How much does muscle matter for energy expenditure and fat loss

Hans

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How frequently have you heard: "Build muscle to lose fat." Implying that muscle mass has a very high metabolic rate and will burn up all your adipose tissue the more muscle you have.
In this article, I set the record straight and also show you what's really important for increasing energy expenditure.

 
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Hans

Hans

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Just finished listening – very informative.
Thanks for listening. How would you say you prefer your content, vid, audio or text?
 

rr1

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Great content as always.

However I did think that when people like Ray and Georgi talk about getting big muscles to burn fat, it was mostly because the muscles will burn the excess fat at rest, and all the energy (carbs) that you eat will go to your other tissues (eg. brain). Is this idea of the muscles burning fat different to simply increasing energy expenditure by a 100 or so calories? Or is that just the mechanism for the increase in energy expenditure?
 

76er

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Apr 8, 2021
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I'd say that both audio and writing are important to me.

I rarely watch the videos but they seem to be released first on Youtube (?) so I
mostly consume from there. I have Youtube Premium so I can listen while my
device screen is off. I do frequent Youtube more often than my
podcasting app so there's that.

Even though I rarely watch now, early on when discovering your content I did
watch more. Perhaps that was a trust building phase?

The reason I rarely watch and just listen is the typically multi-tasking
reasons. I have a wife, four kids, a small business, etc., etc. I always
listen while making breakfast. After breakfast, I don't listen to anything but
will read.

The written form is indispensable. Being able to go back and read about a
topic of interest is just huge. These topics are so incredibly technical that
you must read about them over and over. Words are searchable so I can
quickly find what I am looking for. Written word is "send-able" as it is
quicker to digest. Of course, the written word takes much longer to produce.

Fore example, I found the "metabolic-health" sphere through Don & Tracy
Matesz's Meats & Sweets book. I still read it all the time, even though it is basic
(no offense to them as it is probably on purpose) compared to the content
produced by you and others, I'll still go back to the book for fundamentals like
calcium to phosphorus ratio, why gelatin is beneficial, recipes, etc.
Plus the book is on my night stand ;). @RyanHeeney 's recent written articles
have been hugely beneficial and I have read them (or sections of them) more
than once or twice. I have a google searches set up (e.g. site:men-elite.com
"search term") for men-elite.com and raypeatforums.com because I need to
quickly dig into a topic.

In short, the written word is more important to me than audio content if I had to pick.
I guess it is a time and retention thing.
 
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Hans

Hans

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Messages
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Great content as always.

However I did think that when people like Ray and Georgi talk about getting big muscles to burn fat, it was mostly because the muscles will burn the excess fat at rest, and all the energy (carbs) that you eat will go to your other tissues (eg. brain). Is this idea of the muscles burning fat different to simply increasing energy expenditure by a 100 or so calories? Or is that just the mechanism for the increase in energy expenditure?
Thanks man.
The muscle does burn fat, but the increase in mass is not worth it if the goal is only fat loss. As explained in the article, if you add 10kg mass, you'll burn 130 calories more, which is only 14.4g of fat extra per day. The only way to burn fat is to increase your energy expenditure, whether it be via exercise, uncoupling, increasing mitochondrial density, etc. As I mentioned in the article, adding muscle is a very poor way of boosting energy expenditure and fat loss. The better way to do it is to optimize your hormones and neurotransmitters so that you have more energy to be more spontaneously active.
Even if you use large doses of thyroid and testosterone, but remain sedentary, chances of getting sliced are very slim. People might say that they got lean when they started thyroid, but most people aren't aware that they suddenly start moving more as well.
 
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Hans

Hans

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I'd say that both audio and writing are important to me.

I rarely watch the videos but they seem to be released first on Youtube (?) so I
mostly consume from there. I have Youtube Premium so I can listen while my
device screen is off. I do frequent Youtube more often than my
podcasting app so there's that.

Even though I rarely watch now, early on when discovering your content I did
watch more. Perhaps that was a trust building phase?

The reason I rarely watch and just listen is the typically multi-tasking
reasons. I have a wife, four kids, a small business, etc., etc. I always
listen while making breakfast. After breakfast, I don't listen to anything but
will read.

The written form is indispensable. Being able to go back and read about a
topic of interest is just huge. These topics are so incredibly technical that
you must read about them over and over. Words are searchable so I can
quickly find what I am looking for. Written word is "send-able" as it is
quicker to digest. Of course, the written word takes much longer to produce.

Fore example, I found the "metabolic-health" sphere through Don & Tracy
Matesz's Meats & Sweets book. I still read it all the time, even though it is basic
(no offense to them as it is probably on purpose) compared to the content
produced by you and others, I'll still go back to the book for fundamentals like
calcium to phosphorus ratio, why gelatin is beneficial, recipes, etc.
Plus the book is on my night stand ;). @RyanHeeney 's recent written articles
have been hugely beneficial and I have read them (or sections of them) more
than once or twice. I have a google searches set up (e.g. site:men-elite.com
"search term") for men-elite.com and raypeatforums.com because I need to
quickly dig into a topic.

In short, the written word is more important to me than audio content if I had to pick.
I guess it is a time and retention thing.
Thanks for the comprehensive feedback. :)
I know what you mean by the searchable function. Nothing beats ctrl-F lol.
I do offer both vid and audio for those that don't have youtube prime. I'm going to continue doing the vid and related article at the same time for a while and see if that's more helpful for people. I release the vid just a few min (less than 30 perhaps) before the article as I have to embed it into the article.
 

rr1

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2019
Messages
374
Thanks man.
The muscle does burn fat, but the increase in mass is not worth it if the goal is only fat loss. As explained in the article, if you add 10kg mass, you'll burn 130 calories more, which is only 14.4g of fat extra per day. The only way to burn fat is to increase your energy expenditure, whether it be via exercise, uncoupling, increasing mitochondrial density, etc. As I mentioned in the article, adding muscle is a very poor way of boosting energy expenditure and fat loss. The better way to do it is to optimize your hormones and neurotransmitters so that you have more energy to be more spontaneously active.
Even if you use large doses of thyroid and testosterone, but remain sedentary, chances of getting sliced are very slim. People might say that they got lean when they started thyroid, but most people aren't aware that they suddenly start moving more as well.
Great explanation, thank you!

And in regards to the question above, I prefer the content in the order of articles > YouTube video > audio. Only because articles can be read a bit faster than watching a video. But of course I will consume in whatever form you choose.
 

akgrrrl

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Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
1,714
Location
Alaska
I'd say that both audio and writing are important to me.

I rarely watch the videos but they seem to be released first on Youtube (?) so I
mostly consume from there. I have Youtube Premium so I can listen while my
device screen is off. I do frequent Youtube more often than my
podcasting app so there's that.

Even though I rarely watch now, early on when discovering your content I did
watch more. Perhaps that was a trust building phase?

The reason I rarely watch and just listen is the typically multi-tasking
reasons. I have a wife, four kids, a small business, etc., etc. I always
listen while making breakfast. After breakfast, I don't listen to anything but
will read.

The written form is indispensable. Being able to go back and read about a
topic of interest is just huge. These topics are so incredibly technical that
you must read about them over and over. Words are searchable so I can
quickly find what I am looking for. Written word is "send-able" as it is
quicker to digest. Of course, the written word takes much longer to produce.

Fore example, I found the "metabolic-health" sphere through Don & Tracy
Matesz's Meats & Sweets book. I still read it all the time, even though it is basic
(no offense to them as it is probably on purpose) compared to the content
produced by you and others, I'll still go back to the book for fundamentals like
calcium to phosphorus ratio, why gelatin is beneficial, recipes, etc.
Plus the book is on my night stand ;). @RyanHeeney 's recent written articles
have been hugely beneficial and I have read them (or sections of them) more
than once or twice. I have a google searches set up (e.g. site:men-elite.com
"search term") for men-elite.com and raypeatforums.com because I need to
quickly dig into a topic.

In short, the written word is more important to me than audio content if I had to pick.
I guess it is a time and retention thing.
+1 everything here. Exactly.
 
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Hans

Hans

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Forum Supporter
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Aug 24, 2017
Messages
5,856
Great explanation, thank you!

And in regards to the question above, I prefer the content in the order of articles > YouTube video > audio. Only because articles can be read a bit faster than watching a video. But of course I will consume in whatever form you choose.
+1 everything here. Exactly.
Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback.
 

David's

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Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Messages
4
Hi Hans I do enjoy the YouTube videos. But I tend to miss bits so it is always good to read and catch up on the bit's you miss. It is always nice to be able to know about what you can be achieved with muscle expenditure to fat loss from exercising. Even if there is not a lot of fat loss. Thank you
 
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Hans

Hans

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Hi Hans I do enjoy the YouTube videos. But I tend to miss bits so it is always good to read and catch up on the bit's you miss. It is always nice to be able to know about what you can be achieved with muscle expenditure to fat loss from exercising. Even if there is not a lot of fat loss. Thank you
Thanks for the feedback.
Are you referring to the extra energy expenditure of the extra muscle during exercise as opposed to the resting energy expenditure of muscle?
I don't think that will matter as much, but I haven't found any data on that either. I'm going to do an article on fat loss through exercise soon, but again, the goal is not to spend time doing exercise for fat loss, but rather optimize your energy levels so that your spontaneous (subconscious) activity levels go up. The more some focuses on exercise/being active, the more likely they are to compensate somewhere else, such as eat more, or move even less. More on that in the next article.
 

Sitaruîm

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Jun 14, 2020
Messages
480
I'm trying to reconcile some ideas here.. if energy expenditure is similar at rest for euthyroid and hypothyroid individuals, then how can one explain the rat experiment where the rats binging on coke saw no weight gain?
 
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Hans

Hans

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I'm trying to reconcile some ideas here.. if energy expenditure is similar at rest for euthyroid and hypothyroid individuals, then how can one explain the rat experiment where the rats binging on coke saw no weight gain?
Hypothyroid individuals do have a slower metabolic rate than euthyroid people. It's about 200-300 cal difference.

I'm putting less and less weight on animal studies in regards to nutrition since I've seen too many discrepancies between how animals and humans respond to macros.
 

Sefton10

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Oct 19, 2019
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Thanks for listening. How would you say you prefer your content, vid, audio or text?
I prefer listening podcast style while walking - so the fact you've started uploading videos to the podcast apps too was great for me.
 
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Hans

Hans

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I prefer listening podcast style while walking - so the fact you've started uploading videos to the podcast apps too was great for me.
Great stuff, thanks for the feedback.
 

sun-maid

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Joined
Sep 19, 2019
Messages
194
How frequently have you heard: "Build muscle to lose fat." Implying that muscle mass has a very high metabolic rate and will burn up all your adipose tissue the more muscle you have.
In this article, I set the record straight and also show you what's really important for increasing energy expenditure.


Nice article. I never heard much of this topic and it's very insteresting. So how to optimize your hormones and neurotransmitters ? That is what "peating" is suppose to do I guess.
 
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