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Why You Want To Preserve And Build Muscle
Many people view their muscles as inert things that take care of themselves. The masses never give much thought to their muscle mass. They ignore taking care to protect it, take it for granted, and expect it to remain intact and the same for life. This isn’t the case, especially if you’re sedentary.
Here are a few great reasons for preserving and building muscle with resistance or weight training:
1. Muscle is your engine. Muscle burns fat, about 50 calories a day per pound of muscle.
A pound of fat burns about 3 calories a day.
2. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn.
3. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. You can weigh more while taking up less space and wearing smaller sizes. Muscle is sleek and attractive.
4. Muscle makes you strong, functionally fit, increases your endurance, and improves physical performance in all areas of life, not just athletics.
5. Studies show fat (although not a big calorie burning engine) is metabolically active. Fat makes good and bad hormones and chemicals that affect health. The more fat you have on your body, the more nasty chemicals you’ll produce while the more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn.
It is a fact of life that you will lose muscle mass starting around 30 years old and averaging 5 pounds of loss per decade without resistance training to counteract this phenomenon. So what, you may say, I’m not an athlete and I have a desk job. That mere 5 pounds a decade of muscle loss means you’ll burn approximately 250 calories less per day. By the time you turn 60 that adds up to 750 calories you are no longer burning. If you’re still eating the same as always your body and lifestyle will be a recipe for obesity.
See full version of article at my blog Kudos For Balanced Fitness and Lifestyle
http://kudosforlowcarb.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-you-want-to-preserve-and-build.html
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fitness, muscle, metabolism, strength training, fat loss
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