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‘But I
don’t want Muscles!’ - Part 2:
What Muscle is,
and how to Build (or Avoid) it
Copyright 2005 Tanja Gardner
(continued from Part 1:
What muscle is and how to build (or avoid) it)
Muscle and Weight Gain
Another reason my clients have given for not wanting to
build muscle is that they’ve heard muscle weighs more
than fat. If that’s the case, they ask me, won’t
putting on more muscle just get in the way of their goal
to lose weight?
If all that the clients want is to reach a certain weight
on the scales, then they have a point. For some people –
competing jockeys, gymnasts or martial artists – the
scales must register a certain weight or below, for them
to work at their chosen level. Most of the rest of us, however,
have no such need to fit into a certain weight class. Certainly,
height-weight charts do exist, but many experts nowadays
query just how useful those charts can be. In reality, how
we look and feel is a far better measure of how healthy
we are than a number on a scale.
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In fact, it’s exactly because muscle weighs more
than fat that an active 65kg person can often wear clothing
two sizes smaller (and look better in it) than someone who’s
60kg and doesn’t exercise. The muscle may be heavier,
but it takes up less space – thus the difference in
dress sizes. It’s important to be aware as well that,
unless your training programme is designed to increase muscle
size, you’re unlike to gain more than a kilogram or
two before the amount of fat you lose begins to cancel out
the weight increase, and then numbers on the scale begin
to go down again.
Muscle & Metabolism
We also need to keep in mind one of the golden rules of
weight loss. Muscles burn calories. Repeat this to yourself
a few times. Muscles burn calories. Many people don’t
realise that we don’t only burn calories when we exercise.
Our entire bodies are energy furnaces, constantly burning
fuel to keep us alive – to keep your heart beating,
your lungs breathing, and all the 1001 biochemical processes
that your body requires happening. The amount of energy
you burn during a workout is actually a fairly small percentage
of the overall energy you burn during the day just to stay
alive. The rate at which your body burns energy when you’re
not moving is known as your ‘basal metabolic rate’
– or what most people would call ‘metabolism’.
Not only this, but unlike fat (which is just stored energy
waiting to be used) muscle is hungry body tissue. It needs
energy just to exist, which means even when you’re
sitting still, your muscles are burning calories. The more
muscle you have, the more calories you burn, and of course,
when you’re moving, you’re burning even more.
Since weight loss happens when you burn more energy than
you take in, more muscle ends up helping you lose weight
despite weighing a little more itself.
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Building Muscle & Health
There are other health reasons for strengthening your muscles,
beyond the weight loss benefits of the muscle itself. Many
of these can be summed up as ‘Use it or lose it’.
There’s now clear evidence that many of the things
we associate with aging – slowing down and loss of
strength and flexibility – are due more to inactivity
than they are to aging. Studies carried out with the elderly
by Yale, Tufts and Pennsylvania State University very clearly
show the benefits of strength training (which builds muscle)
in regaining health and functionality that had been assumed
to be lost as a natural consequence of aging.
Additionally, most women are well aware now of the dangers
of osteoporosis – a loss of bone density - once they
pass menopause. In various other studies, strength training
was shown to reverse this loss, strengthening the bones,
and making those who train less vulnerable to injury.
Summing it All up
In this article, we’ve looked at some of the myths
that exist outside of the fitness community around building
muscle, and at why a certain level of muscle is desirable
not just for weight loss, but for overall health as well.
So what’s the bottom line? What do you need to know
if you want to get into shape, but aren’t quite sure
about the concept of muscles?
- It’s very difficult to build muscles the size
of most body-builders’ without (and even with!)
training specifically to do so
- If you do find a body part growing larger than you’d
like, you can change this by altering your exercise routine
appropriately
- Although the muscle you build might initially cause
your weight to increase, the extra fat you will lose will
usually soon negate that
- Muscles actually help you lose weight even when you’re
not exercising by increasing your metabolic rate
- The kind of training that builds a base level of muscle
also helps keep you healthy and able to function as you
grow older
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