41 ms·

My health prof in college said people gain weight because they don't maintain their muscle as they age...muscle requires 30 calories/pound just to maintain.

dragonwriter 10y ago
> muscle requires 30 calories/pound There's a unit of time missing there. You probably mean "per day" (though 50 calories/pound/day is the more commonly quoted, and apparently, wrong number.) The places I can find that seem to actually be linked to some kind of reasonable source seem to have 5-10 calories per pound per day to maintain muscle.
gozur88 10y ago
Not even close. It takes about six calories per day to maintain a pound of muscle. And it takes two calories per day to maintain a pound of fat. That's why people who think they're going to be able to eat radically more if they change ten pounds of fat to ten pounds of muscle are deluding themselves - it adds up to about forty calories a day, which is half a teaspoon of butter. Anyway, the thirty calorie figure doesn't pass the smell test - men average about seventy three pounds of lean muscle mass, so at thirty calories per would be 2190 calories per day even if you ignore all activity and every other metabolic process. Your average sedentary middle aged guy is going to gain weight if he eats more than about 1500 calories per day.
- learc83 10y ago
  > Your average sedentary middle aged guy is going to gain weight if he eats more than about 1500 calories per day. That's not true. The average middle age man (say 50 years old, 5'9", 160lbs) has a BMR around 1600 calories, and unless he's bed ridden will burn around 2000 calories per day.
  - gozur88 10y ago
    Bed ridden or has a desk job. From a calorie perspective it's probably not much different.
    - learc83 10y ago
      There is a big difference between bed ridden and has a desk job. We can calculate that difference to some degree of accuracy using this equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%E2%80%93Benedict_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%E2%80%93Benedict_equati... For a sedentary office worker with no exercise, to maintain weight he should consume 1.2xMBR. With a BMR of 1600 that means he should consume a bit under 2000 calories per day. It takes a good bit of energy to move 160lbs around even if you're not purposely exercising.
      - gozur88 10y ago
        That seems far too high based on my own experience and that of my coworkers. Depending on their level of exercise, slender men at my office tend to fall somewhere between 1500 an 2000 daily calories, with 1500 being the 6' guy who doesn't do any exercise. Yes, we compared notes.
        learc83 10y ago
        Most people underestimate the number of calories they consume. It's much more likely that your small sample is underestimating than that numerous studies with much larger sample sizes are incorrect. > with 1500 being the 6' guy who doesn't do any exercise. 1500 calories is right at the recommended maintenance intake for a sedentary 120lb middle aged woman (women have lower BMRs than men).

dragonwriter 10y ago

> muscle requires 30 calories/pound There's a unit of time missing there. You probably mean "per day" (though 50 calories/pound/day is the more commonly quoted, and apparently, wrong number.) The places I can find that seem to actually be linked to some kind of reasonable source seem to have 5-10 calories per pound per day to maintain muscle.

gozur88 10y ago

Not even close. It takes about six calories per day to maintain a pound of muscle. And it takes two calories per day to maintain a pound of fat. That's why people who think they're going to be able to eat radically more if they change ten pounds of fat to ten pounds of muscle are deluding themselves - it adds up to about forty calories a day, which is half a teaspoon of butter. Anyway, the thirty calorie figure doesn't pass the smell test - men average about seventy three pounds of lean muscle mass, so at thirty calories per would be 2190 calories per day even if you ignore all activity and every other metabolic process. Your average sedentary middle aged guy is going to gain weight if he eats more than about 1500 calories per day.

learc83 10y ago
> Your average sedentary middle aged guy is going to gain weight if he eats more than about 1500 calories per day. That's not true. The average middle age man (say 50 years old, 5'9", 160lbs) has a BMR around 1600 calories, and unless he's bed ridden will burn around 2000 calories per day.
- gozur88 10y ago
  Bed ridden or has a desk job. From a calorie perspective it's probably not much different.
  - learc83 10y ago
    There is a big difference between bed ridden and has a desk job. We can calculate that difference to some degree of accuracy using this equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%E2%80%93Benedict_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%E2%80%93Benedict_equati... For a sedentary office worker with no exercise, to maintain weight he should consume 1.2xMBR. With a BMR of 1600 that means he should consume a bit under 2000 calories per day. It takes a good bit of energy to move 160lbs around even if you're not purposely exercising.
    - gozur88 10y ago
      That seems far too high based on my own experience and that of my coworkers. Depending on their level of exercise, slender men at my office tend to fall somewhere between 1500 an 2000 daily calories, with 1500 being the 6' guy who doesn't do any exercise. Yes, we compared notes.
      - learc83 10y ago
        Most people underestimate the number of calories they consume. It's much more likely that your small sample is underestimating than that numerous studies with much larger sample sizes are incorrect. > with 1500 being the 6' guy who doesn't do any exercise. 1500 calories is right at the recommended maintenance intake for a sedentary 120lb middle aged woman (women have lower BMRs than men).