Article 23: Muscle gain struggles to significantly boost metabolism; plateaus are often just an excuse.

43

Building muscle can boost metabolism, allowing you to eat more without gaining weight.

The chain of muscle gain → increased metabolism → eating more without gaining weight is invalid.

Many women who want to lose weight but also have a bit of a craving for food struggle with the question every day at the gym: Should I take personal training sessions or not?

Personal training sessions are expensive, often costing dozens of sessions at a time, which can be a bit too much for your wallet; however, personal training is also very tempting, as it can help you build muscle and boost your metabolism, so you won't have to worry about overeating and gaining weight.

In this section, I will thoroughly answer everyone's questions and tell you whether the chain of building muscle, increasing metabolism, and eating more without gaining weight is actually valid.

We need to break down this problem to find the answer:

1. Can building muscle increase basal metabolic rate?

2. How difficult is it to build muscle?

3. How much does muscle gain increase metabolism?

Can building muscle increase basal metabolic rate? Of course.

Human basal metabolism is affected by many factors.

For example, gender: men have a higher basal metabolic rate than women; height: the taller you are, the higher your metabolism usually is; age: metabolism is very vigorous in infancy and early childhood, and it is relatively stable after adulthood. Around the age of fifty or sixty, metabolism begins to decline significantly; muscle mass: under the same conditions, the higher the muscle mass, the higher the metabolism.

This shows that for the same person, increased muscle mass almost inevitably leads to an increase in metabolism.

Conversely, why does some people experience a decrease in metabolism when they lose weight? Because they lose muscle mass.

Therefore, the conclusion is that building muscle can increase metabolism.

Is it difficult to build muscle? Yes, it is.

Muscle synthesis and growth are actually influenced by many factors-nutrition, sleep, hormones, exercise, etc.

The hormones involved are mainly androgens; the higher the androgen level, the better the muscle-building effect.

Why are men naturally stronger? Because they have higher levels of testosterone, which leads to faster muscle growth.

Meanwhile, many of the bodybuilders you see with beautiful muscle lines have grown their muscles by using hormones.

Therefore, for women, due to their naturally lower androgen levels, building muscle is quite difficult.

It can be said that the price women have to pay to build muscle is far higher than that of men, while the speed is far slower, and the cost may even be higher than the gains.

Why? Let's move on to the next question.

How much does muscle gain increase metabolism? It is generally believed that gaining 1 kg of muscle can increase basal metabolic rate by 10-40 kcal.

The fluctuation is quite large. For someone struggling with obesity, I believe that gaining 1 kilogram of muscle certainly doesn't increase your metabolism by 40 kilocalories, otherwise you wouldn't gain weight so easily.

Therefore, if we calculate based on the assumption that gaining 1 kg of muscle increases 20 kcal of basal metabolic rate, then if you want to increase your basal metabolic rate by 100 kcal, you would need to gain 5 kg of muscle.

Gaining 5 kilograms of muscle is an astronomical figure for a woman.

If you are very patient and persistent, you may achieve this result in 3 to 5 years.

Please note that it is 3 to 5 years, not 3 to 5 months.

Therefore, women who want to build muscle have to pay a high price, and there is no way to achieve this quickly-unless you take hormones.

So, after 3 to 5 years, if you gain 5 kilograms of muscle and your metabolism increases by 100 kcal, will you be able to eat whatever you want without gaining weight?

No, that's not the case.

100 kcal is equivalent to a banana, a spoonful of sesame paste, an apple, more than half a cup of cola, or 1/3 of a steamed bun.

In other words, even if you work hard for 3 to 5 years, you will still gain weight after eating hot pot once.

Therefore, the chain of building muscle, increasing metabolism, and being able to eat more without gaining weight is unlikely to hold true.

Even if you exercise, build muscle, and stick to it, you still need to manage your diet scientifically-diet management is always the core of weight loss.

That being said, if you really can gain 5 kilograms of muscle, I believe your physical fitness will definitely improve a lot, excluding injuries sustained during the muscle-building process.

44

The reason you're not losing weight is because you've hit a weight loss plateau.

Plateau is an excuse for many people's failure to lose weight.

We always hope that losing weight will be smooth sailing, and that our weight will keep dropping until we are satisfied.

However, fate always likes to play tricks on you. Your weight loss stops halfway through. Have you entered a plateau?

Actually, I personally don't quite agree with the term "plateau period".

Because what many people consider a plateau is simply a plateau in weight.

In other words, there has been no change in weight this week or this month.

However, no change in weight does not mean that body fat has not decreased.

It is possible that a weight plateau is formed by the combined effect of a decrease in body fat and an increase in muscle and water.

At a certain stage, if your body fat decreases and your muscle and water increase to a certain extent, then your weight may stagnate.

So when you feel your weight has plateaued, don't panic. First, check if your body fat percentage is decreasing. If it is, then there's no need to worry. Just continue using the correct and scientific methods.

Another reason I disagree with the term "plateau period" is that many people use it as an excuse.

When you reach a so-called weight plateau, I suggest you consider the following:

1. Is the weight loss method correct? Incorrect weight loss methods, especially those based on excessive dieting, can easily disrupt the body's metabolism, prompting the body to launch a self-protective response to prevent further rapid weight loss.

At this point, your weight will start to drop rapidly and then stabilize, making you think you've hit a plateau.

2. Was the execution done correctly? If your weight loss method is correct, then you should consider whether you have made mistakes in its execution.

For example, the plan might tell you to eat enough to meet your basal metabolic rate each day, but if you cut corners on your meals in pursuit of faster weight loss, you might end up eating significantly less each day.

In other words, the plan is a good plan, but if you actively diet, you are more likely to experience a plateau.

3. Has your mindset changed? If your weight loss plan is correct and you are following it well, but your mindset has fluctuated.

For example, you might have some barbecue today, a little wine tomorrow, and a small cup of milk tea the day after. Or, you might make excuses to skip exercising five times a week and only exercise twice.

4. Are you experiencing sleep problems? Poor sleep can easily affect the weight loss process at some point.

So if you've been sleeping poorly lately and your weight has plateaued, you must address your sleep issues first.

5. Is there any abnormality in thyroid function? This phenomenon is relatively rare, but it is important to inform everyone that this possibility exists.

A small percentage of people experience rapid weight loss over a period of time, followed by a sudden stabilization of their weight, accompanied by symptoms such as feeling cold, fatigue, apathy, and drowsiness. In such cases, it is advisable to have their thyroid function checked at the hospital to determine if they have hypothyroidism.

I have provided a detailed explanation of hypothyroidism in the previous article, which you can refer back to.

The above five issues are common reasons for plateaus, provided for your reference.

In addition, there is a theory about the set point of body weight, which I will also like to introduce to you.

Simply put, the weight set point is the point at which a person's body adapts to a certain weight after maintaining it for a long period of time. Hormones, endocrine system, and circulation in the body have all been adjusted to a relatively stable state at this weight. This weight is the person's set point.

So when you suddenly start losing weight, your body will automatically and gradually move your weight toward this set point.

The more weight you lose, the further your weight deviates from the set point, and the greater the force your body exerts to pull you back.

Therefore, the longer many people try to lose weight, the stronger their appetite becomes, and the lazier they feel, and the less they want to exercise. This is because the set point is at work.

So what do you do then? Persevere! Overcome it! Because a person's set point can change.

To give a simple example, if you have been weighing 80 kg for the past 3 years, and now you start to lose weight, you can't lose any more weight until you reach 70 kg. This is when you hit a plateau.

So this plateau period is actually a tug-of-war between your willpower and your set point, reaching a balance.

At this point, it comes down to who can outlast whom and who is more ruthless.

If you give up, your weight will rebound to 80 kg; if you persevere, your weight will continue to drop, possibly to 60 kg, and then you'll hit a plateau, and it will be another tug-of-war.

Therefore, from this perspective, a plateau period is not necessarily a bad thing; each plateau period is a new set point.

Today it will pull you back, preventing your weight from going down; tomorrow it will pull you back, preventing your weight from going up.

Just like the resistance and support levels that stock traders often talk about, when you are about to break through a level, it is a resistance level; once you break through it, it becomes a support level.

Therefore, according to this theory, if you want to lose weight more easily, choose a step-by-step or segmented approach to weight loss.

For example, if you start losing weight from 80 kg, you can lose 10 kg in 3 months.

At this point, we reached a plateau and started working from the set point.

If you've given up and stopped reducing your spending, then let it remain on this platform.

However, you shouldn't give up completely. You should maintain the 70 kg weight and prevent it from rebounding. Maintain this weight for six months to a year, and your body will adapt to 70 kg. 70 kg will then become your new set point.

Then you can lose another 10 kilograms in 3 months.

And so it goes: weight loss --- plateau --- weight loss --- plateau. Maintaining a good mindset might make things easier.