Muscle is for so much more than swimsuit season.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Our muscles are amazing.
They’re really for so much more than looking good in a swimsuit.
Skeletal muscle (the muscle on our bones rather than muscles like our heart) give our bodies strength and support.
Building muscle earlier in life can help prevent injuries and weakness from age-related muscle loss as we get older.
Carrying muscle on our bodies helps make our bones stronger and protects them from breaks.
The strength you get from having muscles makes you better at most any physical activity.
Muscle is heavy and creates more work for your body to carry around, so you use more energy (calories) just walking around.
We store glucose in muscle tissue, so having more muscle on your body gives you more places to store glucose, helping keep your blood sugar in balance.
And, as it turns out, muscle helps you lose weight, better than dieting alone.
The results were pretty incredible.
Yes, the diet-only group lost weight, but most of it was muscle mass (about 21lbs), not fat. The diet + cardio group lost less muscle mass than the diet-only group (about 5lbs of muscle), while the diet + strength training group actually gained 8 pounds of muscle while still losing weight overall.
After 1 year, all 3 groups had regained some of the weight they had lost. But the strength training group didn’t gain back as much as the other two.
So… wow.
Not only is building muscle crucial for helping lose the weight we want to lose (from fat), but muscle actually helps keep the weight off long term.
Clearly, muscle is super important to our overall health and longevity.
I will acknowledge that body weight or BMI are not, on their own, clear markers of health. People can be thin and metabolically unhealthy just as they can be curvy and in good metabolic health.
That said, we are pretty overfed and under-muscled in this country. Anything we can do to flip that script and build muscle and balance our metabolism will put us in the running for a long, healthy life.
If weight loss is a goal for you, now you’ve got one more arrow in the quiver to help you hit your target.
5 Tips to help build muscle:
Eat protein at every meal
Do resistance training at least 2-3 times a week
Carry a weight or wear a weighted backpack when you walk
Garden and do outdoor manual labor, e.g. carry, swing, chop, dig
Swim laps or do water aerobics
Y’all, this is what my 6-month coaching program is all about. Finding the things you love to do that will help develop healthy habits and give you energy and vitality for years to come.
As a reminder, here’s what comes with your 6-month 1:1 coaching program:
Food journal and health history analysis
Healthy habit swaps
Bi-weekly support calls
Personalized shopping lists
Personalized meal plan
Personalized exercise / movement plan
Custom weekly calendar / schedule
Diet, lifestyle & supplement protocols
20% discount on supplements
Lifetime access to Facebook group
Accountability & support
RESULTS!
Ready? Let's go!
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