Calories Burned By Lifting Weights

[KennyCrox]

@rogueking

Actually, lifting heavy burns a surprising amount of calories and lifting in general is a lot more aerobically taxing than most people realize.

Actually, what is surprising is how few calories are burned during lifting heavy light; exercise in general. As EyeDentist, Chris_Colucci, and theinneroh noted.

Diet is the key.

@robstein

With proper nutrition and recovery, you’ll build muscle, and over time can increase your metabolic rate, leading to more fat burning over time

Increasing muscle mass minutely increase your metabolic rate. Ironically, even increasing your body fat will increase your metabolic rate, as well.

How Many Calories Are Burned Per Day Per Pound of Muscle?

Muscle burns an additional 6 calories per day. I actually quoted 12 calories per day in my earlier post, but with further research it looks like 6 is the more accurate number. People don’t agree on the exact number, but 6 looks like a good average. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has it close to 5 and I’ve seen other studies where it is a bit higher. Bottom line…muscle doesn’t increase your metabolism THAT much.

Let’s Put This Into Perspective

If someone loses 20 pounds of fat, they will burn 40 LESS calories per day. A 10 pound muscle gain would burn 60 calories per day. A person who had this type of body composition change would burn a grand total of 20 more calories per day! If that same person lost 20 pounds of fat and gained 20 pounds of muscle, they would only increase their daily calories burned by 80 total calories! Not exciting at all!

How Many Calories Does a Pound of Muscle Burn?

…the resting metabolic rate of skeletal muscle clocks in at just 6 calories per pound, with fat burning just 2 calories per pound.

In fact, the heart and kidneys have the highest resting metabolic rate (200 calories per pound). The brain (109 calories per pound) and liver (91 calories per pound) also have high values [5]. In contrast, the resting metabolic rate of skeletal muscle clocks in at just 6 calories per pound, with fat burning just 2 calories per pound.

In other words, while skeletal muscle and fat are the two largest components, their contribution to resting energy expenditure is smaller than that of organs. The vast majority of the resting energy expenditure of your body comes from organs such as liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, which account for only 5% to 6% of your weight.

The Optimal Exercise For Cutting Calories

Pushing back from the table.

Kenny Croxdale

[ChongLordUno]

I haven’t even read Kenny Croxdale’s post but I’m liking it anyway

[theinneroh]

@KennyCrox

Increasing muscle mass minutely increase your metabolic rate. Ironically, even increasing your body fat will increase your metabolic rate, as well.

This is classic! I will use this comment going forward. Basically, the bigger you are, the more calories you burn.

[Frank_C]

What about the expenditure of muscle after training? Fat doesn’t do anything but muscle works and incurs damage. I would bet that active muscle burns more calories than resting muscle (duh), but fat doesn’t have the ability to be active so it will always be constant.

[KennyCrox]

@Frank_C

What about the expenditure of muscle after training? Fat doesn’t do anything but muscle works and incurs damage. I would bet that active muscle burns more calories than resting muscle

EPOC, Excess Post Oxygen Consumpition

Yes, there’s more caloric expenditure after training. It is somewhat like overcharging your credit card and having to pay it back with interest; EPOC.

The amount of caloric expenditure is dependent on the type and intensity the exercise.

Limit Strength/heavy lifting with low repetition and long rest periods between sets creates some post increase in caloric expenditure but not that much.

Metabolic Training with something like High Intensity Intervals (Sprint Intervals) or High Intensity Interval Resistance Training (Circuit Training) provides greater post exercise caloric expenditure but not enough to compensate for bad diet.

When you look at the amount of work (exercise) required to burn, let say two piece of bread (approximately 2 pieces of bread), it is simpler and make more sense to just not eat the bread.

As the saying goes, “You can’t out train a bad diet”.

Exercise certainly help,as does increasing muscle mass. However, not to the extent that most have be lead to believe.

Kenny Croxdale