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What you're saying is absolutely true of aerobic exercise, but is emphatically not true of anaerobic, muscle-building exercise. While the act of going to the g

What you're saying is absolutely true of aerobic exercise, but is emphatically not true of anaerobic, muscle-building exercise. While the act of going to the gym won't burn many calories, putting on muscle can drastically increase your baseline metabolic rate. 10lb of muscle (easily gained by a "newbie" who is eating well) will add about 1,500 calories per day to your baseline metabolic rate. That's a whole meal! (and that's just the calories burned by existing, not by recovery/muscle building, the workout itself, etc). The body is remarkably good at maintaining homeostasis when losing weight. So as one gets lighter, the body becomes more efficient and burns less calories, requiring deeper and deeper reductions in consumption. Increasing muscle mass negates this. Edit: @gduffy has a better source for how much energy a lb of muscle burns, which is "4.5 to 7.0 kcal/lb per day". So adding 10lb of muscle will increase caloric consumption by 450 - 700 Calories. So not quite a meal, but a solid 5 mile run.

gduffy 4y ago
> 10lb of muscle (easily gained by a "newbie" who is eating well) will add about 1,500 calories per day to your baseline metabolic rate Per month? https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/metabolismcontroversy.html https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/metabolismcon... It’s still helpful: even 50-70 Calories per day is 18k-25k Calories per year. At 3500 Calories per pound of fat that’s 5-7 pounds offset each year, but it’s not a panacea for someone with 100 pounds of body fat. You can’t out-lift your fork!
nradov 4y ago
Your numbers are way off. Adding 10 lbs of muscle won't increase your basal metabolic rate by anywhere near 1500 kcal/day. Something like 150 kcal/day would be closer to accurate. It's not just about calories and metabolic rate. Lean muscle tissue is also a crucial component of the endocrine system, and it acts as a glucose sink to prevent the energy in that glucose from being stored as fat. https://www.gabriellereece.com/muscle-as-the-cornerstone-of-longevity-optimizing-strength-for-disease-prevention-with-dr-gabrielle-lyon/ https://www.gabriellereece.com/muscle-as-the-cornerstone-of-... https://peterattiamd.com/ama27/ https://peterattiamd.com/ama27/
austinprete 4y ago
I’m confused about your edit. Taking the numbers from @gduffy you end up with (4.5 to 7.0) * 10lb = 45 to 70 Calories. So more like a half mile run for most people. Unless I’m missing something?
voxic11 4y ago
1 kcal = 1 large calorie. So 4.5 kcal/lb per day * 10 lb = 45 large calories per day, not 450. > The small calorie or gram calorie was defined as the amount of heat needed to cause the same increase in one gram of water. Thus, 1 large calorie is equal to 1000 small calories. > In nutrition and food science, the term calorie and the symbol cal almost always refers to the large unit. It is generally used in publications and package labels to express the energy value of foods in per serving or per weight, recommended dietary caloric intake, metabolic rates, etc. Some authors recommend the spelling Calorie and the symbol Cal (both with a capital C) to avoid confusion; however, this convention is often ignored. > In physics and chemistry the word calorie and its symbol usually refer to the small unit; the large one being called kilocalorie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie

gduffy 4y ago

> 10lb of muscle (easily gained by a "newbie" who is eating well) will add about 1,500 calories per day to your baseline metabolic rate Per month? https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/metabolismcontroversy.html https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/metabolismcon... It’s still helpful: even 50-70 Calories per day is 18k-25k Calories per year. At 3500 Calories per pound of fat that’s 5-7 pounds offset each year, but it’s not a panacea for someone with 100 pounds of body fat. You can’t out-lift your fork!

nradov 4y ago

Your numbers are way off. Adding 10 lbs of muscle won't increase your basal metabolic rate by anywhere near 1500 kcal/day. Something like 150 kcal/day would be closer to accurate. It's not just about calories and metabolic rate. Lean muscle tissue is also a crucial component of the endocrine system, and it acts as a glucose sink to prevent the energy in that glucose from being stored as fat. https://www.gabriellereece.com/muscle-as-the-cornerstone-of-longevity-optimizing-strength-for-disease-prevention-with-dr-gabrielle-lyon/ https://www.gabriellereece.com/muscle-as-the-cornerstone-of-... https://peterattiamd.com/ama27/ https://peterattiamd.com/ama27/

austinprete 4y ago

I’m confused about your edit. Taking the numbers from @gduffy you end up with (4.5 to 7.0) * 10lb = 45 to 70 Calories. So more like a half mile run for most people. Unless I’m missing something?

voxic11 4y ago

1 kcal = 1 large calorie. So 4.5 kcal/lb per day * 10 lb = 45 large calories per day, not 450. > The small calorie or gram calorie was defined as the amount of heat needed to cause the same increase in one gram of water. Thus, 1 large calorie is equal to 1000 small calories. > In nutrition and food science, the term calorie and the symbol cal almost always refers to the large unit. It is generally used in publications and package labels to express the energy value of foods in per serving or per weight, recommended dietary caloric intake, metabolic rates, etc. Some authors recommend the spelling Calorie and the symbol Cal (both with a capital C) to avoid confusion; however, this convention is often ignored. > In physics and chemistry the word calorie and its symbol usually refer to the small unit; the large one being called kilocalorie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie