Muscle Is a Metabolic Marker

In this article:

• Muscles provide strength and help guard against injuries, but they also have metabolic and health effects. 
• Muscles help keep blood sugar levels in check by taking up the majority of sugar from the blood after you eat a meal with carbohydrates. 
• Muscle tissue is metabolically active, since it burns calories at rest. 
• Research suggests that increased muscle mass is linked to higher longevity rates. 
• Strength training, a nutritious diet with adequate protein, and paying attention to proper form can help support muscle mass and metabolic health. Ask your doctor for specific guidelines. 
• Lark is available 24/7 to support your health and weight loss goals with or without GLP-1 medications so you can establish healthy habits for lifelong change.

What do you think of when you think of muscles? Many people think of muscles as a target for body builders, a tool to help athletes perform their best, or the mechanism to let us walk from here to there. Some people recognize that muscles protect us against injuries, improve our ability to do daily tasks like carrying groceries, and give us confidence in how our bodies look and feel. But there’s more to muscle than strength and appearance.  

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Experts now recognize that muscle and metabolism are closely linked. Muscle is a metabolic marker because the amount you have, and how well it functions, are an indicator of health. In addition, muscle is a highly active organ. It affects energy metabolism as well as how your body handles carbohydrates and fat. Muscle even acts like an endocrine organ, sending out signals that affect your brain, fat cells, and immune system. 

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Here’s why muscle is a metabolic marker, and how you can support healthy muscles with smart protein and other dietary choices, as well as physical activity choices. 

Muscle Helps Lower Blood Sugar

Muscle is your body’s biggest organ, and it’s also the organ that has the most potential for clearing blood sugar, or blood glucose. Your body breaks down carbohydrates from food and beverages into smaller units called glucose, and releases them into the blood as blood sugar, or blood glucose. Liver, body fat, and the brain can also help lower blood sugar levels by taking up glucose from your blood, but your muscles clear about 80% of blood glucose after a meal, according to an article in Comparative Physiology.

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When your muscles help lower blood sugar quickly after a meal, they’re doing more than reducing a sharp, unhealthy spike. They’re also helping to reduce the amount of insulin your body releases after a meal. This helps lower the chance of a blood sugar and energy dip later on. Over time, it also helps reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

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Muscles have even more benefits for blood sugar. When you’re active, muscles take up sugar from the blood even more quickly. This happens by increasing glucose sensitivity, according to research in the journal Diabetes.

Muscles Increases Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

Muscles are a metabolically active tissue. It burns calories even while you’re at rest. That means that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you can burn throughout the day, even while you’re resting.

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A pound of muscle burns about 2-3 times as many calories at rest than a pound of fat does. In a day, a pound of muscle burns about 6-10 calories. A pound of fat burns 2-3 calories per day. Gaining muscle is a way to increase your daily energy expenditure or calorie burn. 

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Still, it’s important to note that the increase in calorie burn, or RMR, from muscles is fairly small compared to the amount of calories you might consume in a day or the amount of calories you might burn from being physically active. For example, if you gain 10 lb. of muscle - that’s a lot for most people! - you might burn up to 100 more calories per day while resting. In comparison, you might burn 100 calories by taking a 20-minute walk, or you could reduce your calorie consumption by 100 calories by cutting a cookie in half.

Muscle Does Even More!

Beyond improving strength, making you look and feel good, lowering blood sugar, and burning calories, muscle acts like an endocrine organ. A review article in the journal Cell explains that muscles secrete signalling chemicals called myokines. These chemicals act on nearby tissues.

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One myokine is brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. It helps improve memory and ability to learn. A different myokine helps reduce inflammation, which is linked to chronic conditions. Myokines may even signal white fat to act like brown fat, which burns more calories. 

Muscle Mass Is Associated with Greater Longevity

An article in Journal of Men’s Health explains that higher amounts of muscle mass can be protective during aging. Muscle protects against injury, and muscular strength can support maintenance of function during aging. 

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Muscle is made up of proteins, which are made up of building blocks called amino acids. When you’re sick or need to recover after surgery, your body can draw on the amino acids from muscles as an emergency supply. Greater muscle mass may allow for increased resilience when your body is stressed. 

Supporting Your Muscle Mass and Metabolism

You can support muscle strength and mass with consistent muscle-strengthening exercises and good nutrition. You don’t have to train like a body builder or supplement your diet with protein bars and shakes if you are eating well in your daily life. 

Here are some tips. 

• The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest aiming to work each major muscle group, on non-consecutive days, 2-3 times per week.
• A strategy for getting adequate protein to support health and metabolism is to include a serving of a protein-rich food at most meals and snacks. Beans, egg whites, tuna, low-fat cottage cheese, and skinless chicken are examples. 
• Include moderate to vigorous intensity exercise to support your muscle-strengthening routine and gain more metabolic benefits.
• Strength training can include body weight exercises, such as planks, lunges, and push-ups, or you can use equipment like dumbbells, weight machines, resistance bands, 
• Keep proper form top of mind for safety and effectiveness. Ask an expert for help if you need it. 

Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before starting any strength-training or other physical activity program to make sure it’s safe for you.

Lark Can Help

Muscle is critical for strength and injury prevention, but it’s also a metabolic marker. When you support muscle health, you can also support overall health. Lark can help you stay on top of nutrition and goals. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

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Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!

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