Increase in muscle, are you able to eat more?

[gina2328]

Hi,

Newbie here. I have been reading in many places that for every pound of muscle mass added to our bodies, we are able to eat about 35-50 more calories per day.

I was wondering if this is true for those that have put on
muscle mass. Are you able to really eat more to maintain your weight? Thanks.

[aprilai]

yes.

[klj]

absolutely!

[abbs]

Hi,

Newbie here. I have been reading in many places that for every pound of muscle mass added to our bodies, we are able to eat about 35-50 more calories per day.

I think this is inaccurate. If this were true, wouldn't your existing muscles burn this amount everyday? For example, I have a fat free mass of 98 pounds. Of that, approx 50-60% is muscle (the rest is bone etc). So I have about 54 pounds of muscle. Using the above estimate, my current muscle mass burns 1890-2700 cals a day. My BMR is around 1330 calories, so I think that 35-50 cals per pound is an overestimation. What do you girls think??
This article sites some studies -
http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/news/cals.htm

I was wondering if this is true for those that have put on
muscle mass. Are you able to really eat more to maintain your weight? Thanks.

This is correct, but I highly doubt its an extra 35-50 cals per pound a day.

[NavyGal]

Basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body needs to maintain normal function while at rest. It does not take into account muscle activity throughout the day. If you just ate the amount of calories based on your BMR you would be undereating. As you gain muscle mass your metabolism becomes faster- requiring more energy throughout the day to function. I doubt that it is exactly 35-50cal/pd of muscle, because that is an estimate and everyone is difrent, but you do need to up your calories if you are doing the same amount of activity and wish to keep your hard earned muscles.

[Emma-Leigh]

From this table which is from This study - Resting energy expenditure-fat-free mass relationship: new insights provided by body composition modeling

They found that skeletal muscle had a resting metabolic rate of ~13 kCal/kg/day... (one kg = 2.2 pounds = 6 cals per pound).

Although it is impossible for an individual to know just how much muscle mass they carry - not unless they get a full body DEXA done - roughly speaking, they suggest that for most NON-ATHLETE individuals, skeletal muscle mass approximately = 0.468 × [body mass (kg)^0.99]

So, say you were 55kg, then you would have a muscle mass of ~24.7kg - which means that your muscle would be burning ~321 cals/day where you to be RESTING that entire time.

Then, as it was said - With activity, the metabolic rate of muscle will increase markedly, thus more muscle will increase your energy output via this as well. So that kg of muscle may 'earn' you multiples of that, depending on how much you move it.