Burned muscles = lose cells or just cell size?

How to prevent unwanted weightloss, and/or even gain muscles
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johndela1
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Burned muscles = lose cells or just cell size?

Post by johndela1 »

when muscle is burned do you lose cells or do they just shrink?
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RRM
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Post by RRM »

johndela1 wrote:when muscle is burned do you lose cells or do they just shrink?
Cells are composed of proteins. Muscle cell volume is determined by the amount of water, glycogen and creatine inside the cell.
So, both the volume and number will decrease if you burn muscle while being physically active (using both proteins and glycogen). While being physically inactive, only the number of cells will go down (using only the protein for glucose).
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Post by johndela1 »

If you lose muscle cell size, that can be restored. But if you loose muscle cells can they be restored?

For example, If you took someone who was starved as a prisoner of war and had lost lots of muscle. Could they get back to the way they where if they started eating normally and gave themselves time? or would they always have less muscle cells that where just bigger?


I am under the impression that muscles cells can't be gained, only the size can get larger.
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Post by RRM »

johndela1 wrote:If you lose muscle cell size, that can be restored. But if you loose muscle cells can they be restored?
Sure.
For example, If you took someone who was starved as a prisoner of war and had lost lots of muscle. Could they get back to the way they where
Yes.
I am under the impression that muscles cells can't be gained, only the size can get larger.
Thats true under normal conditions, but not when the number has decreased for some reason. For example: you cannot create extra skin cells, but when the number of skin cells has decreased due to a chemical treatment, you can very well get back to having normal skin cell numbers.
So, a would be bodybuilder cannot gain extra muscle cells, but the prisoner of war can.
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Post by avalon »

If you want a clear visual of this, rent 'The Machinist' then rent 'Batman Begins' Same actor.

If you haven't seen these, you'll see what I mean.
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Post by johndela1 »

avalon wrote:If you want a clear visual of this, rent 'The Machinist' then rent 'Batman Begins' Same actor.

If you haven't seen these, you'll see what I mean.
Yes, I have seen it! It is amazing how much weight that guy lost, I even did research to see what he did. I vaguely remember reading that he lived on a can of tuna and an apple for his daily intake. That would be really hard to do without taking amphetamines or other weight loss drugs to kill your appetite.

I figured he lost many cells, then just simply made his existing cells larger. I wasn't in doubt that someone who was starved couldnt' get big, but thought that they couldn't get back to the same muscle cell count (which doesn't imply small or big).
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Post by avalon »

Funny John! I also did research on it. :D
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Post by RRM »

Actually, we stimulate muscle cell renewal by destroying some through exercise.
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