Exercise has another advantage over simply burning up calories as you do the exercise. If you have done something at a moderate pace, your metabolism stays raised for some time after you’ve finished. 

Many people shy away from exercise because they believe that they will build muscle that weighs heavier than fat, but this is really looking at it the wrong way!

One pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat �?but one pound of muscle is much slimmer than one pound of fat! If you imagine a sponge with holes in it as being fat, if you squeeze the sponge, it still weighs the same, but it is a lot slimmer.

It’s true to say that if there were two people with exactly the same measurements, then the one with the higher proportion of muscle would weigh more than the one with the higher proportion of fat �?but they would be equally slim. It is for this reason that Body Mass Index (BMI) charts are not necessarily appropriate for serious athletes.

Yet another advantage of having a good ratio of muscle to fat is that muscles require a lot of calories to be maintained. This means that when it comes to weight maintenance, if you compare two people of the same weight, the one with the higher proportion of muscle will be able to eat more calories, without gaining weight �?and of course, this makes weight maintenance much easier.

Keep going girls, you know you can do it!

Hugs

Joan