Muscle vs Fat: Why Muscle Mass Matters For Metabolism

Introduction

Muscle and fat are two different types of body tissue that play vital roles in health and fitness. Muscle is denser and more metabolically active, helping burn calories and improve strength, while fat serves as the body’s energy reserve and insulation. Understanding the balance between muscle and fat is key to achieving a healthy body composition.

Your general health, lifespan, and quality of life all depend on maintaining a healthy level of muscle mass. Muscle is essential for metabolic advantages, injury prevention, and cognitive function support, among other critical areas.

The Function of Muscle

Muscle mass is important for metabolism, which is one of the main reasons. Keeping muscle requires energy in the form of calories because it is a metabolically active tissue. Your resting metabolic rate (RMR), or how many calories your body burns while at rest, increases with muscle mass. Preventing obesity and controlling body weight may become simpler as a result.

Sarcopenia is the term for the natural loss of muscle mass that occurs as you age. A slower metabolism results from this. One way to combat that is through resistance training. Muscle is necessary for strength and mobility in addition to metabolism. Muscle strength is necessary for daily tasks like walking, climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and even getting out of a chair. These easy activities can become more challenging as muscle weakens with age, reducing independence and elevating the risk of fractures and falls.

Maintaining your muscle mass and functional strength can be achieved through strength training, whether it be with resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, or weightlifting. For older adults in particular, this is crucial.

Muscle Mass and Chronic Health Conditions

A decreased risk of chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes is also associated with maintaining muscle mass. By absorbing glucose for energy, muscles play a crucial part in glucose metabolism and blood sugar regulation. Your insulin sensitivity improves with muscle mass, which lowers your chance of getting diabetes.

By enhancing circulation and lowering blood pressure, strong muscles promote a healthy cardiovascular system. By raising HDL (good) cholesterol and decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol, resistance training has been demonstrated to improve heart health and lower the risk of heart disease.

Muscle mass has advantages for mental and emotional health in addition to physical health. Endorphins are naturally occurring mood enhancers that are stimulated by exercise, particularly resistance training. Anxiety and depression symptoms have been found to decrease with strength training.

Better cognitive function has also been linked to maintaining muscle mass. Regular strength training participants are less likely to experience dementia and cognitive decline. Longevity can be accurately predicted by muscle mass. Greater muscle mass is associated with longer and healthier lifespans. Maintaining or growing muscle mass should be your top priority because muscle strength is a better indicator of mortality than body mass index (BMI).

Another important factor in preventing frailty is muscle mass. Weakness, exhaustion, and decreased physical activity are characteristics of weakness, and they all raise the risk of hospitalization. You can preserve your independence and quality of life well into old age by maintaining muscle through consistent resistance training and a healthy diet.

How to Increase and Preserve Muscle Mass

The following are some essential methods for preserving and increasing your muscle mass:

Prioritize Strength Training

The best method for gaining and keeping muscle is resistance training. This includes resistance band workouts, bodyweight exercises (such as squats and push-ups), and weightlifting. Try to get in two or three 45-minute workouts a week, concentrating on your main muscle groups.

Make Sure You’re Getting Enough Protein

Protein is what makes muscles. Eating enough protein promotes muscle growth and repair. Lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, beans, lentils, and plant-based alternatives like tofu and tempeh are all good sources of high-quality protein. To find out more about the kind and quantity of protein that is best for you, speak with a registered dietitian.

Concentration on Balanced Nutrition

Maintaining muscle requires a diet that is well-balanced and full of complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and micronutrients in addition to protein. Minerals and vitamins like calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D help maintain healthy bones and muscles. You can find that balance with the assistance of a registered dietitian.

Engage in Regular Physical Activity

Maintaining muscle mass throughout the day is just as important as formal resistance training. Walking and other sports are examples of activities that improve cardiovascular fitness and muscle health in general.

Adequate Rest and Recuperation

Rest is when muscles grow. Muscle development and repair depend on getting enough sleep and allowing time for muscle recovery in between workouts. Try to get between seven and nine hours of good sleep each night.

The number of calories burned increases with muscle mass

Energy is necessary for every cell in our body to function, and we typically obtain this energy from the food we eat. However, we don’t require external fuel for some bodily functions, like breathing and blinking. Scientists call this the resting metabolic rate. The amount of energy your body requires to maintain the health of all of its organs, including the heart and lungs, is taken into consideration by your basal metabolic rate. It is measured under very specific conditions, such as a 12-hour fast and quiet, distraction-free resting while lying down in a dark room.

When more muscle cells are working, you burn a lot more calories while you’re at rest than when you have less muscle. Your resting metabolic rate will rise dramatically if you gain 10 pounds of muscle. The body burns fifty more calories a day for every pound of lean muscle mass! Your body’s ability to turn food into fuel for all of those hard-working cells that require energy to function is improved by having more muscles

Basal metabolic rate increases with higher muscle mass

Muscle cells need energy to contract and relax, which contributes to their increased caloric expenditure. This implies that muscle cells continue to burn calories even when you are not moving. About 60% of the energy used by our bodies comes from BMR. Lean muscle mass provides a greater proportion of this energy than fat (1 pound of muscle burns 6 calories per day compared to 4 calories per day for 1 pound of fat). This implies that having more muscle mass in your body will result in a higher overall energy expenditure, which is beneficial for weight loss or weight maintenance. Additionally, gaining muscle is one way to raise your BMR as you begin exercising.

Increased muscle mass lessens cravings

This is because physical activity raises your metabolism, which means that you burn more calories while you’re at rest. Here, too, the “starvation mode” may be activated. They’re using a lot of energy, so your body might think, We’ll hold onto the calories because they might be around longer. However, you don’t want your metabolism to slow down or suffer from constant hunger pangs while on a diet.

This situation is less likely to occur if you have more muscles than if you were carrying excess fat. You will need more calories if you have more muscle mass because muscle cells need more energy to function than fat cells.

Improves the ability to do everyday activities

It is easier to move around when there is less body fat. Gaining muscle through strength training can help reduce the risk of falls and improve independence in everyday activities like getting out of a chair or standing up from a sitting position. Without sacrificing our speed or reactivity, muscle keeps our connective tissue healthy and protects us from harm when we fall.

Gaining muscle mass makes daily tasks easier and reduces the risk of injury. This also holds true for sports-related injuries, which frequently result from a lack of muscle surrounding joints.

Overall sense of well-being

Absolutely, there is an “optimal” body weight for longevity and good health. Reduced life expectancy has been associated with being underweight (anorexia) or overweight (obesity). The group with longer lean muscle mass and shorter fat mass had a higher quality of life and lived longer than those who were obese and of average weight. A higher sense of general well-being can result from having a healthy amount of muscle mass and a low amount of fat.

Improves exercise ability

Gaining lean muscle mass makes exercising and participating in sports easier. We can accomplish more work if we have more muscles. However, having more muscle means that you can perform physically demanding tasks for longer periods of time. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. This can, in fact, lessen fatigue and improve the body’s capacity to recuperate from demanding activities.

Expenditure Of Energy Increases

Our muscles naturally lose mass as we age. Because we become more sedentary as we age, this process dramatically lowers total energy expenditure. At this point, the advantages of resistance training for bone and joint health become even more significant. Increased muscle mass from strength training can contribute to a higher level of energy expenditure, which implies that we must consume more food to keep our bodies in good condition. This is one of the main reasons it’s so important for older people to keep doing resistance training. It has been established that adults are more likely to become obese if they are less active.

Enhanced Metabolism and Better Mental Health

We feel better about ourselves and are better equipped to handle difficult situations when we have more muscle and less fat. Gaining muscle reduces blood cortisol levels, which helps control emotions and stress levels. Additionally, this results in fewer depressive symptoms. It has been demonstrated that people who exercise insufficiently or not at all are more likely to experience depression. You are more likely to become sedentary and develop several serious conditions if you have less muscle mass.

Assistants for successful ageing

Reduced bone mineral density, a risk factor for osteoporosis and fractures, is linked to decreased muscle mass. For this reason, resistance training with increased muscle mass is crucial for both men and women. Strong muscles allow us to concentrate on improving our quality of life rather than wasting more energy on maintaining healthy bones. Sedentary lifestyles raise the risk of heart disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. A healthy amount of muscle mass is linked to a lower chance of contracting these illnesses, which may help us live longer.

Improves sleep quality

Strength training has been shown to dramatically reduce insomnia and improve sleep quality. The primary cause of this is the body’s natural release of growth hormone, which actively promotes muscle recovery and repair while you sleep. Gaining more lean muscle mass can help us sleep at a deeper, more restorative level, which will improve our performance all day long. This results in enhanced muscle growth and repair.

Enhanced nerve function leads to better metabolism

By improving blood flow to the extremities, having a healthy muscle mass can aid in enhancing nerve function. This is because sedentary individuals have been shown to have reduced blood flow to their arms and legs. Nerve function is restricted, and metabolism deteriorates when there is insufficient blood flow to the extremities. This can further reduce muscle mass by lowering endurance for weight-bearing exercise. Increased muscle mass from strength training guarantees that our bodies receive the nutrients they need to remain healthy.

Reduces the chance of chronic illnesses that increase metabolism

Gaining muscle mass lowers the chance of contracting long-term conditions like cancer, heart disease, and neurological disorders. By lowering the basal metabolic rate, having adequate muscle mass also aids in boosting metabolism throughout the day. In short, having more muscle mass and a lower body fat percentage makes it more difficult to maintain a healthy weight. It takes more energy to simply stay alive if you have less muscle. For this reason, adding muscle mass through strength training is crucial to a person’s daily fitness routine.

Easier to decrease body fat and increase metabolism

Increased blood levels of hormone-sensitive lipase can result from strength training combined with muscle growth. This makes it possible for our body to burn fat more quickly by breaking down fat cells. Strength training is known to raise our metabolic rate throughout the day because it increases lean muscle mass.

Reduces harmful LDL cholesterol, which raises metabolism

Lower levels of dangerous cholesterol, which can cause heart disease, are a result of increased lean muscle mass. Increasing muscle mass lowers the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular disorders, in addition to the risk of cancer. Reduced levels of “bad cholesterol,” such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), which directly contributes to plaque accumulation in veins and arteries, are the primary cause of this. By increasing our muscle mass through strength training, we can lower our LDL cholesterol and strengthen our hearts

Improves growth hormones that support restoration

The popular phrase “Growth hormone does everything!” is not entirely true, but it comes pretty close. From maintaining body fat levels to rehablitate bones and skin, growth hormone plays a role in almost every facet of body reconstruction. You can tell your pituitary gland that your body needs more growth hormone to sustain the new muscle tissue by increasing your lean muscle mass. Your body reacts to this by raising the blood levels of growth hormones. Indirectly, this encourages tissue repair and healing throughout the body, which is crucial for preserving metabolism and overall health.

More than just a fitness objective, muscle mass is essential to general health, longevity, and well-being. The advantages of keeping muscle mass are indisputable, ranging from improving mental health and longevity to increasing metabolism and preventing chronic disease. You can develop and maintain muscle for a stronger, healthier future by combining strength training, a healthy diet, and an active lifestyle into your routine. Making muscle health a priority now can result in a more active and self-sufficient life later on.

How Your Body Weight Is provided by Muscle and Fat

Because body fat and muscle can both be controlled and altered by your lifestyle, they receive the majority of attention when it comes to weight.Your diet and level of exercise have a significant impact on your body fat mass, or the total amount of fat in your body. Your body fat mass can vary based on whether you are eating at a calorie deficit or surplus because one of its main purposes is energy storage.

This implies that if you consume more calories than your body needs, the extra energy may be stored as fat, resulting in weight gain. Since these are the muscles that can be strengthened through exercise, you also have a great deal of control over how much of your weight is made up of your skeletal muscle mass. As a result, your level of muscle mass may serve as a gauge of your level of fitness.

Methods for Gaining More Muscle

There are many ways to build muscle, both inside and outside of the gym, but barbells and dumbbells are great. Strength training with resistance bands, calisthenics exercises like air squats and pushups, and weighted exercises using dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, and other tools can all challenge your muscles and make them bigger and stronger, so you can benefit from these metabolic advantages. Well-known fitness applications like Peloton, Ladder, and Nike Training Club are also excellent starting points.

Consult your physician about what is safe for you before beginning any strength training program, particularly if you have any underlying medical conditions. Speak with a qualified personal trainer if you’re new to strength training, don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own, or simply want some suggestions about which of the various strength training techniques you might like best: A complimentary introductory training session may be provided by your neighborhood gym, allowing you to pick up moves and determine whether you prefer working with an expert or doing it alone.

To optimize your muscle (and metabolic) gains, use any of the five scientific strategies listed below.

Begin with two weekly total-body workouts

Less is more when you’re first starting: You can choose more days to work out and maintain your routine if you do fewer weekly strength training sessions. It’s sufficient to work out twice with at least one day off in between.

It is crucial to take a break between your two training sessions. The process of building muscle begins with your workout (and protein consumption, as covered below). However, the real muscle growth occurs during your recuperation between workouts. Therefore, take a day or more off in between workouts.

How to use this: total-body workouts only use a few exercises to work every muscle in the body. To work as many muscle groups as possible, these exercises typically target multiple joints at once. For instance, a triceps pushdown isolates only the elbow joint, whereas a bench press works the triceps through the elbow joint and the chest muscles through the shoulder joint.

To create your total-body workouts, pick one or two exercises from these categories:

• Lower-body exercises that focus on the knees: Squats, split squats, lunges, and the leg press machine work your quadriceps, or the fronts of your thighs, as well as your calves, glutes, and trunk stability. Though not as much as with hip-dominant exercises, the hamstrings, or the back of your thighs, are also worked. The hamstrings and glutes are typically the main movers in hip-dominant lower-body exercises like deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, step-ups, glute bridges, and rear foot-elevated split squats.
• Horizontal pressing: Exercises that target your chest and triceps include resistance band presses, bench presses, pushups, and the chest press machine.
• Pulling exercises: Pull-ups, inverted bodyweight rows, lat pulldowns, barbell or dumbbell rows, and horizontal seated cable or resistance band rows all target your biceps and back muscles, including the latissimus dorsi. One of the biggest muscles in the body is the latissimus dorsi. Choose a vertical pull and a horizontal pull if you are selecting two moves from this category.
• Vertical presses: Overhead presses with a barbell, dumbbell, or resistance band work the deltoids, or the caps of your shoulders, as well as the triceps and chest.

In every set, train almost to failure

It doesn’t matter how many repetitions you do in a set; if you prefer to do sets of 15 leg presses with a lighter weight or 3 to 5 with a heavier weight, either will help you gain muscle as long as the final set is challenging.

Try to reach “momentary muscular failure,” which is the point at which you are unable to perform another repetition without your form breaking down, within two repetitions. By doing this, you engage every muscle fiber in the set: Slow-twitch, Type I fibers are used in the early repetitions of a set, when the exercise is still comparatively easy. However, these muscle fatigues and the Type II fibers, which are fast-twitch and can produce larger muscles, start to work as the set goes on. Theoretically, all of the fibers should be worked at the end of this type of set.

Every few weeks, perform the final set of an exercise all the way to failure, continuing until you are unable to perform another repetition, to ensure that you are truly approaching failure. You might discover that you can perform more repetitions than you think you can before failing. Going forward, use this new “test” set as your benchmark and aim to complete your workout sets within two repetitions of that number.

How to use this: For the majority of workouts, complete sets that are one to three repetitions away from failure.

Every week, complete 10 to 20 working sets for every muscle

More “near-failure” sets translate into larger muscles because they are working sets rather than warm-ups.

Perform 10 to 20 working sets per muscle group each week to optimize muscle growth.

How to use this: To optimize muscle growth, try to complete 10 to 20 total working sets of your arms, legs, shoulders, back, and chest each week. That equates to 5–10 sets per muscle group for each of your two weekly total-body sessions.

You could perform five sets of the same exercise, such as a dumbbell bench press, for ten weekly sets for your chest. Alternatively, it might consist of three sets of one exercise, like an incline chest press machine, and two sets of another, like a pushup. Or it could be any permutation of five single sets of five different moves you like. Make sure every working set is almost at the end of its life, and aim for 10 to 20 per week.

Increase your overall work over time

What used to be difficult will become easier as your muscles get stronger, so you’ll need to do more. You have to do more over time in order to gain and keep muscle. In strength training, this concept is referred to as “progressive overload.”

The overall volume of your workouts which is calculated by multiplying the weight you move by the number of repetitions you complete is how progressive overload is applied. This number must gradually rise to overload. For instance, your current weekly volume is 8,000 pounds (100 x 10 x 8) if you are performing the back exercises with 100 pounds at the moment and completing 10 sets of eight repetitions each.

One or more of those three factors must rise to raise this weekly volume: One set could consist of nine repetitions, a set involving 105 pounds, or an additional set added to a single workout. The concept of progressive overload is being used because even one repetition added to a single set will raise the total volume (in this case, by 100 pounds).

How to use this: You’ll get stronger quickly when you first start. At first, you should be able to increase the overall volume of your workouts per session.

This becomes more difficult as time goes on, you won’t be able to increase the volume in each session relative to the previous one; instead, aim to increase the weekly total. If that isn’t feasible, try getting better every month. Increasing the weight or repetitions will get harder as you get better; eventually, just finishing the final rep “stronger” still struggling, but with a little more ease—may be progress. Simply stay on course and gradually increase your workload.

Consume between 0.6 and 1.4 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day

Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and breakdown (MPB) are the two processes that must be balanced to build muscle.

Muscle protein breakdown is composed of several molecular pathways that cause muscle to break down during exercise and for other bodily functions that depend on the amino acids found in muscle protein. You are in a catabolic state, which means you are losing muscle when your MPB is higher than your MPS. You are in an anabolic (muscle-gaining) state when your MPS is higher.

Muscle protein synthesis is triggered by strength training, but it is insufficient. You must consume protein that contains all of these “essential” amino acids to perform MPS because your body is unable to produce all of them. You gain muscle when you eat protein and engage in resistance training because it shifts the balance of MPS and MPB into anabolic territory.

How to use this: Your body weight and whether you’re on a diet or eating enough calories to maintain your current weight will determine how much protein you need.

0.6 to 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day is recommended for people who wish to gain muscle and are eating enough calories to maintain their current body weight. This equates to 108 to 162 grams per day for an individual weighing 180 pounds.

The figures are slightly higher if you’re dieting, which involves eating fewer calories than what’s required to maintain your current body weight (1 to 1.4 grams per pound of body weight per day). This suggests 180 to 252 grams daily for the same 180-pound individual.

More is not always better, as eating more protein than this might not have a major impact on your outcomes. People who consumed two grams of protein per pound of body weight daily did not gain more muscle than those who consumed less than one gram per pound of body weight daily.

What is the difference between muscle and fat?

We can better understand them by recognizing the significant distinctions between muscle and fat tissue. Your body uses body fat primarily as a store of energy. It also has a significant impact on a surprisingly wide range of other areas, including immunity and glucose and cholesterol regulation.

Naturally, when we allow fat to rule the environment, it can also be the bad guy. Being overweight can result in obesity and raise your risk of developing conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and even certain cancers. A high body fat percentage is associated with a higher risk of death, even if your body mass index (BMI) is within a healthy range. Put another way, having a large amount of body fat can make you more likely to die young.

However, muscle tissue is metabolically active, which means that it requires energy to sustain itself, according to medical professionals and scientists. To put it another way, muscles burn calories. Even when we’re sleeping, it does that.

Gaining and maintaining muscle mass is crucial for improving your physical capabilities and general health.

One clear advantage of increasing muscle mass is that it prevents muscle loss, which is a normal part of aging. Gaining muscle also contributes to increased bone density. As people age, both can support their continued physical activity. Your sense of well-being may increase if you gain more muscle and, consequently, less fat. In other words, you are more likely to feel better about yourself if you are in better physical health.

Is muscle denser than fat?

These two tissues not only serve distinct purposes, but they also occupy quite different amounts of space within your body. Muscle weighs more than fat may be familiar to you. This means that even though a pound of fat and a pound of muscle will weigh the same, they will look very different.

A pound of muscle tissue occupies significantly less space than a pound of body fat because muscle tissue is denser than fat. This implies that even though you are the same height and weight as someone else, you may look entirely different and have a different body composition due to differences in the proportions of body fat to muscle. It also implies that your weight may not always be healthy.

Are you gaining fat or muscle?

A physician may employ additional techniques to ascertain your body composition, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), bone density testing (DEXA), or bioelectrical impedance, which measures the electrical conductivity difference between muscle and fat tissue in the body using a tiny electrical current.

Additional instruments include measuring the circumference of your waist and the thickness of the skin in specific places on your body, like under your shoulder blades and the back of your upper arms, using skinfold calipers.

The ideal body fat percentage for men is between 14% and 24%, and for women, between 21% and 31%. Women typically have higher body fat percentages because of their reproductive needs and different physiological compositions.

Athletes would have even lower percentages, but if your body fat percentage is higher than the higher figure, you would be considered obese. In any event, you will have a baseline to monitor to observe the effects of exercise or a nutritious diet once you have a better understanding of your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Should you increase your muscle mass to speed up your metabolism?

By increasing muscle mass, strength training activities can increase metabolism. Compared to fat, muscle burns more calories. Additionally, muscle burns calories even when at rest, unlike fat. This implies that your BMR will increase with your level of muscle mass. Actually, the best indicators of BMR are your genetic composition and total muscle mass.

Additionally, strength training causes excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which is a calorie-burning effect after exercise. More calories are burned after vigorous workouts because the body needs more oxygen to return to its resting state.

After a workout, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may also increase metabolism for a while. Short bursts of high-intensity exercise are interspersed with rest or low-intensity activity in HIIT.

Can muscle make you weigh more?

Absolutely, without a doubt. However, your total body weight does not always indicate your level of health, the health conditions you are susceptible to, or your emotional state.

If you only use your BMI, which is your weight in relation to your height. However, a large portion of the body composition is actually muscle because you have a workout regimen that builds muscle, which does weigh more than an equal volume of fat.

However, it’s crucial to avoid using that fact as an excuse to hide the truth. Because of the fat tissue you’ve gained along the way, you might weigh more. Once more, understanding your body composition may be crucial to determining what to do next.

Strike a balance between eating well and exercising frequently. You could improve your health and feel more content by adopting these habits, which would help you gain muscle and lose fat. Understanding the functions of fat and muscle is a good place to start. The foundation of good health is understanding how to promote one while discouraging a build-up of the other.

Conclusion

Although muscle and fat have the same weight, muscle has about 18% more density than fat.
Weight on a scale is not a reliable indicator of fitness and health advancement.
The ratio of fat to lean mass, or body composition, is more significant than total weight.

Weight is not as good a measure of progress as physical attributes, functional ability, and health biomarkers.
Despite notable improvements in body composition, gaining muscle while losing fat can lead to only slight weight changes.
Expert body composition analysis offers unbiased information to help inform decisions about diet and exercise.

FAQs

References

• Why muscle mass matters and how to keep it. (n.d.). Massachusetts General Hospital. https://www.massgeneral.org/news/article/why-muscle-mass-matters-and-how-to-keep-it
• Clinic, C. (2024, April 12). The Difference Between Muscle Weight vs. Fat Weight. Cleveland Clinic. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/muscle-vs-fat-weight
• Why building muscle matters for metabolic health. (n.d.). Levels | Levels. https://www.levels.com/blog/why-building-muscle-matters-for-metabolic-health
• Richard, & Richard. (2025, August 22). Muscle vs Fat Weight: What’s the Real Difference? InBody USA. https://inbodyusa.com/blogs/inbodyblog/muscle-vs-fat-weight/
• Admin. (2022b, October 12). 15 Ways Increased muscle mass Improves metabolism. Foundry Personal Training Gyms. https://foundryfit.com/15-ways-increased-muscle-mass-improves-metabolism/