Muscle burns more calories?

Diet and anaerobic exercise are the best tools for fat loss, plus muscle looks much better

Fat loss is more important than calories burned.

That's not the way it works. it's not the "extra muscle" that burns more. It's the TON of calories your body churns thru to repair the damage you do while strength training. First the calories go to replenishment, then repair, then they try to build. That's where the weight management effect of strength training comes into play, not from the 100 extra calories a day a decent amount of added muscle would burn. As an added benefit, this is in effect on your rest days as well as training days.

I motivate myself more with the appearance of muscle tone and less with the amount of additional calories I would burn a day ... but maybe this article will help a little

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/8-ways-to-burn-calories-and-fight-fat

Muscle looks better than fat - it's not all about how many calories it burns for me.

I'm only 5'2" but I plan to build as much muscle as I can, going to start lifting this week and keep up with my cardio at the same time to burn the fat off.

I'm 5'4 - toned is better; how many calories I can burn is less important

Why not do both? A well rounded fitness program includes both strength and cardio.

meh. a lot of people are pretty fit without cardio.
depends on your goals

Hey I've always believed that lifting will help me develop more strength, and gain muscle mass, and so help me to get the body I want. BUT after reading this article : http://bradpilon.com/healthy-ramblings/how-many-calories-does-a-pound-of-muscle-burn-2/ I'm feeling a bit disheartened. I'm a small framed 5'3" woman; my body type is somewhere between an endomorph and a mesomorph. Because of my small size gaining 1lb of muscle for me is not that easy, and to learn that it will only burn an extra 6 calories a day, makes me feel as though my hour at the gym would just be much better spent wholly on cardio.

Even if I gained 20lbs of muscle, that would only be an extra 120 calories a day according to that, and I just feel like it's a lot of hard work for little gain. I really enjoy weights, and I like the idea of getting stronger, but I just feel really disheartened, and think maybe I'm wasting my time, and maybe I should just switch my focus to cardio.

What are your thoughts? Any advice, and encouragement would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.

Do what you know is good for your body, and the results will follow. Granted, maybe not as quickly as you would like, but you will get there. Don't let someone else's opinion, even those of the so-called "experts", get you down. This may come as a shock, but even the experts get it wrong sometimes. Especially in the area of health and fitness, which is why there is always new methods, research, etc... popping up in the media. One thing EVERYONE agrees on is that exercise is good for the body, so keep exercising. Keep that body active and guessing. You WILL succeed with perseverence and determination.

5' 2" tall - I have done cardio only, have done lifting only, now do a combo of both (heavy weight, low reps) - the combo give "me" the all around best results, fat loss, building lean muscle, better definition, look better overall, also have strength gains which is very beneficial in real life, injury prevention, bone health etc.

Lifting only for me, did not give enough fat loss, I am older (age 47) short, and female. So for "me" - I need cardio AND resistance, to reach "my" goals. my fat loss is better with both, vs one or the other alone.

Lifting NOW with Cardio, will actually give you better overall results then cardio only, even though you are heavier now.

You may not "see" the muscle yet, but you will still tighten up underneath, so you will lose inches faster, clothing will fit better, (smaller sizes) and when you do "start" to see some muscle definition - you will seem to see very fast results, because you have already build that muscle, but now you finally see it. Just getting fat off the top. And it really is very encouraging to help you keep going, no matter what your goal.

If you wait, you may loss a lot of weight, but likely will loss more lean muscle, (doing only cardio) and though you may be "smaller" you will be lossier and "flabbier" and still look "fat" when actually you are seeing loss skin, and loose muscle that must be tighten. Thats pretty depressing, when you feel like you have been working so hard for the past moths, and this is where you now are.....

Its also hard for women to gain muscle, you really do not want to lose to much muscle now, if you can avoid it, because it can be very difficult to regain. Easier to try and keep what you have at least, and try to also lose the fat.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/cardio-vs-strength-training-workouts

Adding in heavy lifting to my routine has made dramatic changes to my body look, feel, tightness and tone. I look WAY better now, with extra muscle. Even though the scale says I weigh 15 lbs more then I did doing cardio only, when I was previously at this same "goal" size - I look much better, smaller and leaner - then I looked in the past with less muscle.

I fit in smaller clothing, don't jiggle (where I should not), and look good dressed or nakkid.

Even when I was heavier, with 50 lbs to lose, the muscle I had made me "look" better, smaller etc.

See pics below, from an earlier post I made, for some examples on the way added muscle changes appearance.

Heres some pictures that may help you.
My results have been similar, I am 10-15 pounds heavier then my "rough goal weight" but am already AT my goal clothing size, and physically I am about 1-2 times smaller clothing wise, then last time I was at my goal weight (when I had less muscle) - So I look tighter leaner and smaller, then before at my "small" weight. (size 7/8)
So to everyone else I look like I am already at my goal weight. But I am scale weight heavier, which is fine Ignore the scale.
Less weight - yep you will look good dressed and may fit the smaller clothing size - but, add more muscle and a bit more scale weight - you also fit the smaller clothing size, AND look good dressed AND look good nakkid. Thats a win-win

5 lbs heavier in after pic, but tighter and leaner


Not same girl, but cute example


Same weight, after was when she started lifting heavy


Different girls but both size 4


Same girl, before and after lifting heavy weights, she lost 5 lbs


Stacy, read her story here: She is 14 lbs heavier in after
http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/


10 lbs heavier in after


10 lbs heavier in after


Different girl, but both size 2


5 pounds difference - big body change


Fat vs Muscle

The article mentioned, and others like it, are meant to clarify the notion that adding pounds of lean muscle will considerably increase your resting metabolic rate so you'll burn noticeably more calories throughout the day at REST - not during exercise. Your muscles are not that active during rest, no real surprise there. The findings do not however address the contribution to energy expenditure with lean muscle gains during exercise and for post-exercise recovery of muscle tissue.

meh. a lot of people are pretty fit without cardio.
depends on your goals

Um, only guys are replying. I don't think it's the same for girls...

Actually, it is the same. The difference is that women more about what women want to believe more than they have some completely different metabolism. That belief is enforced by countless women's magazines overpromoting cardio and 5 pound weights.

I just started doing P90x a few weeks ago, but lifting weights has totally changed the composition of my body. 5 years ago I was 20 lbs lighter, mainly doing cardio and maybe 1 day a week of weights. I just pulled a shirt out of my closet that I bought back then (but it was too tight) and wore it on saturday, not only did it fit, but it was loose in my waist/stomach area. So despite being 20 lbs heavier, my body has changed drastically from lifting weights. I only needed that to convince me.

BUMP

It's the TON of calories your body churns thru to repair the damage you do while strength training. First the calories go to replenishment, then repair, then they try to build. That's where the weight management effect of strength training comes into play,

I'm guessing there's no good way to calculate the calories expended from weight training.

I do cardio and weight training. I enter both activities into MFP, the calorie burn for weight training isn't calculated by MFP. I still enter the strength exercise for record keeping purposes only. I just consider the weight training a bonus on top of the cardio, extra credit if you will.

A HRM would probably be fairly useless for calculating calorie burn for weight training. Correct?

Should I be tracking the calories used for weight training?

5' 2" tall - I have done cardio only, have done lifting only, now do a combo of both (heavy weight, low reps) - the combo give "me" the all around best results, fat loss, building lean muscle, better definition, look better overall, also have strength gains which is very beneficial in real life, injury prevention, bone health etc.

Lifting only for me, did not give enough fat loss, I am older (age 47) short, and female. So for "me" - I need cardio AND resistance, to reach "my" goals. my fat loss is better with both, vs one or the other alone.

Lifting NOW with Cardio, will actually give you better overall results then cardio only, even though you are heavier now.

You may not "see" the muscle yet, but you will still tighten up underneath, so you will lose inches faster, clothing will fit better, (smaller sizes) and when you do "start" to see some muscle definition - you will seem to see very fast results, because you have already build that muscle, but now you finally see it. Just getting fat off the top. And it really is very encouraging to help you keep going, no matter what your goal.

If you wait, you may loss a lot of weight, but likely will loss more lean muscle, (doing only cardio) and though you may be "smaller" you will be lossier and "flabbier" and still look "fat" when actually you are seeing loss skin, and loose muscle that must be tighten. Thats pretty depressing, when you feel like you have been working so hard for the past moths, and this is where you now are.....

Its also hard for women to gain muscle, you really do not want to lose to much muscle now, if you can avoid it, because it can be very difficult to regain. Easier to try and keep what you have at least, and try to also lose the fat.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/cardio-vs-strength-training-workouts

Adding in heavy lifting to my routine has made dramatic changes to my body look, feel, tightness and tone. I look WAY better now, with extra muscle. Even though the scale says I weigh 15 lbs more then I did doing cardio only, when I was previously at this same "goal" size - I look much better, smaller and leaner - then I looked in the past with less muscle.

I fit in smaller clothing, don't jiggle (where I should not), and look good dressed or nakkid.

Even when I was heavier, with 50 lbs to lose, the muscle I had made me "look" better, smaller etc.

See pics below, from an earlier post I made, for some examples on the way added muscle changes appearance.

Heres some pictures that may help you.
My results have been similar, I am 10-15 pounds heavier then my "rough goal weight" but am already AT my goal clothing size, and physically I am about 1-2 times smaller clothing wise, then last time I was at my goal weight (when I had less muscle) - So I look tighter leaner and smaller, then before at my "small" weight. (size 7/8)
So to everyone else I look like I am already at my goal weight. But I am scale weight heavier, which is fine Ignore the scale.
Less weight - yep you will look good dressed and may fit the smaller clothing size - but, add more muscle and a bit more scale weight - you also fit the smaller clothing size, AND look good dressed AND look good nakkid. Thats a win-win

5 lbs heavier in after pic, but tighter and leaner


Not same girl, but cute example


Same weight, after was when she started lifting heavy


Different girls but both size 4


Same girl, before and after lifting heavy weights, she lost 5 lbs


Stacy, read her story here: She is 14 lbs heavier in after
http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/


10 lbs heavier in after


10 lbs heavier in after


Different girl, but both size 2


5 pounds difference - big body change


Fat vs Muscle

What a terrific all around post. Thank you.

Hey,

Thanks for all the replies.

@ Brian Sharpe, I currently spend about 50% of my time on each, and was just wondering whether it would be better to shift my focus more to cardio, for my current goal, which is to lose about 4kg. Because I currently have quite a high body fat percentage, and a large motivation for building more muscle is to look better, I just felt, that considering I have quite a bit of fat to get rid of first, perhaps shifting to cardio, would speed up shifting the weight, and so help me to get better defined looking muscles in the long run. But yes I totally agree, wouldn't switch to pure cardio forever.

@DavPul, thanks very much for that insight, I hadn't at all considered the energy that would be burnt in repairing muscular tears.

@jacqueling I definitely agree that toned is better... I just feel I have too much fat in the way hiding it at the moment, and maybe it would be better to concentrate on shifting that first.

Haven't finished reading all the responses in this thread yet, but FWIW, I am in the same boat as far as not having a ton of weight to lose, but having a high body fat percentage. I consulted with a PT at the gym and she strongly recommended I at least add strength training to my workouts to decrease my BFP, since I'm not overweight but would like to lower my body fat. So, I'm doing a combo, just started last week so I have nothing to share at the moment as far as progress goes (other than I'm sore as hell. lol).:bigsmile:

ETA: tangal88, your post was awesome and very inspirational.