Does Muscle Burn Fat?
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Yes, it’s true, muscle does burn fat. But it is a lot less than what many people want you to believe. Because they read some numbers wrong.
Will Muscle Burn Fat?
I wager there’s a bunch of people thinking, whut, I built all this muscle, shouldn’t I be able to practically eat as much as I like, because it burns so many calories? Why do I still have all this flab? Actually why do I still get flabbier?
It’s because muscle mass burns calories, but fewer than many, many websites state as the correct answer:
Research For Your Perusal
Alrighty, here is the research I said I would link. Those people talking about 50 kcal being burned by one pound of muscle mass got their number from papers like this one here. Note that it talks about “FFM” – fat-free mass.
The seminal research paper that gave the very likely really correct answer of 7 kcal / lb of muscle mass is: Elia M., Organ and tissue contribution to metabolic rate (found in Kinney JM, Tucker HN, eds. Energy metabolism: tissue determinants and cellular corollaries. New York, NY: Raven Press, 1992:61–80). Unfortunately it isn’t available online, but there are numerous other papers that reference it. This one gives you a good bit of concrete data.
But Building Muscle Burns Fat?
The other way around: building muscle burns fat, but not really because the muscle is there. It’s rather because an intense 45 minute workout goes through 200-300 kcal like a hot knife through butter.
Of course, to actually benefit from that, you still have to have your calories under control. If more comes in than goes out, you can exercise to the end of days and it won’t make a difference on your fat deposits. Your muscles would be bigger, but still covered by a layer of flabby.
Picture courtesy of Lin Mei.
7 Comments
So much misinformation out there! What goes in your mouth is so important!
Absolutely!
I’ve given this matter of calorie expenditure a lot of study and thought over the years. Realistically, it is very difficult to calculate fat calorie expenditure based on total caloric intake because of variables such as cellular makeup, nutrient intake, physiological make up, level of physical training, and gut microbiota. (Google – David Brown unabsorbed calories)
Of course, muscle is always burning fat calories. Excerpts:
“During light to moderate aerobic exercise, such as jogging, stored fat provides 50 to 60 percent of the fuel.” (Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook-4th Edition – Page 111)
Studies of his muscles indicate that he’s burning about 80 percent fat and 20 percent glucose. Frank Shorter is running aerobically while running a mile in five minutes. (Smart Exercise: Burning Fat, Getting Fit – Page 43)
The highest rate of fat burning achieved by the cyclists in Carey’s study was 0.7 grams per minute. In fact, my natural fat burning rate was on par with the highest fat oxidation rate cited by Tim Noakes in “Lore of Running.” During the days of eating a high-fat diet, I reached a fat-burning rate of 1.2 grams per minute at Ironman pace, confirming the theory that a high-fat diet shifts your body’s reliance on fat for fuel, but my rate shifted back down to 0.8 grams per minute after two days of carbo loading. It seemed the protocol had no effect on me. (http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/06/nutrition/inside-triathlon-magazine-fat-burning-machine_31034)
Those are, however, under stress. When talking about 50 kcal being burned by 1 lb of muscle, these people implied it’s the RMR that benefits.
Nice to see someone spreading the correct information.
Yes, I have known this for quite a while 🙂
I found this one out the hard way. When I started doing P90X I did not exactly follow the diet program, because I figured I could eat normally and lose weight because I was doing all the exercise. Needless to say I did not exactly lose a lot of fat (did lose some) on the program, although I did gain plenty of muscle.
Well, at least one good thing came out of it! 🙂