Does Extra Muscle Mass Mean Extra Calories Burned?

I consider myself to be pretty from the neck down.


The genetic lottery didn't give me anything close to one of those Brad Pitt type faces, so I work hard to try and look like I've got something of a Fight Club physique to help keep my wife happy.


There are many reasons why you should engage in weightlifting, and my next post is going to elaborate on that in detail, but for this one I wanted to address the issue of how building muscle affects metabolism.


Speaking of Brad, he was pretty ripped in Fight Club, and many believe that having extra muscle mass burns a lot of extra calories, getting you closer to that coveted six pack. The most commonly quoted numbers are that one pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day while at rest. Using that math, if you happen to build ten pounds of muscle through weight training then you would burn an extra 500 calories every single day just by having that muscle hanging around on your body.


I wish it was true, but it isn't.


In fact, according to world-renowned obesity researcher Dr. Claude Bouchard, muscle has a relatively low resting metabolic rate. On average, a pound of muscle will only burn an extra six calories per day. This is marginally better than what a pound of fat burns in a day, which is two calories. These are approximations and will vary from person to person, but the number will still be significantly lower than this myth states. If we believe the 50 calories per pound of muscle myth I should be burning another 1,000 calories a day because of the extra 20 pounds of muscle I've gained from weight training. I've run the numbers on my total daily energy expenditure and I can tell you that it just isn't happening. Again, I would love it if were true, because those extra thousand calories a day would taste awesome.

So let's use Bouchard's numbers and do the math on what actually is happening. Since I started working out and changing my diet I've lost about 45 pounds of fat and gained around 20 pounds of muscle (both of which took a long time). The fat loss means I am burning 90 (45 X 2) fewer calories per day and the muscle gain means I am burning 120 (20X6) more calories per day. Net increased caloric burn = 30 calories per day, or about half of an Oreo cookie. Crud.

This post is not at all meant to discourage you from lifting weights, as my next post will go into a lot of detail of the great benefits to be derived from doing it, but instead I consider this blog to be an example of knowledge is power. By understanding more about how metabolism really works, you are better armoured against myths and misinformation.

Besides being a lot of fun, weight training does burn a fair amount of calories during the exercise. It may not be as good a calorie-burner as an intense aerobic session, but every little bit counts. Make sure you catch my next post on all the other added benefits of training with weights.