An Exercise in Futility
Apparently the idea that building muscle aids in weight loss is functionally a myth:
[D]oesn’t exercise turn fat to muscle, and doesn’t muscle process excess calories more efficiently than fat does? Yes, although the muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that.
– John Cloud, Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin, Time Magazine, August 9, 2009, via Megan McArdle.
