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The main point that I wanted to make with today’s research review was to clear up some of the oft-held (and unfortunately incorrect) ideas regarding the impact of things like skeletal muscle mass and fat mass on resting energy expenditure. Based on current data, the idea that skeletal muscle burns massive numbers of calories would appear to be 100% incorrect.

Rather, skeletal muscle actually burns fairly few calories on a per pound basis; it primarily has a major impact on resting energy expenditure because there is a good bit of it. But adding even moderate amounts of muscle are unlikely to massively impact on energy expenditure. As noted above, I expect the major effect to be from the effort of stimulating muscle mass gains along with the energy needed to synthesize that muscle tissue. But once it’s there it doesn’t burn many calories.

Rather, the majority of resting energy expenditure is generated by the organs which, despite their small size, burn a massive number of calories per unit weight. Someone on the support forum jokingly asked “So how do I hypertrophy my liver?”

Finally, fat cells, while not having much of a calorie burn do burn calories. In fact, they are only about 1/3rds of the burn of skeletal muscle (2 cal/lb vs. 6 cal/lb respectively). While low, someone carrying a lot of fat will have this add up and it will contribute to overall resting energy expenditure.

Pierre C. a écrit:En gros, dire que le métabolisme basal augmente de manière signicative lorsque l'on gagne du muscle est faux?