Skeletal muscle is the largest organ in the human body. Medical books suggest skin is the largest organ and by area it probably is, but by weight muscles are the largest organ. A list of the most vital organs will almost always include the brain, heart, lungs, liver and kidneys at the top; muscle generally doesn’t even make the top 10. It’s definitely an under-appreciated organ.
The liver gets the credit for metabolic functioning and energy production but it’s just the manager. The muscles are the real workhorses of a functional metabolism. When your metabolism is operating at it’s intelligent design specification, it’s a thermogenic engine – a fire burning so intensely that it will consume any fuel you give it. When it’s broken however it’s like attempting to start a campfire with three matches and some damp pine needles, on a breezy hillside. Good luck!
Burning Bright
Skeletal muscle is a fire-breathing dragon. The more you have the brighter you’ll burn. When most folks set out to improve their health and vitality, the first goal is usually to lose weight. Losing weight’s a good goal, especially considering the majority of society is overweight or even obese. The problem is that many weight loss programs decrease muscle mass along with fat and that’s a recipe for a metabolic mishap.
Eat less and exercise more is not the solution, especially when the exercise is aerobic, which is what everyone thinks of when they begin a new weight loss campaign. Cutting calories and stressing the body with aerobic exercise can actually cause a slower metabolism. A slower metabolism equals less weight loss or even weight gain, as the human body instinctively protects itself from stress.
Cardio workouts, will burn calories, but too much cardio increases cortisol, and causes a catabolic response, breaking down muscle instead of building it. When you under eat and over exercise you increase the chances of losing muscle along with fat. Fueling properly is essential for muscle gain or maintenance and that should be at the core of any program to improve your health and vitality. While eating more than your body needs can lead to weight gain, eating too little will cause even bigger problems.
Metabolic Bliss
Body composition is the key to metabolic bliss. Resistance training builds muscle, which increases your metabolic rate, which burns more energy, (stored fat). If resistance training is not at the center of the health and fitness protocol you’re considering, find a new program. I’m not suggesting that aerobic exercise should be avoided, it’s vital for cardiorespiratory fitness, but a dysfunctional metabolism is at the root of nearly all noncommunicable diseases.
Ideally you want to improve the ratio of lean body mass to fat, not just lose weight. That’s what makes the trend towards pharmaceutical protocols like Ozempic so dangerous. People lose weight without improving their body composition. They lose muscle along with the fat and when they quit taking the drug because it’s destroying their health, they gain back fat but not muscle, leaving them fatter, sicker and more unhealthy than before they began the protocol – A health disaster. The same is true for most diet-only weight loss programs, (fads).
As a senior citizen, the best advice I can offer the generations behind me is: Spend more time at the gym moving iron. As you age, fast twitch muscle fiber degrades and deteriorates; you can never get it back, so the more you can carry into old age the better. That doesn’t mean you can’t make more muscle when you get old, you can, and you should. Older, slower muscle is still muscle and it’ll fire up your metabolism, but fast twitch fiber burns much hotter.
“Great ideas originate in the muscles.” ~ Thomas A. Edison
I fell into the eat less, exercise more trap several years ago. Eating vegan and biking over a hundred miles a week, I dropped 50 pounds. Right into the sweet spot on the Body Mass Index (BMI). But there was no metabolic bliss in achieving that goal. I felt sluggish with a slack libido and got asked several times if I was sick.
Go To The Gym
I’ve added back about thirty pounds since then, and my body fat % is lower. BMI is not the best metric to evaluate your body composition. One of the best ways to determine what you’re made of is to look in the mirror. If you like what you see, keep going to the gym. If you don’t like what you see, keep going to the gym. But if you’re a numbers geek like me, here’s a decent algorithm. Building bigger, stronger muscles is the best medicine for health and vitality.
Progressive resistance is the best method to build muscle; it’s not easy or fast and you need to fuel your body properly to make gains. Muscle requires protein for growth and maintenance and the older you get the harder it is to get enough. The proper amount of carbs and fat also need to be determined. Diet is as important as the training to build a strong body.
We don’t workout purely for the metabolic bliss it provides, we do it so we can still go hiking and fishing when we’re 75. We do it so we can still tie our shoe when we’re 82 and get up the stairs when we’re 86. We want to be able to climb into the 4 wheel-drive at 95 and get out of our chair at 104. Old age is the deterioration of skeletal muscle mass and we intend to preserve ours for as long as possible.