Fighting fat with muscle mass

When it comes to your relationship with the gym, a funny thing happens. At least from personal experience, when I'm feeling lazy, I continue to feel lazy. When I'm on a roll with my exercise and lean foods, I continue that rate of consistent training and diet. In other words, fat begets fat and fit begets fit.

Why does this happen? Why is it rare to see someone who was once overweight become the idol of the weight room and why is it almost impossible to beat that person who already is the idol of the weight room?

Before we can answer these questions, let's take a closer look at muscles.

There are three types of muscles in your body: cardiac, smooth and skeletal. Skeletal muscles are involved with voluntary movements and thus the ones we are concerned about when we exercise. Skeletal muscles also have two subtypes.

Type I are slow-twitch muscle that functions in low-intensity repetitive motion such as marathons. Type II are fast-twitch muscle that deals with high-intensity explosive movements such as sprinting or weight lifting.

Type I muscle functions are linked to aerobic exercises where the blood consistently delivers enough oxygen to the muscles and can sustain the same form of movement for extended periods of time. On the other hand, Type II muscle functions involve anaerobic exercises based that require more oxygen than the blood can deliver and thus can only be sustained for short bursts.

In our struggle to fight fat cells and create a more sculpted look, muscles are our friends. Muscles burn fat for energy and, while building muscles is no easy endeavor, having muscles is even better. Muscle boosts metabolism, heightens testosterone and revs sex drive.

Muscle also keeps aging at bay and protects against heart disease, back pain, arthritis and depression. The benefits of having functional and moderately-developed muscles can pledge a myriad health benefits.

In contrast, fat cells are just not welcome. Our BMR, or how many calories we burn by doing nothing, is determined by factors such as age, sex, height, genes and the ratio of fat-to-muscle cells. The larger the percentage of your mass that is fat, the slower your metabolism will be.

Fat burns barely any calories and doesn't need a high metabolic level to exist. To support one pound of fat per day, you need about two calories. To support the same weight of muscle, you need three times as much energy. On top of this, the more fat you accumulate, the harder it will be to lose "bad weight" because each additional gram of fat you have slows down your metabolism by a small amount and overtime, it can be very hard to jump start it again. Fat loves company and will always make room for more of its kind.

Arguably, the worst fat is visceral fat. This is the culprit that builds up over your stomach to form a gut. Visceral fat cells release a collective substance called adipokines that increase chances of high blood pressure, heart disease, arterial inflammation, diabetes and high blood sugar.

Visceral fat also influences an important hormone called adiponectin which regulates metabolism. The more visceral fat cells there are, the less adiponectin your body releases thus slowing down your overall metabolism and increasing the rate of fat buildup.

So let's assume that you're standing next to the hulk of the gym. For our purpose, we can assume that his muscles are not only bigger individually but he has a lower percent body fat.

This means that because he already has a lot of muscle mass, the effects of weight training may have even bigger effects on his body. Aside from the discipline that bodybuilders uphold, the fact that they continue to maintain such a low fat-to-muscle ratio allows them to burn a higher percentage of food and stored fats, keep a chiseled physique and sustain a heightened metabolism.

The reason it's always hard to beat out the hulk of the gym is because, at that high level, his body is functioning more efficiently than a normal person's. Having more muscle, allows your body to better use the nutrients it consumes.

During a lifting session, muscles burn fat, carbs and protein to produce the movement we need to pick up weights. After a lifting session, the fuel that muscles use to contract depletes. This fuel is called Glycogen and is stored in muscle cells.

Any intake of carbs after lifting will be used to replace that Glycogen and will once again be stored in muscle, not fat cells. If the workout is intense enough and you find yourself breathing heavy from some post-weight-lifting running, then fat burning becomes even better. At this stage, your body is desperate for fuel to keep your heart rate up and your nutrient consumption high. Since the food you just ate has been taken up by muscle cells, your body turns to fat cells for energy and voila, there goes a layer off your stomach.

If you can get started, the exercises will become easier as your body learns to more efficiently channel nutrients, and the results will be more and more noticeable.

That's why people with the mindset to continue working out stay ahead of everyone else. They've not only trained their mind to force them into a routine, but their body has now literally become a lean machine by shredding fat and replacing nutrients in the most economical way possible.

So is the point to give up because you'll never be as good as the guy everyone talks about in the gym? Obviously not. Your inspiration is standing right next to you.