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how many calories in a pound of muscle?
- Thread starter T-800
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Creatureofnight
New member
I dont think T-800 is refering to meat you would get at the butcher.
I think he means a lb. of bodyfat and a lb. of LBM.
In that case, both are 3,500cals. One is not heavier nor lighter. Thats like the old thought process of someone saying they weigh more because of all the muscle they carry and muscle weighs more than fat.
The only reason someone might weigh alot more than they appear to be is because muscle is more dense and compact looking while fat just lays or sits on top. Thats all.
I think he means a lb. of bodyfat and a lb. of LBM.
In that case, both are 3,500cals. One is not heavier nor lighter. Thats like the old thought process of someone saying they weigh more because of all the muscle they carry and muscle weighs more than fat.
The only reason someone might weigh alot more than they appear to be is because muscle is more dense and compact looking while fat just lays or sits on top. Thats all.
plornive
New member
Ok, fair enough but muscle naturally contains some fat --- even within the sheath of the muscle cells. Butcher meat probably isn't that far off.Creatureofnight said:
So you are saying it is "common sense" that a lb of muscle contains the same number of calories as a lb of fat? Why? Fat cells contain fatty acids. Muscle cells contain amino acids. Fat is 9 calories per gram. Protein is 4 calories per gram. Muscle holds lots of water. Muscle contains fat, intramuscular triglycerides, glycogen, mitochondria...
I'm curious how many calories one has to *gain* to gain one pound of lean mass. I assume it's something like 2000. Can anyone confirm this?
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Remember that there are 2500 calories in a pound of muscle and 3500 calories in a pound of fat. For a client to gain one pound of muscle per week, you need to make sure that every seven days they have consumed 2500 calories (average of 350 calories per day) more than they expended. For a client to lose one pound of fat per week, make sure that every seven days, the client has consumed 3500 fewer calories (average of 500 calories per day) than they expended for the week.
http://www.protraineronline.com/past/july2/nutrient.cfm
http://www.protraineronline.com/past/july2/nutrient.cfm
Ummmm NO. I don't know where those folks got 2500 cals per pound of skeletal muscle from, but it's wrong. Fully hydrated human skeletal muscle is no more than 20-25% protein, 4-8% fat and minimal glycogen. the rest is water (70-75%) and minerals. This makes 800-1000 cals per pound MAX. This is why it's so easy to lose LBM if you screw your cutting diet up, but much harder to lose the same amount of fat. Adipose tissue has 300+g of fat per pound which makes it more than 3 times as calorie dense as muscle. The positive side is that you only need an extra 200g of protein deposited as muscle to gain a pound of LBM! Of course getting it deposited is the hard part......
Creatureofnight
New member
Plorn- You can relxa bro, i wasnt flaming anyone. I was simply stating that w/ everything i have read regarding fat loss and muscle gain suggested you needed a deficit or excess of 3,500 cals.
MS- You seem to be very knowledgeable on this subject, i was wondering why you stated most people mess their cutting or bulking plans up and such. Also, where did you get your figrues from and can you reccomend any good reads on this topic ?
thanks bro
MS- You seem to be very knowledgeable on this subject, i was wondering why you stated most people mess their cutting or bulking plans up and such. Also, where did you get your figrues from and can you reccomend any good reads on this topic ?
thanks bro
I'm not saying most people mess up their cutting diets. Bodybuilders are especially aware of the importance of proper nutrition and training to maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss. It's more your average fat couch spud that decides to eat 500 cals per day to lose weight and impress themselves with how quickly the scales drop (initially). What they don't realize is that it's very easy to drop weight quickly if it's mostly water or muscle you're losing. It's much slower dropping genuine fat weight.
I also realize now where that 2500 calorie figure came for a pound of muscle. They prolly mean how many cals you need to consume to ADD a pound of muscle. This will no doubt vary a lot between individuals and it may be that so-called "hard gainers" need even more cals than this to add a pound of muscle. This is not the same as how many cals are actually contained in a pound of muscle since it takes a lot of energy to stimulate the synthesis of a pound of muscle even with adequate protein intake. So you may need to eat 2500 extra cals to add 400 cals worth of muscle. I also made a mistake in my calculations since I'm a metric person. That figure of 800-1000 cals was per KILO of muscle, not pound. A POUND of muscle only has 80-90g protein and 4-8g fat and less than 4g glycogen. The rest is water and minerals.
I also realize now where that 2500 calorie figure came for a pound of muscle. They prolly mean how many cals you need to consume to ADD a pound of muscle. This will no doubt vary a lot between individuals and it may be that so-called "hard gainers" need even more cals than this to add a pound of muscle. This is not the same as how many cals are actually contained in a pound of muscle since it takes a lot of energy to stimulate the synthesis of a pound of muscle even with adequate protein intake. So you may need to eat 2500 extra cals to add 400 cals worth of muscle. I also made a mistake in my calculations since I'm a metric person. That figure of 800-1000 cals was per KILO of muscle, not pound. A POUND of muscle only has 80-90g protein and 4-8g fat and less than 4g glycogen. The rest is water and minerals.
