How Many Calories Does a Pound of Muscle Burn?

December 11, 2009

Quick ‘notes style’ post today as I need to get away from this computer and get some shopping done:
MUSCLE and your METABOLISM.
1 pound of muscle burns about 5 Calories in a 24 hour period at rest.
Not 50.
Not even 10-12 like commonly stated.
So why the confusion?
Well, if we look at the Katch-McCardle Formula (used for calculating a persons metabolic rate) we see that:
Our daily metabolic rate can be calculated as “Calories burned in a 24 hour period = 370 + (21.6 X LBM(kg))”
Which leads many of people to think that a kilogram of Muscle burns 21.6 Calories in a 24 hour period.
So a pound must burn about 10 Calories right? (21.6 divided by 2.2)
Well not so fast…
As I’ve been saying for a long time now, a pound of Lean Body Mass does NOT mean a pound of muscle.
It includes everything else in your body that is NOT FAT.
Which means this calculation […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

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Filed under: Fitness

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