Question:
How many calories does a pound of muscle burn? I keep reading in HIT books that it burns 50-100 calories a day, but then I read stuff like this:
“In reality, one pound of muscle burns about seven to 15 calories a day, not 50, explains Dymphna Gallagher, the director of the body composition unit at the New York Obesity Research Center in Manhattan. So, if a person has managed to stick to a program lifting progressively heavier weights for a long enough stretch of time, they may accumulate enough extra muscle to boost their metabolism by about 14 to 30 calories a day — not several hundred, as is often claimed.”
I’m not sure what to believe, as HIT is based on empirical evidence I am curious as to how we reached higher numbers?
Answer:
I believe the more conservative estimate of around 7 to 15 calories per day to maintain a pound of muscle is more accurate, however resistance training studies have shown a much greater increase in metabolic rate per pound of muscle gained (1, 2), which Dr. Wayne Westcott explains as resulting from an increase in protein turnover in all of the muscle mass trained (3, 4). If you are training hard on a regular basis you’re not just adding muscle, you are increasing the protein turnover in all of the muscle being worked which would have an increased metabolic cost beyond the energy demands of the workout. This is where you get numbers like 50, although I believe 50 may still be a bit on the high side.
Like most things, the actual increase in metabolic rate would depend on numerous individual factors. For example, if training increases the calories burned per pound of muscle someone starting out with more is going to have a greater increase in metabolic rate than someone starting with less even if they gain the same amount. In my opinion a more realistic range taking into account both additional muscle mass and increased protein turnover is around an additional 25 to 35 calories per day per pound.
Even by more conservative estimates strength training is still preferable to endurance activities or so-called “cardio” for fat loss for numerous reasons.
Energy Balance
If we only look at the increase in metabolic rate due to increased protein turnover, which Westcott estimates at 1.5 calories per pound of muscle, a small woman with only 50 pounds of muscle who starts strength training is going to burn an additional 75 calories per day, even on days she doesn’t work out, and in addition to the calories she burns when she does. This would require as little as one or two half-hour workouts per week.
If she gains as little as 3 pounds of muscle — typical for women during their first two months of high intensity training — that number increases by 25.5 (7 to maintain and 1.5 due to protein turnover for each pound gained), for a total increase in daily calorie expenditure of 100, plus about 100 calories per workout, for a total of 800 to 900 additional calories per week.
This is comparable to what she would expect to burn if she ran or cycled with a high level of effort for 30 to 40 minutes every day. If this sounds low consider treadmills, cycles, elliptical machines and similar hamster wheels typically display the total calories burned during the activity, rather than the calories burned by the activity minus resting energy expenditure. Walking barely burns enough additional calories to even mention.
Even with a conservative estimate, 30 to 60 minutes of high intensity strength training per week results in an increase in calorie expenditure comparable to 210 to 280 minutes of endurance activities. Over a year the difference would be of over 160 hours — a full week — and this doesn’t even include travel time to and from the gym. Also, the 30 to 60 minute estimate for HIT workouts assumes workout out in a typical gym or fitness center during regular workout hours – during off-peak times or if you work out at home or in a private personal training studio it is possible to complete a full high intensity workout in half that time.
The following are photos of a girl I trained who lost 128 pounds over a period of 14 months, dropping from 245 to 117, with less than one hour of high intensity training per week and diet. That’s less than 60 hours total training time.
Chrissy lost 128 pounds of fat in 14 months with high intensity training
Preventing Muscle Loss
High intensity strength training is preferable to endurance activities for fat loss for several other reasons. Unlike endurance activities which can cause muscle loss and reduce metabolic rate if overdone or done in combination with prolonged calorie restriction, strength training will maintain or increase muscle mass even if calorie intake is restricted. This is the most important reason to exercise while trying to lose fat — not to burn calories, but to prevent the loss of lean body mass.
If a woman loses only three pounds of muscle as a result of excessive endurance activities she’ll burn 21 fewer calories per day, or about 147 fewer calories per week. Even if strength training didn’t increase metabolic rate, it would be worth doing to prevent the muscle loss and associated reduction in metabolic rate that can occur during extended periods of calorie restriction or as a result of chronic endurance activity.
In addition to the effect on metabolic rate muscle is important because the more you have the more carbohydrate your body can store as glycogen in the muscles rather than as triglycerides in fat (5).
This becomes even more important with age. Without proper strength training the average person loses about half a pound of muscle per year starting in their mid 20’s. By the time they are in their 40’s they have about 10 pounds less muscle than they had in their prime. Whenever a middle aged or older woman tells me she isn’t interested in gaining muscle I ask if she has a better body now than she did in her 20’s. Most answer they had a better body in their 20’s. They change their mind about wanting more muscle when I tell them they had about 10 pounds more back then.
Endurance activities will do nothing to prevent this muscle loss and can even accelerate it if overdone. Only proper strength training can effectively maintain or increase muscle mass.
Body Shape
If a person exercises for cosmetic reasons their goal is to optimize body composition not to lose weight indiscriminately. If a person attempts to lose weight by performing endurance activities what little weight they lose as a result will be a mix of fat and muscle. They may weigh less, but their body composition will not have improved much and rather than having a leaner body they’ll just be a smaller fat person.
If they change their diet they may lose more weight but without strength training to prevent muscle loss the weight loss will still be indiscriminate and best they can hope for is to end up being “skinny fat” — smaller and thinner, but still soft and flabby instead of hard and lean.
With strength training muscle mass can be maintained or even increased while fat is lost, so instead of being just a smaller fat person or “skinny fat” you become leaner.
HIT versus HIIT
Some would argue that high intensity interval training, or HIIT — brief periods of high intensity steady state activity such as running or cycling alternated with brief periods of rest — would burn the same calories as traditional lower intensity, longer duration endurance activities and better compare with high intensity strength training, or HIT in terms of time efficiency. Although HIIT is time efficient it still does not provide the muscle building benefits of HIT nor is it as safe. To increase the intensity of the work intervals in HIIT it is necessary to attempt to move even more quickly, increasing the already high forces on the body. Intensity progression in HIT is accomplished by gradual resistance increases, but no matter how heavy the weight gets as long as the trainee attempts to move it in a controlled manner without any quick bouncing, yanking or jerking movements the risk of injury is minimal.
Combining Strength Training and Endurance Training
The popular recommendation to combine the two is misguided, based on the belief endurance training is necessary for cardiovascular conditioning and calorie expenditure and strength training doesn’t provide these benefits. Not only is high intensity strength training equal or superior to traditional endurance activities for cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning (6,7), but has been shown to produce better fat loss on it’s own. A comparison of fat loss research by Ellington Darden(8) showed strength training and diet alone resulted in greater fat loss and muscle gain than when combined with endurance training and my experience as a personal trainer over the past two decades has confirmed this.
1. Campbell, W., Crim, M., Young, V. and Evans, W. 1994. Increased energy requirements and changes in body compositionwith resistance training in older adults. American Journal ofClinical Nutrition, 60: 167-175.
2. Pratley, R., Nicklas, B., Rubin, M., Miller, J., Smith, A., Smith, M., Hurley, B., and Goldberg, A. 1994. Strength training increases resting metabolic rate and norepinephrine levels in healthy 50 to 65 year-old men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 76: 133-137.
3. Pikosky, M., Faigenbaum, A., Westcott, W., and Rodriguez, N. 2002. Effects of resistance training on protein utilization in healthy children. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34 (5): 820-827.
4. “Why the Confusion on Muscle and Metabolism?,” Wayne Westcott, PhD. http://www.sdsm.k12.wi.us/cms_files/resources/Why_The_Confusion.pdf
5. Doug McGuff, MD and John Little, Body by Science (McGraw Hill, 2009), 27-29.
6. Maisch B, Baum E, Grimm W. Die Auswirkungen dynamischen Krafttrainings nach dem Nautilus-Prinzip auf kardiozirkulatorische Parameter und Ausdauerleistungsfähigkeit (The effects of resistance training according to the Nautilus principles on cardiocirculatory parameters and endurance). Angenommen vom Fachbereich Humanmedizin der Philipps-Universität Marburg am 11. Dezember 2003
7. James Peterson, PhD., Total Conditioning: A Case Study, Athletic Journal Vol. 56 September, 1975 https://baye.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/totalconditioning.pdf
8. Ellington Darden, PhD., Living Longer Stronger (Perigree, 1995), 125.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Great post Drew.
After reading this, it would seem that for building muscles, less than 100 calories above BMR (daily) would be needed. Are there any studies on the energy cost of growing muscle versus maintaining them?
Steve,
This would depend on how quickly someone is capable of building muscle. Someone who gains faster might benefit from a greater calorie increase than someone who gains slower. It might range from around 100 to 1000 or more per day for an extreme fast gainer or someone regaining previously lost muscle, which tends to come back far more rapidly than it was originally gained.
The key is to pay attention to how much you’re eating and how your body responds. If you’re not gaining muscle, eat more. If you’re gaining too much fat, eat less.
Thanks for the article and clarifying how much metabolism actually increases. My main concern was when I was training people I was telling people that for every pound of muscle they gain, they would burn an extra 50 calories so I was not very concerned with getting clients to watch calorie intake as I thought the extra muscle would cause a negative calorie balance.
Jay,
No type of exercise alone will make a significant difference in fat loss unless one is also eating properly. Whether one chooses to waste a tremendous amount of time performing low-intensity steady state activity to burn calories, or increase their metabolic rate through brief, high intensity strength training workouts, if they want to lose fat they have to change their diet.
Drew,
Very informative. Thanks. can you share some specifics regarding her diet and overall calorie intake during her weight loss and exercise program?
Thanks,
Jeff
Jeff,
She roughly followed the guidelines in Opinions on Nutrition and kept her calorie intake between 1200 and 1400. She was incredibly disciplined with both her diet and workouts and set a great example for the other clients. I always loved training her because she really went all out and although she joked about the workouts being hard she never complained.
Hi Drew,
I have some more questions about Chrissy if that’s ok.
How tall is she?
Did you start her out at 1200-1400 calories per day when she weighed 245?
When you say she was disciplined, with her diet what do you mean? Consistent, with very little “cheating”?
What made her get down to 117? Why not stop at 180, which would still have been 65 pounds lost? What was her motivation? To end up weighing roughly 47% of what she did originally, rather than stopping when she weighed 180, must take something that many people don’t have.
I doubt that she lost the fat at a rate of exactly 2.13333 pounds per week for 60 weeks. Did she lose the majority of the weight in the first 6 months and then spend the remaining 8 months slowly getting those final 25 pounds off?
AC,
I don’t remember Chrissy’s exact height, but it’s not much over five feet. She ate between 1200 and 1400 calories daily for the entire duration. I don’t know if she cheated on the diet, but I doubt it. She was one of the most motivated, most determined, most disciplined, and hardest working people I’ve trained. The fat loss was fastest at first and gradually slowed down as she reduced bodyfat, but she never stopped making progress. This is normal because the rate of energy transfer from fat stores is limited by the amount of fat you have – the more fat you have, the more energy your body can get from it each day.
Good article, Drew,
Great dedication from your client. These are definitley the ideal clients to work with!
Drew,
Another GREAT article.
I have a Q about my thought of adding some HIIT to my HIT routines.
At 42yo, I recently started doing one 10sec/10sec-cadence set of CHIN-UPS, SQUATS, PUSH-UPS & LEG-RAISES (no rest in between exercises) to muscular failure. When I am ready to add weight to these exercises, I will. I rest 72 hrs in between sessions (if I train Monday, then I train again on Thursday).
I am thinking of adding 3 or 4 all-out 30-sec sprints with 30-sec in between.
Reason? Because I thought this HIIT might help me not run out of breath when we kickg-the-soccer-ball at the beach.
I realize I may be wrong, hence my questions:
(1) would adding HIIT to HIT be of any benefit to me (other than making me better at 30-sec sprints)? OR, will HIT alone and with time eventually help with not being out of breath during the beach soccer?
(2) if you were to implement these 3-4 HIIT-sprints once every 72 hrs, when would it be best to do it? on the no-HIT days? at the end of the HIT-session? When?
Very grateful,
JLMA, in Jax Bch FL
JLMA,
If you’re putting enough effort into your strength training and moving quickly between exercises you’ll get all the cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning benefits possible from that. Additional sprint training isn’t necessary.
Thanks once more for the input.
I started running about 25 miles a week 4 months ago and also started eating healthy. I have lost 25 lbs. over that time and I feel that the vast majority of those pounds were from fat. I am definitely not a “fat skinny” person. I also have done pushups and situps 3 times a week, but no weight training whatsoever. I am 5ft10in and started at 200lbs and now I am down to 175lbs. I feel really good when I run and my legs are most definately lean from the running. My whole body is lean with the exception of maybe a half inch layer of fat that is still on my abdomen area. While I really like the things you have to say about HIT training, which I just started this week, I don’t understand why you insist on bashing cardio training. While it may not be as effective as HIT for some things, I absolutely do not agree that it is worthless for fat loss. Running has totally transformed my body for the better. I am excited to see what HIT training will do for me, but I will never give up my running.
Rob,
I bash traditional endurance training because it is a relatively ineffective and inefficient for improving body composition and cardiovascular conditioning, and unnecessarily exposes the joints and spine to more wear and a higher risk of injury. Running would have had a small effect on your weight loss but the credit for your transformation belongs almost entirely to your change in eating habits
If you honestly enjoy running, go ahead, but realize it is not necessary for fat loss or fitness. You would be much better off strength training a few times a week instead of running – not in addition to it – if your goal is to optimize your lifelong health and fitness.
Hi Drew, I am new to your site, great info.
It is very hard for me to accept that strength training with diet alone can help. I am strength training, and I’ve built muscle, no doubt. But even with my clean diet, I cannot shed the fat in stubborn areas like belly etc. Further caloric restriction only weakens me, makes me tired and falter on my lifts.
So I am assuming for some people, fat will not go away with just a clean diet or calorie restriction but would need sprinting – I am not talking of people with hormonal imbalance or other health issues. I am talking of relatively strong people who have reasonably low bodyfat and good muscle, yet struggle to lose the extra gut.
Your thoughts on this?
Andy,
Nobody needs sprinting or traditional endurance activities or any other form of “cardio” other than proper strength training. Sprinting can contribute to calorie expenditure, but not much unless you do a lot of it, and if you do a lot of it you’re risking injury and joint problems. Reducing the fat in “stubborn” areas doesn’t require any special exercises or activities, just consistent calorie restriction.
The fat cells in some areas of the body have more receptors for the hormones that move fat into them than out, and as a result these are the first places people tend to gain fat and the last place they lose them. It’s like a swimming pool. When you begin to fill it with water the deep end fills up first, and the shallow end last. When you drain the pool, the shallow end empties first, the deep last. Our “stubborn” fat areas are like the deep end of a pool. They empty last and, because of this and the limit of the rate of energy transfer from the fat stores, they empty more slowly. I discuss this in Getting Ripped.
Thanks, Drew. Does this apply to skinnyfat people or only to normal people? Skinnyfats feel extremely weak or tired if they reduce calorie intake, but without caloric deficit the gut wont go. Also wouldn’t the body eat away the muscle if there is prolonged caloric deficit?
Hey Andy,
If someone feels extremely weak or tired they are either restricting calories too far or not getting their calories from nutrient dense foods. Prolonged calorie restriction will not cause muscle loss if you know how to adjust calorie intake based on your current body fat level. I cover this in detail in Getting Ripped.
The same principles apply to “skinny-fat” people as to “normal” people. “Skinny-fat” people won’t have as much of an increase in metabolic rate due to protein turnover since they have less muscle mass to work, though. The solution to this is to build more muscle.