Okay guys,the question is....Does lifting weights really improve your metabolism?

I will keep it simple:

Increased muscle mass increases need for adding more fuel to be burned and improves the body's capacity to burn more fuel.

So instead of having 500 cells to burn x calories, you may have 600-700 doing that same work for x calories.

Thanks.

[ March 05, 2006, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: eddiecat ]

Nice clear answer on that, Kick. So having more muscle mass increases greater fuel need and higher metabolism. Then does having more fat also increase great fuel need and higher metabolism?

Ummm, no.

Here's how the guys at the gym (a sales rep and a personal trainer) explained it to me: A pound of muscle burns ~12 calories per hour at rest while a pound of fat burns ~4 at rest. So if you build up your muscle mass, you will burn more calories at rest. Even if one exercises regularly, most people are sedentary the vast majority of the 24-hour day. Let's say you hit the weights and put on 10 pounds of muscle: 12 x 24 = 288 extra calories you can consume a day without gaining weight. If you eat the same amount, then you will drop almost 300 calories a day. Over the course of a year, that's 30 pounds!

Ta BoSoxRudy for explaining that so well. Your description makes me think that another person once explained it similarly.

Hopefully you won't have to become a brick wall to get that better metabolism.

If you don’t mind I would like to tag a question on to this tread. I do about 30-45 minutes of cardio 3-4 times per week. I lift 2 days per week. I used to be a big boy. Now I’m an average sized guy. Should I cut back on my cardio and lift more? Am I doing too much cardio? Is that enough information for my question?

[ March 10, 2006, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Ou Sooner 1997 ]

First of all, I should preface my remarks by saying I am not a fitness expert of any sort, just a regular gym-goer who gets info from the staff at my gym. The optimal amount of cardio is 45 minutes 4x a week, but (and here's the critical factor) with your pulse rate somewhere between 60-70% of maximum. To get your maximum pulse rate, subtract your age from 220. I'm 40, so my cardio pulse rate would be between 108 and 126. If your pulse rate is less than 60% of maximum, your body's just not working hard enough to get the benefits of the cardio. If it's more than 70%, you start going catabolic. "Catabolic" is the state where your body stops burning glycogen and fat for fuel and starts burning muscle instead. That happened to me - for a while there, I was doing an hour of cardio 6x/week at ~75% and was baffled/frustrated that I wasn't losing an ounce. Also, switch up your equipment every week because that makes your body work harder. Any time your body keeps doing the same thing over and over again, it gets really efficient at that motion and figures out a way to burn fewer calories. So do the treadmill for a week, then the elliptical,then the elliptical backward (terrific exercise), then the bike, etc. Do the 45 min./4x routine for 6 weeks, then on the 7th week, switch things up again by doing 25 min./4x at ~80% of maximum (for me that would be a pulse rate of 144, so a trainer said that a range of 140-150 would be good). During this change-up week, don't do any more than 25 min., otherwise your body starts burning muscle like crazy. One final bit of advice, don't rely on the pulse meters that are built into a lot of gym equipment nowadays. I always take my own pulse, and the equipment readings are often way off.

As for weight training, it depends on what you want to accomplish. Do you want to just maintain and tone? Or do you want to start building some serious muscle?

I want to just maintain and tone.

Question: is it possible to add bulk if you are doing a significant amount of cardio? Guy at the gym said I'd have to cut back on running if I wanted to increase muscle mass. Not gonna happen but I am curious.

Also, right now I do not lift weights at all (no gym membership currently) but I am up to 5 sets of 50 pushups (250, duh) every other day. My chest is my best feature but just okay in my eyes, not great. Can pushups define a chest enough to get noticed?

I feel a bit uncomfortable responding to these questions since I am by no stretch a fitness expert, but since nobody else is responding, here goes ...

OU Sooner: It's easy to recommend a cardio program, but much more difficult to recommend a weight-training program. Most gyms have some sort of introductory special for weight training that might be worth your time and money. I had been weight-training for 10 years, learning mostly from books, magazines, and watching other guys at the gym. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable and doubted I would benefit much from the 4 training sessions that came with my gym's signup package, but wow, I learned a ton! If training isn't an option for you, then check out a book at the library about weight-training basics. My only recommendation is that you continually vary things up. Do a routine for 3 weeks, then switch it up. For example, if you settle on 3x a week, 1 set of 12 reps per body part, do that for 3 weeks, then switch it up the 4th week - e.g., different exercise or machine for each body part, slightly less weight, and 1 set of 15. Then after 3 weeks, a different exercise again, more weight, and a set of 10. If you do the same exercises/same routine, then like with any other stress or stimulus, your body just gets used to it and doesn't respond as much.

TC: I don't know what exactly you mean by "significant amount of cardio", but my guess is no. With your pushup routine, again, I recommend changing it up as much as possible, e.g., with your hands closer together, farther apart, with your feet propped up on a chair so you're pushing more weight and working your pecs at a different angle. Whether your pushup routine is enough to make a difference depends a lot on genetics. With some guys, just doing pushups can make a noticeable difference, but with most (just my casual observation, not sure of this), it won't since even if you do all sorts of variations on the pushup, it's still the same exercise/same basic motion. But if you really want to put on some muscle, whether it's serious bulk or just cut and definition, you really have to join a gym.