Research

Hormonal

Changes in lean mass do not significantly affect Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) in the short term (16 weeks) for overweight/obese premenopausal women.

Do not rely on building muscle to significantly boost your resting metabolism for fat loss. While muscle is healthy and functional, its metabolic impact is small. Focus on creating a caloric deficit through diet and activity for effective fat loss.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
There was a non-significant (P = 0.092) increase in RMR in all groups from Month 0 to Month 4. There were no significant interactions or main effects for RMR as a percentage of the predicted value...
Todd A. Miller et al. · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · 2017

Why this rating

Small sample size, but consistent with broader literature cited in the discussion.

Source

Resistance Training Combined With Diet Decreases Body Fat While Preserving Lean Mass Independent of Resting Metabolic Rate: A Randomized Trial

Todd A. Miller et al. · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · 2017

DOI 10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0221

rct · n=40Cited 55×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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