You might have heard that lifting weights can help your metabolism, but a healthy diet with no caffeinated drinks or supplements is the key to increasing metabolism.
One pound of muscle burns approximately six calories daily, so adding 10 pounds over time would increase your metabolism by 60 extra calories.
Muscle Burns More Calories than Fat
Muscle cells require more energy to function efficiently than fat cells, meaning they burn more calories at rest than fat cells – leading to an increased basal metabolic rate and making people who possess lots of muscle more likely to maintain their weight while remaining considered “lean.” This explains why people carrying more muscle can maintain weight yet still be considered “lean.”
Claims that just one pound of muscle gain will significantly boost metabolism or transform your body into an efficient fat burner are false; in reality, building one pound takes time and hard work; most people can’t do this consistently without eating in excess calories.
Strength training will not only burn many calories during a workout but will also continue to burn them post-exercise through excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Muscle increases EPOC by burning more calories.
If you want to see significant increases in how many calories your body burns at rest, strength training and cardio should be included in an effective workout program. Don’t fall for claims that adding one pound of muscle will burn 30-50 extra calories daily — these claims aren’t accurate!
Muscle Builds Bone
Your metabolic rate increases as you have more muscles, and the greater your basal metabolic rate becomes. While adding muscle will certainly burn more calories at rest than fat, weight training alone cannot explain its effect on metabolic rates – only lean muscle contributes to that change.
Muscles and bones work together to move your body, but their strengths must be evenly balanced for proper function. If one muscle were significantly more substantial than the bone supporting it, the result would likely be broken bones from strain or cracks in its structure.
As your body builds stronger muscles, its strengthening mechanisms also strengthen supporting bones.
Muscles provide another vital function – cushioning bones from impact damage by acting as shock absorbers. As more muscles stretch and exert force onto bones to shield them from injury, more exercise can result in more excellent protection and fewer bone fractures among older adults.
This protective effect explains why more muscular fitness may reduce risk.
Studies have demonstrated that one of the best ways to build muscle in your bones is through full-body resistance exercises like squats, deadlifts, and push-ups.
Furthermore, they should be performed during your 30s and 40s when your body has the most potential to build both muscles and bone simultaneously.
Muscle Helps you Lose Weight
Muscle can help boost metabolism and burn more calories at rest, an effective weight-loss motivational strategy. But it’s important to realize that muscle may not increase your basal metabolic rate as much as some suggest.
Building muscle is not to be discounted as an effective calorie burner. Instead, it should be seen as part of any fitness plan paired with aerobic activity as an essential means of combatting metabolism decline, often associated with middle-age weight gain.
Muscle building and weight loss can be achieved with a well-structured training program consisting of high-intensity strength training sessions and activities to boost heart rate and eat nutritiously for muscle recovery and growth. A registered dietitian can assist you in finding out which approach will best serve your goals.
Muscle makes you Stronger
“No pain, no gain” also rings true in terms of muscle growth. Gaining muscles effectively requires pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone to promote positive adaptation in your body – resulting in stronger muscles with increased toning and endurance.
Your basal metabolic rate helps regulate the rate at which you burn off energy at rest and can assist with weight maintenance. With more muscle, this rate becomes even faster and helps maintain weight.
As your body accumulates muscle, your metabolism increases to maintain and repair it – burning more calories while at rest than exercising alone. Many find that as they increase strength and muscle mass, their scale number tends to decrease.
Conclusion
Researchers’ most recent research found that muscle index is a superior predictor of longevity compared to other conventional health markers. They studied over 4,000 healthy people aged 55 or above for over a decade.
They discovered those with higher muscle amounts had significantly lower mortality rates than those with the tiniest muscle.
Muscle impacts metabolism, yet many mislead us into thinking otherwise. Most regular exercisers will only gain a few pounds over a year, which doesn’t significantly change resting metabolic rates.