> you will burn more calories even while at rest. Not really. Probably even a bit the opposite. If you exercise hard daily the resting metabolic rate actually

> you will burn more calories even while at rest. Not really. Probably even a bit the opposite. If you exercise hard daily the resting metabolic rate actually drops some as an adaptation to conserve calories: exercise induced hypothyroidism. Pro level cyclists have to count calories to keep their weight down and they don't eat nearly as much as you'd think. Muscle mass preferentially burns fat, so you get a very small metabolic edge from having some extra muscle, but not much. Adipose tissue also burns a great deal of calories, believe it or not, so getting really fat is a good was to increase your metabolism. This is why when obese people start restricting calories the first 30 pounds or so pretty much melts off with not much difficulty.