Muscle and why you need more of it in your weight loss program

What is muscle?

Simply put, it's a band or bundle of fibrous tissue that has the ability to contract, producing movement in or maintaining the position of parts of the body.

Ok and why do we need more of it?

If you are looking to drop body fat as part of your health and wellness journey you will greatly benefit from adding some lean muscle to your body. To get body fat down one of the elements is to create a calorie deficit in your body. This can be done by decreasing your portion size of your food while increasing your calorie burn or your total daily movement. In other words, eat a little less and move a little more. But the type of movement can make quite a difference.

If you are working with us at SoFit SoCal, then we have determined your BMR (approx how many calories you burn) and began a resistance training program. Why resistance training?

1. In order to build muscle, we need to perform resistance training. In doing so this will increase your calorie burn.

2. Working out burns calories however there is a difference between cardio and weight training. When you stop doing cardio and your heart rate slows back down, your calorie burn slows back down. When weight training you have what's called EPOC or exercise post oxidative consumption. This means when you finish your weight training program and are at home resting with some sore muscles you have a higher than normal calorie burn. Your body is expending calories to repair the sore muscles.

3. More muscle = more food. Muscles burn calories just simply by being there. Now, its only 7-10 calories per lb. of muscle, but that little bit helps and adds up over the course of a week or month.