Why you should try to build lean body mass

Does a person’s body weight say everything about their health or not? The answer is no. A person who is slim for their height, for example, could be at serious risk of ill health if they have more body fat than lean mass. 

Body composition can tell you what percentage of the tissues in the human body are stored. In other words, the more tissues that store energy and are not used up, the more difficult it will be for this fat to be eliminated one day than tissue that stores this energy to be used immediately. 

To find out this percentage is very simple, just do a bioimpedance test with a physical education or nutrition professional and they will guide you on what you need to do to have more lean mass than fat.

Lean body mass is related to basal metabolic rate (BMR), i.e. the amount of calories you burn at rest. So, the more lean mass a person has, the more calories they will burn even when doing nothing.

Achieving more lean mass than fat is a construction, it’s not that easy, and it still depends on one’s genetics, but there are some facts that can help in the process.

• Increase your protein intake: Consuming more protein during your diet is a great ally in building muscle. Plant and animal proteins help to store amino acids in the muscles, which are great for building tissue, improving immunity, producing energy and absorbing nutrients.

• Increase the frequency of training: Start by Physical twice a week and then intensify with 4 to 5 workouts a week, believe me, even if the duration is 30 minutes, constancy will help you achieve results.

• Do the right workouts: Always include weight lifting in your workouts, starting with small loads and good intensity, until you reach heavier weights that won’t damage your tendons. Always include cardio exercises that will speed up your metabolism and burn some excess calories.

• Cut your daily calories: Reduce the amount of calories you eat each day, plan your diet well so that you don’t eat too many high-calorie foods. This will decrease the hormones leptin (the hormone that controls appetite) and T3 (the thyroid hormone), which will help you burn fat.

• Regulate your diet: there is a threshold in the rule of eating more protein and cutting calories to build muscle, when you reach this peak, your body will understand that it needs to build more fat to meet demand, so it will be better to eat more carbohydrates and fats so that your body remains focused on producing lean mass. 
  

• Reduce your alcohol intake: don’t overdo it with alcohol, keep it in moderation, as it contains a lot of sugar and can end up helping to add more fat to your body, as well as reducing your strength when you do weight-bearing exercises.

According to the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health Research, a body with less lean mass and more fat is more prone to metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia.

• Improved metabolism: Metabolism is the process of food being transformed into energy, and when you have a lot more lean mass, what you eat is transformed more quickly, even at rest. 
  

• Increases strength: Increasing muscle mass promotes strength and muscular endurance, as this process involves building lean mass, which increases the strength and power of the muscles.

• Increases bone density: The biggest cause of decreased bone mass is the onset of diseases such as osteoporosis, where bone porosity can lead to bone fractures, but increased muscle mass helps to build a good skeletal system by increasing bone density.

• Less risk of chronic diseases: Insulin resistance is involved with most metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, and also leads to other diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and dyslipidemia, but when you have lean muscle mass, this resistance decreases and excess glucose is quickly eliminated.

• Improved immunity: When the body gets sick, the immune system is weakened and over-accelerated because it is being used so much, so it resorts to the proteins available in the diet, but these are not always enough to meet demand, so proteins are taken from lean muscle mass. In this way, the body is much more resistant to infections when it has more lean mass.