chubbyairman,

That is definitely a myth.  Fat does not turn into muscle.  Instead, what happens when you put your body in a caloric deficit, is that your body burns fat.  In fact, when you are in a calorie deficit, it is actually almost impossible to gain muscle since your body actually needs more calories to build muscle. 

When trying to lose weight, we actually recommend that you try to include light strength training or resistance activities to your workout (of course talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise routine).  This is because when losing weight, it is important to try and retain the muscle you have.  Muscle is what drives the metabolism, so you want to make sure that you don't lose muscle which could then slow down your metabolism.

Sincerely,

Ali Auerbach, MS, RD

Registered Dietitian

I get the feeling this might be a myth, but I have heard that if you do strength training when you're overweight you will just convert your fat into muscle, so instead of being 200 pounds and flabby you'll be 200 pounds and bulky. I don't wanna be 200 pounds and bulky. I was told you shouldn't start strength training until you are withing 10 pounds of your goal.

is it true? is that why I'm losing weight so slowly? or is it just another weight loss myth?