Quick ‘notes style’ post today as I need to get away from this computer and get some shopping done:
MUSCLE and your METABOLISM.
1 pound of muscle burns about 5 Calories in a 24 hour period at rest.
Not 50.
Not even 10-12 like commonly stated.
So why the confusion?
Well, if we look at the Katch-McCardle Formula (used for calculating a persons metabolic rate) we see that:
Our daily metabolic rate can be calculated as “Calories burned in a 24 hour period = 370 + (21.6 X LBM(kg))”
Which leads many of people to think that a kilogram of Muscle burns 21.6 Calories in a 24 hour period.
So a pound must burn about 10 Calories right? (21.6 divided by 2.2)
Well not so fast…
As I’ve been saying for a long time now, a pound of Lean Body Mass does NOT mean a pound of muscle.
It includes everything else in your body that is NOT FAT.
Which means this calculation includes other HIGHLY metabolic tissues like your liver, heart and viscera.
But when you are adding Lean Mass from resistance training you are not adding mass to your liver etc, only muscle mass.
And even though you have lots of muscle compared to organs they only share about 50% of the metabolic work.
Meaning, for every pound of muscle you gain through working out, you can expect about an extra 5 calories being burned at rest over 24 hours.
Bottom line – Use your diet to burn fat, because adding muscle to boost your metabolism may not work quite as well as you were told/hoping it would.
BP
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Another great post!!! I fell into the trap of believing that since I had more muscle I could eat a whole lot more…now i am paying the price and am now working on creating good eating habits inorder to eat less.
In the past I tried to use this as an excuse – I am working out and building muscle so I probably can eat more. It wasn’t until I really focused on calories that I began to really show results.
Brad I really enjoyed your book How Much Protein?
I have been thinking about buying your book Eat Stop Eat, and there is only one thing stopping me from it, and that is, for me it seems to be all about losing weight. I am trying to gain weight and increase muscle mass, so, is the Eat Stop Eat method appropriate for that?
Hi Brad,
> If muscle burns such a small amount of additional calories how on
> earth does resistance training help to maintain metabolism? I
> thought it had to do with muscle. Possibly it is the actual
> training itself?
> Dina
citations?
Anr,
Quick post while sitting in a mall, As much as I love science, I don’t carry it with me wherever I go
Which part specifically, I’m assuming the heterogeneity of LBM?
B
Hi Dina,
Point of the post certainly wasn’t to say that skeletal muscle isn’t important, as it definitely is, it’s just not the numbers that people typically quote.
Resistance training – I think we fill find that it has a lot to do with maintaining proper Amino Acid Flux. AA moving from your muscles to your organs and vice versa for use. Also, while gaining LBM has a small effect, Losing it in large quantities is still not a good idea, especially while we age. And since it most trials on resistance training and LBM people don’t lose LBM, this means the effect may go beyond skeletal muscle.
Finally, these measurements are at rest, and since muscle is still weight, the act of moving it around all day will inflate that 5 Calorie number, not by a massive amount, but it would still have an effect.
Consider the old equation used to determine calories used moving (1 Kcal per every Kilogram moved a kilometer)…5 extra pounds of muscle during a 5 kilometer walk would be an extra 10ish Calories.
So there definitely is an effect, but not enough to make it so adding 10 pounds of muscle means you can have an extra slice of pizza every day.
I think bottom line is the actual ACT of working out is just as important in my eyes as the increases in skeletal muscle that comes from it.
B
I think you’d find Eat Stop Eat a little bit off topic, it doesn’t really cover weight gain in anyway.
B
Me too.
Great post Brad. Thanks for clearing this up for me.
tyron
This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions that I’ve ever heard of, in relation to fitness and health!
I
Thanks a lot for clarifying that out Brad !
Brad,
I am by no mean an expert on this subject but something does not add up for me. I would like you to explain something for me.
How do people track how much muscle they have gained? Current lean muscle minus previous lean muscle mass? The difference would tell them how much muscle they have added.
If this is true then adding 1 lbs of muscle would increase your lean body mass by 1 lbs? In return your daily metabolic rate would got up by 10 calories for every pound of lean muscle mass or muscle you gain according to the formula you mentioned. What am I missing?
Thanks!
[...] Do you know how many calories a pound of muscle burns per day? E: A nickel. A: FIFTY! If you put on ten pounds of muscle, you burn an extra 500 calories a day at [...]
Brad Pilon Blog – How Many Calories Does a Pound of Muscle Actually Burn?…
Brad Pilon Blog – As Ive been saying for a long time now, a pound of Lean Body Mass does NOT mean a pound of muscle. It includes everything else in your body that is NOT FAT….
I think you are wrong Brad.
Take 2 hypothetical males of the same height and frame size. 1st guy(thin) weighs 60kgs and has 6% body fat.
2nd guy(muscular) weighs 80 kgs and has 6% body fat.
Now according to Katch mc ardle’s formula:
1st guy BMR is 1588 cal.
2nd guy BMR is 1994 cal.
Lean mass of 1st guy from Katch’s formual 56.4 kgs.
Lean mass of 2nd guy from Katch’s formula is 75.2 kgs.
Now assuming that both have similar size internal organs which is a safe assumption i presume, the difference in lean body mass in this case refers to muscle which is 75.2 – 56.4 = 18.8 kgs.
Now difference in BMR of the 2 guys is 1994 – 1588 = 406 cals.
So calories needed to maintain 1 kg muscle mass = 406/18.8 = 21.6 kgs or 10 pounds.
Now the point here is that the 80kgs guy requires 400 calories more than the 60kgs to maintain his weight including his lean mass. So if both are trying to maintain their weight, the 80 kgs guy can eat 400 calories more than the 60 kgs guy without getting fatter which means he burns 400 calories more than the smaller guy effectively.
So the conclusion is that muscular guys can eat more than skinny guys because their extra muscle will burn extra calories
Gokul,
You made the cardinal mistake using mcardle catch as a comparable equation between two men.
it assumes a constant homogenous lean body mass which your calculations do not. We know the breakdown of the calorie contributions of the different components of LBM. Muscle is 6 Calories. You are using the homogenous 21.6 erroneously.
B
Brad, let’s say I start with 200kg lbm then 370+(21.6×200)=4690 calories. Now, if I do nothing else but add one kg of muscle the formula will be 370 +(21.6×201)= 4771.6. Which is an add of 21.6. What am I missing? Is the formula only am approximation?
The LBM is an aggregate of all LBM not just muscle.