Build Muscle to Burn Fat

Toning and building muscle through exercise can turn your body into a fat-burning machine. There are numerous studies with the facts and figures on this. It appears that adding one additional pound of muscle to your body can burn 30-90 more calories per day, while you are at rest. A pound of fat only burns 2-4 calories in the same time frame. Think of how many more calories you can burn by simply putting on five more pounds of muscle.

To add muscle tissue you must force the body to add it. You can't just add a pound of muscle because you followed a 3-set workout that you read about in a fitness magazine. You need to give the body a reason to add muscle tissue. You have to provide a ''stimulus.'' You can do this in various ways. Basically, you need to subject your body to levels of stress it isn't used to. You can do this by slowly increasing the variables in the exercises you do.

o Increase the weight or resistance

o Do more repetitions

o Do more sets

o Move the weight or resistance slower

o Rest less between sets and exercises