4. Increase Your Muscle Mass
When you gain muscle, your resting metabolic rate goes up. This means that when you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories just to survive than you would with the same quantity of fat (4).
For example, one study found that by gaining 2.8 pounds of fat-free mass, a group of 26 men increased their average daily metabolic rate increased by 263 calories per day.
This large increase in rate may be explained not only by the calorie expenditure of the muscle itself, but also the calories expended during the muscle recovery process. In fact, it’s estimated that the resting metabolic rate of skeletal muscle clocks in at just 6 calories per pound, which is much lower than the roughly 100 calories per pound observed in the study.
In comparison, the heart and kidneys have a resting metabolic rate of around 200 calories per pound, the brain uses about 100 calories per pound, and the liver uses about 90 calories per pound.
However, it’s hard to calculate the exact change in metabolic rate per pound since methods for measuring resting metabolic rate and body composition vary widely in their precision and accuracy.
Muscles use these extra calories not only during exercise but also in the hours and sometimes days after resistance exercise by refilling depleted glucose and fat stores as well as repairing damaged muscle cells.
Additionally, increasing your muscle mass protects against insulin resistance and prediabetes, according to Preethi Srikanthan, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles (5).
For best results, add 1-3 strength training sessions a week to your usual workout routine. This type of training can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, so don’t be afraid to enlist the help of a personal trainer to ensure you have proper form as you exercise.