Three Reasons to Build Muscle

Obesity is an epidemic. An outsized share of our medical dollar is being spent on lifestyle related conditions such as high cholesterol, heart disease, elevated blood pressure, reflux disease, strokes, falls in the elderly, osteoporosis, etc. (chronic disease related to poor lifestyle behaviors accounts for more than two thirds of deaths in the United States). In light of this, we have been “attacking” the fat everywhere you turn without making a dent in the problem. Why? Because our focus is wrong. We should be focusing on a better long - term solution. We should be concentrating on building muscle in everyone rather than just losing weight.

Lean mass should be the end point for dietary, nutritional, and exercise recommendations, not scale weight. That means weight loss centers, doctors offices, etc. need to focus on body composition, not just how much someone weighs. This would allow proper adjustment of food intake, exercise prescriptions, medications and other interventions.

Focusing on muscle instead of scale weight does three primary things:

1. Keep the focus on metabolism. Every “diet” out there that utilizes scale weight is a set up for long term failure. It only takes 363 kcal to burn a pound of muscle off your body, but it takes 3500 kcal to burn a pound of fat from your body. Starving people by putting them on a major caloric deficit eating plan and the most likely outcome is muscle loss. The body is very good at protecting fat in the face of “famine”. When you focus on muscle, your shift goes from losing pounds to increasing muscle i.e. your metabolism!

2. Prevents disease. The lack of muscle contributes to disease. Many doctors believe that the metabolic changes of a majority of lifestyle related diseases such as insulin resistance and diabetes occur before you get fat, and therefore, that fat is yet another indicator of inadequate hormonal, cellular, and biological function. In other words, fat is a symptom of disease rather than the cause of it. Focusing on building muscle prevents those metabolic changes. A prime example is that with osteoporosis: maintenance of adequate bone density and strength is decidedly dependent on adequate muscle mass and function.

3. Leads to long term success. When you fix peoples metabolism with proper nutrition and exercise (i.e. help them build muscle), you enable them to maintain the fat loss by, once again, increasing their metabolism and giving them the ability to maintain it.

If we where to change our approach from anti-fat to pro-muscle, we would begin to see a serious dent in the epidemic we face. So get off the scale and start building muscle! Don’t worry; you will not start looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You’ll simply look better nourished, healthier, and ready to take on the world!

Dr. Warren Willey is the medical director of the nationally recognized, physician directed, Walk In Weight Loss program and author of What Does Your Doctor Look Like Naked: Your Guide to Optimum Health (Tate Publishing). Visit him online at www.walkinweightloss.com, and www.eatright4u.com.