doesnt-make-you-lean.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-15T16:24:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/12\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n9-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sbrown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Fat Doesn't Make You Lean - 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<\/a>Obviously it doesn\u2019t work like that.\u00a0 The idea must have occurred to someone besides me, though.\u00a0 Scientists at Penn State recently published a study they did with rats.\u00a0 They sewed weights into little rat-sized vests that increased the animals\u2019 weight by 36%.\u00a0 They tested their muscles five days later and found that certain proteins that deal with muscle strength gain were present.\u00a0 The rats were getting stronger.<\/p>\n