There’s a chance that you’ve already heard that muscle burns more calories than fat does. And that’s actually true. That’s why, during the time you lift weights, you may not think about weight loss. However, strengthening muscle by weight lifting can do more than get you looking buff. While you do grow muscles, it can also help you burn fat! Therefore, you can boost the weight loss process. In fact, strength training may not lead to weight loss if you don’t have a calorie deficit diet. Nonetheless, while you lose weight, it still helps you burn fat. The fact that you do not lose weight is due to the muscles that you gain.
So, how do building lean muscle and burning fat go hand in hand? If you were to take a closer look at it, you are going to find out.
Muscle Types
There are two types of muscles:
- Type 1 muscle fibers (slow twitch)
- Type 2 muscle fibers (fast twitch)
What is the difference between the two?
So, type 1 is going to take the lead in endurance. We’re talking about those activities that require constant energy consumption, such as low impact workouts, long distance running, and so on. In short, the types of activities that require endurance.
Well, there are the Type 2 fibers that are used for fast-paced movements, those exercises that tire you out faster, such as sprints or squat jumps. These fibers naturally tire faster and require a longer recovery time. The Type 1 fiber will stay almost the same size after toning, however, type 2 fibers will not.
In short, as long as you are searching for serious muscle definition then you should focus your efforts on exercising requiring your type 2 muscle fibers. However, if you were to use both type 1 and 2 as a pair, you’re going to get the most benefits.
What is Fat?
Unlike muscle types, fat can seem a bit more complicated. In the end, there are good reasons why you may have heard someone referring to some fat on the body as “stubborn fat”.
That “stubborn” fat is essentially white fat also popular as subcutaneous fat. This fat is easily “attaching” to your hips, belly, butt, and thighs, the “problematic” areas for most people. This type of fat is the body’s largest energy reserve, and that’s why it is so hard to get rid of it. Our bodies are naturally wired to keep hold of it. So, removing that type of fat could seem pretty challenging.
Besides subcutaneous fat, we also have “visceral” fat that hides away beneath the white fat around your midsection. This fat is important because its main purpose is to protect vital organs such as the liver and intestines. However, too much of this fat type will increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and other issues.
Then, there’s also the third type of fat too – the one that goes by the name “brown” fat. This is the type of fat that you would want more of. Why? Because brown fat actually burns calories instead of storing them (unlike the other 2 types of fat you want to get rid of). If you’re turning yourself into the beast mode at the gym, it could even encourage the white fat to temporarily turn into another form of fat that will burn calories – beige fat.
So, not all fat is bad for you. Moreover, you shouldn’t attempt to get rid of ALL fat. While lower body fat looks more aesthetic, we need some of it to remain healthy. That’s why there’s a low limit of fat you can have to stay healthy.
Calorie burn per pound of muscle
Regardless if you are bulking or cutting, our ultimate goal is to be strong and look good. At least, for most of us. That’s why, most of us would want to build muscle and burn fat. Therefore, it is important to understand how building lean muscle and burning fat will work together.
In the past, people were believing that 5 pounds of muscle would burn an incredible 250+ calories at rest. While that’s, unfortunately, just a myth, 5 pounds of muscles would still help you burn 30-35 calories a day. That’s because a pound of muscle burns about 6 to 7 calories a day at rest.
Moreover, remember that our metabolism will play a huge role in terms of how many calories we burn. Exercise will help change the metabolic process, enhancing the overall metabolism. We can’t say anything with certainty here because there are a lot of factors involved in metabolism like fitness level, activity level, age, sex, and others. There’s not one size that fits everyone in terms of how exercise will influence metabolism.
Building Muscle and Burning Fat Relationship
I already said that muscles help burn calories, thus, they help burn fat! Similar to your car needing gas to function (or electricity), your muscles will also require fuel to function.
Keep in mind that our bodies are using a certain number of calories for normal bodily functions in order to keep us alive, such as breathing, blood circulation, and others. However, the majority of the energy we have goes into powering the muscles. And we’re not even talking about using muscles at the gym! We’re only talking about keeping your heart pumping and maintaining balance, lifting your arms or legs, and so on.
So, our muscles need energy to function. But where do they take that energy from? From fat and carbohydrates!
Sadly we can’t dictate where our bodies should look for energy. So, it decides on its own whether it takes its energy demands from fat (containing 9 calories per gram) or carbs (containing 4 calories per gram). Usually, for general everyday tasks (like walking, typing on your computer, and any other task), your body is looking to search for fat to take its energy needs. However, when you up your game in the gym, your muscles will search for faster ways to meet their fuel demands. That’s why the body will burn carbs to get the energy it requires.
Build Lean Muscle and Burn Fat
So, based on this information, you may think that strength training during the process of cutting fat is not necessary. That’s a huge mistake! You SHOULD do strength training even if you try to lose weight and cut fat because there’s a very close connection between building muscle and burning fat.
If you’re simply having extra muscle, you will be changing your metabolism for the better. If you are going to avoid loads of extra calories, you will burn more calories per se, leading to faster fat burning. Not only that, but your overall health and fitness level will greatly benefit from strength training. The research proves that keeping hold of muscle mass and gaining lean muscle tissue will keep us from gaining excess weight, even as we age. Strength training is going to lead to a lot of benefits. Some of these include:
- Develop a healthy looking body composition, providing a good body shape
- Helps improve coordination and balance (resulting in less chances of injuries)
- Burns extra calories (even after you workout AKA afterburn)
- Prevents loss of lean body mass
- Keeps bones and connective tissue strong
How To Burn Fat and Build Muscle?
So, if you would like to know how to lose fat and tone muscle, check here some of the most important steps you need to follow to achieve it. There is no doubt that you’ve likely heard about the “fat burning zone” before now. You should think of this zone as the level of intensity at which you are exercising, which is approximately 50-65% of your maximum heart rate.
This is the maximum zone that sits just below the threshold where your body switches to burning carbs instead of fat. This means that it is the maximum zone of fat burning, instead of burning carbs. The more calories you are burning during the workout, the more your body is going to be forced to burn fat in order to aid muscle recovery. So, how can you burn fat and build lean muscle while maximizing your overall results? There are various strategies that can help you both build muscle and burn fat.
Exercise earlier
The early bird catches the worm. In our case, exercising earlier is going to catch that perfect balance of building muscle and burning fat. It seems like morning exercise can blast up to 20% more body fat. That is one of the reasons why you hear a lot of pros doing their morning cardio! But why does it help if you exercise early? Eating breakfast after your workout! If you do not eat before the morning workout, you will encourage your body to burn fat. That will lead to less glycogen (energy) from carbs to eat through. What does this mean? The body will have fewer carbs, so it’ll search for fat to break down for energy needs.
Follow the 1:3 rule
It is an extremely easy and simple rule – workout for at least one hour, three times a week! If you can exercise for longer and/or more often – great! But it is important to stick to your workout schedule!
Work harder
You shouldn’t just go three times a week to the gym and barely do anything. You actually need to work and work hard. With a few exceptions and special conditions, the harder almost always the better. Moreover, it’s going to be much better to get into the best mode three times a week, than barely break a sweat five times a week. Lift weights and/or do bodyweight exercises until you can barely make it back to your home. That’s the best recipe to burn fat and build lean muscle. If you are lifting to failure, your muscle fibers get the “break” they need in order to grow.
Rest “harder”
So, you’re working extremely hard, breaking down all those muscle fibers. But in order to build muscle, they need rest. So, you want to go hard at the gym and maximize fat burning and muscle building process, but you’ll need time to recover. Also, try to switch up your workouts to challenge various muscle groups and muscle fibers. Recovery is essential for the muscles so they can build up stronger, leading to fat burn.
You need to focus on getting at least 7-8 hours of high quality sleep per night. If you’re working out really hard, you may notice your body may need 9-10 or even more hours of sleep! Do you need it? You deserved it when you worked out that hard in the gym! If you are running on poor or lack of sleep, your body’s level of cortisol (stress hormone), increases. While the important hormones that aid fat burning and muscle gaining such as human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone will decrease! Your body’s stress will make it start to hold onto fat stores even more!
Go for the correct post-workout snack
There’s no need to mention that you will require a proper diet if you want to burn fat and build muscle. Eating fast foods, processed foods, sugary foods, and/or whatever other foods with little to no nutritional value will not only likely add fat, but they won’t fuel your muscles and won’t aid their recovery. Of course, you need proper and balanced nutrition. Nonetheless, even if you go for proper nutrition, remember that you need a right post-workout snack. A smart choice of post exercise snack will definitely maximize building lean muscle and burning fat! I would recommend going for a combination of carbs and protein within the 2-hour window post-workout. Carbs are going to help you replenish glycogen stores while the protein will aid muscle repair!
Burn Fat and Build Muscle Efficiently
It can be really hard to keep your muscles as you try to shed fat simply because you need to remain in a calorie deficit to see that fat melt. On the other hand, the process of muscle building can be tiresome, requiring a lot of time.
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