Nutrition and Weight Loss

If you tell me you have lost 7 pounds of fat in one week, I’m probably going to say, ” Wow, congratulations on your success!” However, if you found out that 2 of these pounds were muscle mass, then it is not a great success. Actually, it’s not what you want at all. You see, this is where most rapid weight loss stories begin and why most end with having most of this weight return. It is because losing muscle mass DECREASES your BMR.

You may be thinking, “Dr. Wolinski, what’s my BMR?”

” Random blog follower…., I’m glad you asked.”

Products in this post and on this site are recommended based on my personal use, not my professional opinion, and individual results may vary. As an Amazon Affiliate, I could earn a commission on qualifying purchases.

I Don’t Know a BMR From an RPM!

Yeah, that’s ok. I don’t know much about rpms either other than it stands for revolutions per minute and outside of how fast bicycle wheels are spinning, it has almost nothing to do with medicine or weight loss. However, your BMR is your basal metabolic rate and has a whole lot to do with your ability to lose weight.

Basically your basal metabolic rate or resting metabolic rate is the number of calories it takes to run your body at rest. (technically these are not the same but for simplicity sake, let’s call them equal) I love speaking in metaphors so I’m going to start with one here. Let’s say your body is your house. Your BMR would be the amount of electricity (measured in kw/hr) it takes to run your house either while you’re sleeping or when no one is there. The amount of electricity needed to charge your devices, use wi-fi, run security cameras, circulate pool pump, heat/cool the home, have electronics plugged in (yes, just having them plugged in drains electricity even if they are off). In your body, these are all the metabolic functions going on in the background while you are at rest. Your blood circulating, lungs working to breath, muscles working just to support your skeleton, liver metabolizing, kidneys filtering, and last but not least, your brain firing off neurons! Your body’s unit of measurement is not a kw/hr like your house but calories per day.

Variables That Determine Your BMR

As you can see, there isn’t a ton we can do for most factors on this list. If I could have the metabolism I had when I was 17, I wouldn’t have a lot to talk about. You certainly can’t change your age, genetics, or your height in your favor.

Your BMR is actually only a smaller piece of a larger puzzle. It’s a big piece as it makes up 60-80% but it’s just 1 of 4 of the components that make up your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). The other three are Exercise Activity of Thermogenesis, Non-Exercise Activities of Thermogenesis, and Thermogenic Effect of Food. They are not all equal when it comes to energy expenditure and some may be surprising.

• BMR – 70% of TDEE
• Non-Exercise Activities of Thermogenesis 15%
• Thermogenic effect of Food 10%
• Exercise Activities of Thermogenesis 5%

In our home metaphor, the TDEE is when everyone is home or even when you have guests and all are using electricity. The energy it takes to run the vacuum, stove, TVs, Alexas, blenders, fans, water heater, AC (as the more people affect the ambient room air) and so on. As you can see, the energy used to actually exercise plays a smaller role than expected in total daily energy expenditure. We should exercise to build muscle so we can utilize it to burn calories at rest not to burn calories during the actual exercise. Aerobic exercise is excellent for promoting good health as it contributes to improved cardiac health but when it comes to burning fat, it plays a smaller role than you might have expected.

The Muscle Mass Effect

Your muscle mass is the all-star influencer when it comes to BMR. In our metaphor, it’s like having a house with lots of appliances, gaming systems, running lights, cameras, etc as part of basic functions. Building muscle is like buying a new electronic and plugging it in. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will consume at rest. You see, muscle cells use energy more than other cells. Having more or bigger muscle cells increases your basal metabolic rate thereby increasing your metabolism. When you stimulate your muscles to grow and increase in size, they require more energy. You may be thinking, “Where does this energy come from?”. Great question!

Muscle prefers to utilize fat over protein or carbohydrates while at rest. This means that increasing muscle mass will raise your metabolic rate and promote fat burning at rest. The caveat to this is there needs to be a shift in the free amino acid (building blocks of muscle) pool that results in effective amino acid turnover (breaking down and building up). This is where increasing protein intake is crucial. Having a higher protein intake increases free amino acids available for muscles to use, shifts nutrient utilization in favor of muscle building, and therefore increases fat utilization. Since your BMR represents 70% of your total daily energy expenditure and lean muscle comprises a large portion of your BMR, it is certainly an advantage to have more muscle mass so you can burn more calories at rest.

Step Wise Tips

Try This:

• try downloading a calorie counting app like Lose it so you can track your calories and Macros ( I have no existing affiliation with this app, I use and recommend it because it’s relatively cheap and effective)
• evaluate your protein consumption and aim to consume .75-1g of protein per pound per day
• consider adding a protein shake
• Try this recent post for ideas how to get started increasing muscle mass

Products in this post and on this site are recommended based on my personal use, not my professional opinion, and individual results may vary. As an Amazon Affiliate, I could earn a commission on qualifying purchases.

Let’s Get Physical

The more active you are, the more your body has to work which means the more calories you burn. This is known as the thermic effect of activity. There are two types of activities that contribute to the total energy expenditure. The first is exercise activity of thermogenesis. While your BMR is not changing, your metabolism is sped up during these planned exercise activities resulting in energy expenditure and does result in calories burned. As discussed above, your body prefers to utilize fat during activities with lower intensities. As it turns out, the more intense the exercise, the more calories are burned during and to a small degree, even after you have stopped exercising.

Now there is also a NEAT way to burn calories. That is Non-Exercise Activities of Thermogenesis which is cool but not that kind of neat. You see, the activities or movements you do outside of exercise also account for total energy expenditure. These activities play a critical role in burning calories and much like poor food choices add up to excess calories, good or NEAT (wink) choices cumulatively add up to a calorie deficit by increased total calorie expenditure resulting in…decreased fat mass.

As you can see, basically if it’s not exercise, your basal metabolic rate, or digestion, then it falls into NEAT. These important, yet overlooked activities can be simple to incorporate and add up to lots of calorie utilization. Let take standing up as an example. When you stand up, your heart rate increases by 5-10 beat per minute which could be .35-.7 calories per minute or 50 calories per hour. If you incorporate standing half the day into your previously sedentary desk job, then you could actually burn 150-250 calories per day. Working 5 days a week and you’re close to 1000 calories a week just by standing instead of sitting. I work at a desk frequently and a few years ago I purchased a stand up desk which I have enjoyed and has certainly contributed to increased NEAT.

Step Wise Tips

Try This

• Reflect on your current activities and ways you can do things differently
• Think of ways you can increase your movements and incorporate NEAT into everyday routines
• Commit to taking the stairs or parking farther away than necessary at least 3 times a week

Style of Stand-Up Desk I switched to several years ago.

Letting Food Work for You

The final modifiable variable comprising our total daily energy expenditure is something called the thermogenic effect of food. You’ve heard it takes money to make money. Well It takes energy to get energy. Yes, it takes energy to digest, absorb and metabolize the food we consume. Of the three macronutrients maybe you remember which macro takes the most energy to process. If you said protein then you’d be right. In fact protein far outshines the other macros with a thermogenic effect 3 times the effect of carbohydrates and 10 times that of fat. I love protein because it works for you. It keeps you full longer, it costs energy to process, and it results in less muscle loss during calorie restriction. As we learned earlier, this plays a significant role in manipulating body composition, BMR, and fat utilization.

Wait to Celebrate

Prior to celebrating your huge losses. Check and make sure you are not losing critical muscle mass. If you are, do not be discouraged. It is very common and during rapid weight loss, it is hard to avoid. If you find out you are losing muscle mass (remember monitoring your body composition is ideal for weight loss management) follow the tips in this blog and other previous posts to help prevent muscle loss and promote fat utilization.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this blog and found it informative or at least entertaining. Please like, follow and share if you enjoyed the content of this post.