Muscle Mass

image: Square to Square 2008 logo

Muscle Mass for the cycling teams

Muscles play an important role as they act as the body's engine in consuming energy (calories). As you exercise more, your muscle mass increase, which in turn accelerates the rate of energy or calories consumed. Increasing your muscle mass will raise your metabolic rate helping you reduce excess body fat levels and lose weight the healthy way.


The Body Composition Monitoring test will measure the weight of muscle in your body so you can easily see the rewards of your increased activity or exercise plan. You may also find that as you exercise more your weight may stabilise or even increase as your muscle mass grows and your body fat decreases.

source: www.tanita.co.uk

 

Muscle Mass and the BMI

The BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a test that is often completed on individuals to set their weight against a scale from underweight to clinically obese.

Unfortunately the BMI does not take into account the fact that muscle is heavier than fat; in these circumstances and muscular individual may be rated as overweight or obese and yet have relatively low body fat, but a high level of muscle mass.