People looking for secrets to building muscle often don’t realize the fat loss benefit of a weight training program. By increasing muscle mass and maintaining a steady calorie intake, you can experience fat loss at the same time. How did this happen?
Muscle needs more calories than fat
The basic principle underlying here is that your body has to expend more calories to maintain muscle cells than it does to maintain fat tissue. Fat tissue requires almost no additional energy burning to maintain itself. When you increase the amount of muscle mass in your body, you’re on your way to burning extra calories every day. The muscles you have need those calories to sustain themselves, and the body will provide those calories from whatever source there is.
More muscle mass = more calories burned
Having started a muscle training program, you may find that in the first month you will pick up 2-3lbs of muscle, maybe up to 5lbs of muscle depending on the intensity of your training. Each additional pound of muscle will consume 50 calories per day, 350 calories per week to maintain. If your calorie intake has stayed about the same, the only place your body can go to get the required calories is from stored fat. As your body uses that fat to maintain your muscles, you are reducing the amount of fat you have. By increasing your muscle mass, you end up losing fat because your body needs the energy stored in your fat cells to keep your muscle mass intact. This is actually kind of a silver lining in the muscle building secret.
Balance protein intake for muscle growth vs. fat burning
Now if you are trying to increase the size of your muscles and eating more food to ensure there is enough protein for your muscles, this could slow down the burning of additional fat because you are adding more calories to your diet. The key here would be to strike a balance between additional protein for muscle growth and continuing to burn fat to maintain muscle mass.
In short, the calories needed to maintain muscle mass are a key element in burning fat during a muscle-building program. The other aspect of a muscle building program in increasing muscle size that increases calorie consumption is that there is also a cardiovascular effect to exercise. The blood is pumping, the breathing is deep and full. By being subjected to these conditions, the body’s ability to break down fats and other types of tissues to provide energy is increased. This is another aspect of how gaining muscle mass can help you lose fat.
Keep this muscle-building secret in mind when starting your program, as well as those who have been involved with a program for a while. Focus on building muscle and fat loss will come from the increased energy needed to maintain muscle mass.