Muscle Magic: The Fat Burning Process
by Stefan Mark
It may come as a surprise to some of you, but the fastest and most effective way to transform your body and ignite the fat burning process 24/7 is to strength train.
You didn’t think you could get in shape only by running for hours and hours on a treadmill to nowhere, did you?
Our goal with strength training, also known as anaerobic exercise, is to increase our muscular strength and to add as much lean shapely muscle to our bodies as we can. And why do we want to add muscle? Well, it is attractive to look at, increases bone density (especially important as we age), and a muscular body burns far more calories at rest each day than a body with less muscle, raising our resting metabolic rate (RMR). This last fact is an enormously powerful secret to getting the body you want.
Just one more pound of muscle added to your body will require an extra 40-50 or so calories per day to keep it alive.
Just think if you add 20 pounds of lean muscle tissue…you’re automatically burning an additional 800-1000 calories per day, just sitting on your behind watching TV or at work! And guess what happens when you’re burning more calories than you need to maintain your current bodyweight? You have a calorie deficit, and your body begins to shed fat.
In addition, the growth and repair process that occurs following properly conducted resistance exercise requires large amounts of stored energy in the form of calories. So know that you’re going to burn even more stored calories and fat to build your new strength and muscle. In fact, after your properly conducted resistance workout is over, your body will use its stored fat for the repair process. This amounts to burning body fat like crazy, for up to 48 hours after your workout!
Another important concept to understand regarding strength training and muscle building is that as we age, we lose muscle naturally. Have you ever noticed that man or woman who is in good shape for most of their 20s and 30s but then starts to pack on the pounds in their 40s and up? It’s gradual, and before you know it, they look like they’ve gained 20 lbs of fat overnight!
Muscle deterioration is a huge, if not the biggest, part of this problem.
Muscle deteriorates with age, and for every pound of muscle we lose, we are burning 40 less calories each day. Your metabolic rate is dropping, right now. Add that up over a period of years and you can see why packing on fat as we age is unfortunately very easy to do. While we can’t prevent muscle deterioration, we can certainly combat it by adding as much lean muscle to our bodies as possible!
That’s why training for strength and building lean and shapely muscle is the cornerstone of getting in your best shape for the rest of your life… and that’s why it’s the spark to igniting your fat burning furnace all day long.
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