Muscle is a large part of your body mass, but it’s contribution to your metabolic rate is greatly over exaggerated in the health and fitness industry.
It is a very important contribution, because outside of exercise it’s one of the only things you can control, but it is exaggerated.
Just like you can’t out exercise a bad diet, you can’t out muscle it either.
(The black is bone, the yellow is body fat, the red is muscle, the blue is the rest of your lean mass…organs etc)
In the graph on the left we see that your muscle mass is shown to make up about 40%ish of your total body weight. ON the right we see that while it makes up 40% (ish) of your entire body weight, in only makes up about 20% percent of your resting metabolic rate.
(FYI – 20% is roughly same amount that your liver or brain contributes to your metabolism)
BP
*Heymsfield SB, et al. Body-size dependence of resting energy expenditure canbe attributed to non-energetic homogeneity of fat-free mass. American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism. 282:E132-E138; 2002
Tags: Body building, gain muscle, health claims, Metabolism
So it looks like the question is…..
How do I train make my organs bigger ???
Great chart illustrating the contribution of muscle mass to resting metabolism.
And while a contribution of 20% to resting metabolic rate is relatively small, it’s even smaller in the context typically suggested — that is, build more muscle mass to increase metabolism.
This means a typical person builds another 5 pounds of muscle to increase its contribution to overall basal metabolism another… 1.3%. Terrific, this will burn 20 more calories per day.
Oh wait, I think I had a teaspoon of milk in my coffee this morning. Well, so much for the 5 pounds of muscle.
So why bother busting your ass in the gym all the time if its contribution is so small.whats the point.why not just keep a good level of cardio fitness and forget about the muscle.since finding this blog and leaving the advice of the bodybuilding world in search of sumthing better the lessons i have learned are as follows
1.to lose fat eat less
2.exercise is a pointless pusuit in terms of fat loss
3.cardio does not work well for fat loss
4.muscle building does not work for fat loss
Its 1 extreme to another.What the hell works just fasting???Am i wrong with all this is there sumthing i’m missing.i’m currently tryin to get a 6 pack for the first time in my life and trying to find the best way to do it and i’m confused.should i just not do anything, sit around and eat around 1200 calories on eating days and fast twice a week.is it just that simple.its seems like it cant be with all the people around struggling with weight loss.
By the way i’m not looking for an argument i really want to beleive all this and want it to work.i’m just frustrated from years of training and eating the bodybuilding way and getting worse results than i should expect too for all the work i put in.i just want to get in excellent shape for the first time.i’ve been fighting with my weight for years nd while i maintain a fairly low bf percentage its a constant fight that i just cant keep up
So it looks like bone contributes more to the metabolic rate than body fat for a man. Interesting.
Muscle contributes about as much as the brain or the liver. That really puts it into perspective. So does that mean that muscle, the brain, and the liver combine for ~60% of the metabolic rate?
Johnny, lol! Good one!
So basically, if I introduce more “toxins” for my liver to handle, my metabolism should skyrocket right?
Hi Alan,
I know it’s frustrating, trust me I’ve lived it.
Remember, I used to make a living in the bodybuiding industry.
Regarding your points, they may be a little too black and white.
1. To lose fat eat less
2. Exercise has an exaggerated effect on weight loss.
3. Cardio does not work as well as advertised.
4. Muscle’s effect is exaggerated, but in its defense outside of exercise its really one of the only things you can control.
It’s not that you shouldn’t do ANYTHING, it’s’ that if you are making these four things the focus of your life, you are probably wasting a great deal of time and energy.
Sitting around eating less and fasting will get you smaller…Sitting around, eating less and lifting weights will get you smaller with a better ‘shape’
The problem lies in the fact that in health and fitness it is very easy to mistake marketing for information.
B
Great comments Alan. I think you have it correct in the first post. Well, I agree with it anyway. It’s very simple to lose fat (i.e. just eat less), but not always easy to execute (i.e. eating less).
For me, I just wish I knew how to eliminate hunger and cravings, then it would be so easy to eat less.
J
hey Alan-
All great points.
I can only say that we all echo your frustration – we have all been mis-sold our fitness and health back to us by the gym and health industries (if we’re not sick, why do we need health supplements?)
Lift weights to increase your functional life expectancy and to look great.
Do cardio for fun – if you find it fun (love a good swim or a game of ball).
Control your weight and fight metabolic and cardio deceases with diet control.
Exercising is like cleaning your teeth – if you don’t it wont kill you, but you’ll probably live longer if you do, you’ll improve your chances of pulling, and you’ll feel better for it once you get in the habit… but it won’t burn fat (not ‘enough’ anyway.
Real question:
When you add muscle mass, the heart has to work harder to pump blood through your body(especially in activity). Is this all the 5kcal/pound accounts to?
Hey Alan, despair not!
Exercise does aid with weight loss, but remember the wise, age old key to weight loss: Burn more calories then you consume and you’ll lose weight, consume more then you burn and you gain weight. There’s no two ways around that formula, and I don’t care what the experts say. I recommend Livestrong.com for anyone trying to lose weight. It’s basically a calorie tracking website. Brad site is helpful also.
I lost 10 lbs. since March 26th…
Carry on bud!
Joe
Alan, the purpose of muscle building is to enhance one’s physique, not dramatically increase the metabolic rate.
The comments are to generalized like most of the fitness industry to get the results one really wants it come down to knowing yourself inside out because everyone is different with different nutritional needs to accomplish their goals. There is no once size fits all solutions. After a personal profile is completed, height weight bodyfat blood work and nutritional analysis,then one can develop a personal program to address ones specific needs and goals. I am tired of trainers and fitness experts offering a one size fits all approach. We all need to learn our bodies inside out to the max and measure the results of our training and nutritional methods and tweak them accordingly! The body adapts to change and stress.Exercise is the stimulus but our brain ultimately tells the body what to do. Train your brain to tell your body what you want and stick with it. When your conscious and subconscious mind work together you will achieve the body you want!!! Your mind creates your body, now program it to get the results you want. Also trainers and fitness experts are just guides it is up to you to master the application of the
information yourself and apply what works for you and disregard that which
doesn’t!!!
Maybe, but the fact is those “toxins” have a lot of calories…
The fact is muscle mass contributes to metabolism a lot, but not directly like most people think. It goes like this: More muscle = Harder workouts, Harder workouts = More calories required + More recovery, More recovery = More work for the brain the liver and the whole body.
Well…either way, I’m still going to follow the AI Build workouts. You just have to make sure your nutrition and fitness plans meet your goals. I’m not trying to build muscle in order to raise my metabolic rate. I’m trying to build muscle to improve my AI score in order to look better, feel better about myself, etc.
Looks like if your goal is to increase your metabolic rate, you should find something more effective/efficient.
Thanks for the info Brad…and keep up the great work!
Wishing you health and happiness,
Pete
Come on guys, the fact is that increasing lean body mass results in numerous positive factors mentally and physically. Increase Metabolism does increase with building muscle and in turn help one burn more body fat. Your appearance improves dramatically with the right consistent training and nutrition, and your bone density and heart health factors improve. Do more diligent research into the recent studies in this field gentleman, in the more than 34 years I have been training and the over 2,000 clients success stories I have had the blessing to guide to a better way of life, I speak from experience. For the record I am 53, 200 lbs with a bodyfat level of 8%. 18 inch arms, 28 inch thighs, 32 inch waist, and 48 inch chest. I would not be where I am today if I listened to misleading information. For those of you who think otherwise, stay at home and leave more space in the gym for those of us who see the benefits of muscles effect on metabolism. I think I will have a pizza for lunch, I can afford it.
Alan,
That barchart shows the resting metabolic rates of various body constituent. The resting rate is if you just sat on your couch all day and did nothing at all.
If you excercise (cardio or weight lifting) you will burn calories, just look at and smell your sweaty shirt and say you didn’t burn any calories.
No, the actual cycle of protein synthesis/catabolism that keeps your muscles from being a just a pile of decaying protein is what fuels most of that.
B
Alan, While exercise in general does not work for fat loss, it DOES work for muscle maintenance or muscle building. Assuming your goal is not simply to look like a super skinny male model, you will need to do some minimum amount of weight training to maintain or even build your muscle mass. Also, while cardio exercise is not very effective for fat loss, it does help to prevent weight regain as the calories expended are more than enough to off-set the kind of “creeping weight gain” that can occur for the typical sedentary person over time. And I’m sure once you attain your six pack, you will want a sustainable lifestyle that can keep it. Both weight training and cardio are vital aspects of that sustainable lifestyle. And besides, let’s not forget the plethora of health benefits that come from exercise regardless of its impact on appearance.
Correct on the first point.
I thought this blog post clearly illustrated the issues with the second point.
I take your comment as ‘do more diligent research’ to be offensive.
Congrats on an impressive physique, but I’m not sure what your personal measurements have to do with this discussion?
Pizza sounds good, might have it for dinner tonight, thanks for the idea.
B
Jenny I had cravings also and it wasn’t until I went on a low carb diet and my cravings went away. So I know calories count but for me I had to get rid of the false hunger and cravings first
Wow this has certainly generated an uproar! My comment would be to bust your ass for personal aesthetics and ESE to bring those aesthetics out more. Just separate the two quadrants of food and work out – really they are like a Venn Diagram where each only has a small effect of the other.
What say Ye Brad?
I’m there with you.
I would like to point out that I said ‘exaggerated’ not stupid, useless or dumb.
The point of this post was NOT to say that building muscle is waste of time.
It was simply to point out that the metabolism boosting effects of extra muscle mass are exaggerated in the fitness industry.
If this has affected your marketing pitch for your product, or your sales pitch to your potential personal training clients I apologize.
You have two choices.
You can ignore what you read on this post. Or, you can investigate it further and (if you choose) change your marketing/sales pitch to make it more honest and scientifically correct.
I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to, so please don’t get mad at me for pointing out something that is rather basic physiology.
In short, please don’t shoot the messenger.
I fully agree with Brad. His objective of the post was to simply illustrate the overestimated (to be kind to the marketers) effects of increased LMB towards enhanced metabolism. It was never disputed, nor discussed, the ancillary effects of aformentioned LBM increases towards other health effects. The challenged paradigm was towards the relationship between muscle & metabolism. The messenger isn’t to be shot, rather thanked for delivering the information in a “timely” and appropriate fashion. Thanks for all your hard work Brad.
Steven, no one is arguing the merits of building muscle mass. I believe that this post was to keep the relationship between muscle mass and metabolism in true perspective.
But you can continue to tell your clients anything you wish. But the relationship between muscle mass and metabolism is still what it is.
Eat Stop Eat – Brad Pilon’s Blog…
Brad Pilon’s Blog about intermittent fasting, nutrition, diet, weight loss, fat loss, growth hormone and muscle building…
Greeting All
Hey Brad
I think guys like Nero misunderstand the point about metabolic contribution of Muscle, He believes that his muscle mass Burns large amounts of calories. But we need to be more specific, what we are saying is, when not in the gym working out, muscle has very little contribution to burning calories.
What guys like Nero are experiencing is the calories burned in the gym In order to develop such huge muscles,
So the Question that should be asked about muscle metabolic contribution is,
‘What is the metabolic cost of My resistance workout’
And as Science proves, the extra muscle gained from such resistance workouts will not give huge KC burn, But the effort in the gym to maintain the muscles, will give good burn during the workout itself.
Nero and guys like him should think about this. We humans are an Eco friendly design, just like a eco friendly car gives more miles for the given fuel, we would after all be a very poor design if our Muscles burned huge calories at rest !!, If muscles burned huge calories the earth could not support us … Errr But wait .. people behave as though they need huge amounts of calories Hence Obesity Crisis in the west,
And as a consequence such consumption results in exhausting Earth resources.
So be proud and live as a universal being in your AI format , it is no coincidence that we and the entire universe are based on Proportions of Phi. When you are Phi the very foundations of the earth itself will welcome you as a eco friendly being.
Well Said Brad, Is it true that a pound of fat requires some calories to maintain as well. I’ve read around 2 calories per day. I ask because bmr calculators always take your weight into account.
Thanks
Ian,
Great post.
If I may paraphrase a bit…we should concentrate on the caloric cost of “Effort”…i like that alot.
Also amazing points on eco-friendly.
If every pound of muscle did add 50 calories of calorie burning…what would happen as a child grows into an adult?
A ten year old with a BMR of 1,400 and 60ish pounds of LBM grows into an adult with 150 pounds LBM…you’d be looking at a basic BMR of 4,000 calories.A BMR!!….simply is not sustainable.
B
Yep, 2 calories per pound.
Which if you think about it means that for most of us the difference between lean and overweight is negligible (maybe 60 calories per day), but the difference between lean and obese could be 200 even 300 Calories per day (plus the cost of moving that fat around) but that would have to be “biggest loser’ levels of overweightness…
Hey Brad. Talk about muscle building, what is your take on HIT, Heavy Duty, Mike Mentzer style of working out ? Does it apply to the natural guys or only to those who are on juice ?
Thanks
Hi Brad
Yes eco friendly AI,
what lead me to make this association is ‘ENERGY’ is does not matter weather it’s human or man made mechanical engine , They both require Energy, and both will have an input/output ratio for energy consumption.
if I can be so bold go even further,
There are 3 interesting states of energy consumption,
Unity = same energy in / same energy out
Under unity = more energy in / less energy out
Over unity = less energy in / more energy out
UNDER UNITY : eating above RMR and Activity
UNITY: eating to RMR+ Activity
OVER UNITY: Fasting while under load (working out while fasting)
The over unity engine would be the perfect solution to world energy crisis, and if it had an over unity ratio of 1:1,618
Ahh then we would get 1,618 units of energy for every 1 unit input.
So what kind of engine do you want to be ?
Some choose to eat more than enough food than is required to do the work, ‘Under unity engine’ conventional body builder.
Some choose to eat just enough to supply RMR+ Activity,
‘Unity engine’
Some choose to cycle between All 3 ‘Hybrid’
In reality the AI over unity engine produces the extra output by using its solid fuel stores, Hmm the same as today’s Hybrid electric/Petrol cars, in which the battery is the fat store , But we humans have an advantage our battery ‘fat store’ has an Enormous expandable dynamic capacity, called Obesity.. Err to the point it can kill us , so guys don’t be so hard on FAT, it’s a beautiful piece of human engineering,
If only we could make a car battery just like that.
It really depends on your goals.
I can go months training twice a week and maintain my muscle mass, but I can’t seem to gain strength on this protocol.
B
great post ian.
Could it be that if you have more muscle mass, you have greater glycogen “storage” capacity, thus improving the efficiency of insulin to do its job in maintaining blood sugar. If insulin is “finished” its job faster, then we are not in fat storage mode for as long, and we can be in fat burning mode longer (in therory) – making it seem like we have a significantly higher metabolism than someone with less muscle.
This is just generalising, as I realise that everyone has a genetic element to their metabolism and thermostat etc etc. Or I could be totally wrong – as I’ve no science for this, I just put it together in my head as a theory
[...] If we are talking about how many additional calories are burned by added muscle when one is not being active, the numbers are pretty small (although not conclusive by any means, just view this as a ballpark number) – 3 to 4 calories per pound of muscle. The real source of your “base” calorie burning furnace are your organs, as illustrated by Brad Pilon in this graph. [...]
[...] you want to learn more, both Rusty Moore and Brad Pilon have explained why the contribution of muscle to your resting metabolic is greatly over exaggerated [...]