Why Muscle is Necessary When Losing Weight

I recently got an email from a reader that was thinking of picking up my "Working Class Fitness - The Programs". He liked my ideas on "mastering bodyweight" (check this article for some ideas on this), but wasn't sure that all the strength training was necessary.

He said:

"I like the idea of being able to master my bodyweight, but wouldn't just losing weight (esp fat) and getting your bodyweight as low as possible be the easiest way to do this? Couldn't I do this with just cardio conditioning?"

You could lose a lot of weight by just adjusting diet and doing cardiovascular activity (be it of the LSD, HIIT, MFD, or Density Conditioning variety (see this article for a quick rundown on these methods). But you still wouldn't have any muscle.

I don't want to use the whole "sprinter vs. distance runner" story here, b/c it's been done a bunch of times already. But look at most long distance runners - most have little muscle tone, aren't strong, and are "skinny fat" (i.e. - their skinny and weigh little, but many still have guts).

Why would you not want to be strong? Powerful? Explosive? For the most part, just plain cardiovascular activity won't get you that way...esp not over you entire body. Now, you could do Density Conditioning running hills, and that would get your legs in shape, and bodweight circuits could get your upper body in shape, but that wouldn't really be just cardiovascular activity anymore.

Need another reason? When losing weight, building muscle is actually one of the BEST things you can do. Why? Because muscle burns more calories at rest to simply maintain than fat does.

How many more? One pound of fat burns roughly 3-5 calories per day to maintain. One pound of muscle needs roughly 50 calories per day. So, if you could simply replace 10 lbs. of fat with 10 lbs. of lean muscle, you'd burn up roughly an extra 500 calories per day - with no other changes to your bodyweight, schedule, workout programs, or anything else.

Now do you wonder why I have so much strength training in my workout plans?

Wiggy