How to Increase your Metabolism through Body Recomposition

I have seen so many people (including my younger self) fall into the traps of trendy diets and false information in order to lose a couple of pounds. For women especially, we are are bombarded from a young age with messaging that tells us we need to be thinner in order to become more feminine and sexually appealing. This message's continued prominence allows weight loss and diet based companies to prey on people who don't understand physiology.

One myth we should get out of the way: muscle does not weigh more than fat. If you put one pound of fat on the scale and one pound of muscle on the scale, they will still both read one pound. However, muscle is denser than fat, which is why it takes up less space in the body. When women tell me that they want to get "toned" and lose weight when they appear to be a healthy size, I try my best to flip this messaging around in their head. Essentially, these are people who could benefit from body recomposition: swapping unwanted body fat for muscle. This does not always mean that you will need to lose weight to achieve the aesthetic goals you are reaching towards. I will show a few examples that will help you visually understand this.

Here are my own stats:

I have a very active job in addition to dog walks and 4 intense workouts I perform weekly. I will now compare my metabolism to someone who is sedentary and has 20% more body fat than me, at the same weight (which essentially means that they have much less muscle as well):

As you can see, they would burn about 1,000 calories less than me in a day. At only 1,361 calories per day to maintain their weight, it is very easy to overeat and continue gaining weight. This makes it almost impossible for this person to lose weight in a healthy way, without making increased muscle growth and exercise part of this goal. Now, let's say that this same person starts going to the gym 3-4 times per week for a weightlifting workout, and going for a 30-60 minute walk every day (keep in mind that this is a habit that might take a couple of months for them to build up to):

This act alone of increasing their exercise has already increased this person's metabolism by almost 400 calories! If this person is diligent with their exercise and also aims to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of desired bodyweight along with healthy carbs and fats, they will be on the right track towards body recomposition. This is not something that would happen overnight, but let's say that this person is able to get all the way down to 30% body fat, still at 130 lbs. (no weight loss):

Although this person has achieved 0 lbs. of weight loss, they have achieved a decent body recomposition. They are now burning 200 calories more than when they were at 40% body fat, and 600 calories more than when they were both 40% body fat and sedentary. This has purely come from this person losing body fat and trading it for muscle. With this, their physique will trend in the direction they were hoping for with more of a "toned" appearance (visible muscle).

We'll look at two more example of this same person. Let's say that they achieved losing the same 10% body fat loss, but also lost 15 lbs. :

As you can see, even though they lost more weight than the previous example, their metabolism remained the same as when they were 40% body fat and active. This is the trap that I see a lot of people fall into. This person lost a significant amount of body fat and probably did gain some muscle, but they weren't able to gain as much muscle as the person who was 30% body fat and weighs 15 more pounds. Perhaps this person might've been under-eating their protein or attempting too rapid of weight loss (more than 0.5-1 pound per week), and this did not allow them to achieve the same results. Not horrible results, but not an increase in their metabolism either.

My last example is showing you what it would be like if this same person remained at 40% body fat, but lost 15 lbs.

To me, this is the worst outcome to achieve: weight loss with no body fat% difference. This happens when we lose body fat and lose muscle equally. These are the the types of people who are not satisfied in the least with their weight loss, because their body looks virtually the same. Additionally, they end up having trouble as they continue to try to lose more weight to solve their issue, because their metabolism is lower than where they started from (a little over 100 calories lower from when they were 40% body fat and active). This often happens when the primary goal is weight loss without any focus towards muscle gain. This person was likely majorly under-eating their protein as they went into a calorie deficit.

I hope this illustrates how important muscle gain is, and how insignificant weight loss can be, if you don't have much weight to lose. Nutrition is something that we are passionate about at Infinite Motion Coaching. If you need more help reaching your aesthetic goals, send us a message. We would love to help! We offer online personal training, in-person training in Santa Cruz, and custom or premade programs designed to help you get to the next level.

Ilana Holt

*The calculator I used in the examples is from: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html. I suggest getting a body fat scan in order to make your numbers the most accurate.