While I was reading "How many more calories does muscle burn than fat?, I was surprised to find that most people go to gyms for gaining muscles rather than becoming healthier and fitter. There's an idea that larger muscles burn a lot more energy while at rest. But is that true?
While rippling muscles may not turn you into a “fat-burning inferno” there is an elevation in oxygen consumption, termed excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) for over 24 hours post-exercise. This elevated response (the “after-burn”) equates to about 50-100 calories, and is due to an increase in protein synthesis (muscle building) and remodelling within the muscle tissue to adapt and recover.
With all the above said, we have to be mindful of results from the lab versus real-life scenarios. Specifically, an increase in muscle mass will also see an increase in total body weight which will have a small increase in your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Because you weigh more, you will burn more calories moving around and doing daily tasks. Having more muscle will also mean being able to train with heavier loads, again increasing recovery demands and the calories needed to recover from this.
Now comparing this to a recent article by livescience.
"The best way to burn calories in any given [workout] session would absolutely be cardio," said Edward Merritt, a kinesiologist at Southwestern University in Texas. However, most people can't find the energy to do intense cardio several times a week, so he argued that resistance training — which grows muscles by placing them under tension — is a more sustainable approach.
However, Merritt cautioned against the misconception that muscles getting larger increases the tissue's calorie-burning metabolism, even at rest. According to myth, larger muscles burn more calories to maintain themselves, and each pound of muscle gained burns 50 calories per day while at rest.
To conclude, although intensive resistance exercise with heavy weights can lead to an increase in the body’s metabolic rate within the hours or days post-workout, when at rest or outside of that window muscle tissue by itself contributes very little to the body’s resting metabolic rate.
So, this is a myth that larger muscles would help you burn more fat while rest. You actually need to work out more to burn extra fat that you have to intake because of more weight. The best is that we remain lean and thin according to BMI. That's the best way to keep ourselves fit. This is my opinion.
What's yours?