For the longest time, we’ve associated cardio with weight loss. When most folks decide to shed some fat, thoughts of running in the park, biking, and riding the Elliptical at the gym come up.
And, to be sure, cardio is effective at helping us lose weight because it burns calories. But it’s not very good at helping us build new muscle mass or maintain the one we already have.
And, as you’ll learn in a bit, building muscle carries some significant benefits for fat loss.
Muscle Upregulates Metabolic Rate
Muscle is a metabolically-costly tissue. Meaning, your body expends calories every single day to maintain it. So, the more of it you have, the higher your metabolic rate will be naturally.
Meaning, you’ll be able to eat more food while still losing weight at a good rate and, once you’ve reached the desired level of leanness, you’ll be able to maintain your conditioning much more easily.
Active Muscle Improves Calorie Partitioning
Calorie partitioning (also known as the p-ratio) is a ratio that measures how many of the calories you consume go to the muscle and how many are stored as fat. Having more muscle (and training it regularly) is one of the best ways to improve your calorie partitioning.
Increasing your p-ratio would allow you to stay leaner while gaining muscle, as well as not gain as much fat if you happen to overeat in, say, a week.
Achieving Body recomposition and Getting Lean
Building muscle while losing weight is the holy grail of fitness because changes happen much more quickly, and the result is a lean and toned body.
If you focus on building muscle (or, at least, retaining it) while dieting, your body will dip into its fat stores more to meet the calorie requirements. This not only means that you’ll lose more fat (which should be the primary goal), but it also means that you’ll be stronger, leaner, and more athletic at the end.
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