Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Don't Build Muscle (unless that's your goal)

Current Weight: 217 lbs.
Body Fat: 29.8%
Change 23: Focus on the fat

While increased muscle mass can help increase your resting metabolic rate allowing you to burn more calories per day, the amount is only 5-10 calories per day per 1 lb of muscle mass. Since it takes over 3500 calories burned to lose 1 pound of fat, it would take over 350 days for you to lose 1 pound of fat due to 1 pound increase in muscle mass, all other things being equal.

So unless your actual goal is to increase muscle mass, focus on burning calories through aerobic training to lose weight, not resistance training.

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