Chapter 7: Building Muscle to Burn Fat
Fat is the accumulation of excess energy. If you don’t burn off the calories you
consume, they will be stored as fat. If you build muscle mass, you will not only
feel better and look leaner, you will actually start to burn fat at a much faster rate.
That’s because muscles tissue is an incredible fat-burner. The more lean muscle
mass you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest. With that in mind, it
makes sense to add strength training to your weekly routine.
First, find out how much of your body is made up of fat, and how much is made
up of lean muscle. This measurement is your body fat percentage. You can find
guides online which help you determine your body fat percentage, but if you’re a
first-time measurer, you might get better results by asking your doctor or fitness
trainer to measure it for you.
Some “smart” scales can even calculate your body composition by sending a
painless signal through your body. The signal returns data that tells you how
much of your weight comes from fat, muscle, bone, and fluid.
A healthy body fat percentage for women ranges from 14% (for a young, athletic
woman) to 35% (for women over 65). Males have more natural muscle mass
than females, so men can be healthy with body fat percentages between 6% and
25%.
It’s worth noting that a normal body weight does not protect you from the effects
of a high body fat percentage. People with low weights and a large amount of
body fat (also known as “skinny-fat” or “normal weight obesity”) face the same
health risks as other obese individuals.
So how can you get rid of excess body fat and build lean muscle tissue to take its
place? By working your muscles with strength-training exercises.
Strength training brings to mind images of sweaty guys shouting as they strain,
red-faced, to lift a bar with huge weights on each end. But that’s not
representative of strength training as a whole. In fact, you don’t need a gym or
even weights to make your muscles stronger and leaner.
You can outsmart your body to achieve INCREDIBLE weight loss results while
still eating what you want with “Cheat Your Way Thin”:
