How to Speed Up Your Metabolism by Building Muscle

Nikkiey: Real quick, if you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology on how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today.

When you have little sleep, your body is under a lot of stress. And when your body is under a lot of stress, hormone profiles change and your body wants to conserve energy.

What is going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 93, where I am going to talk on one of my absolute favorite topics to speak to.

But before I do, I just have to take a moment to say thank you to every single one of you listeners who has enjoyed this podcast, shared this podcast, rated this podcast, reviewed this podcast. It's because of you that we are currently so close to top 10 podcasts in the United States for fitness. At this moment, we currently hold the 12th spot. The 12th freaking spot. That is top 20 and top 15 of fitness podcasts in the United States.

And it is solely because of you guys. So thank you so freaking much. You are the reason that we grow. You are the reason that we are even on those charts. We don't use paid advertising. We don't have any sponsors for this podcast. It's solely you guys. So thank you so, so freaking much. I appreciate every single one of you. If you love this show and you haven't yet rated and reviewed it, please take a moment to do so. I want to pop into top 10.

Let's get top 10. You guys, let's work together to get top 10. This podcast needs to be shared with so many other humans, so many women. Let's all work together to get it into top 10 so other women can hear this podcast as well. All right. I appreciate you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now onto today's topic, which is the number one way to speed up your metabolism. When I say that, I want you guys to think for a second: do you know that answer? What do you think is the number one way to speed up your metabolism?

I'm going to give you the answer right now, and then throughout the whole podcast I'm going to segue into how you can do it and the things that may make you stop doing this, which create mind bombs. I'm going to go through all of this towards the end of the podcast. But to make it a little more clear so you guys understand it: building muscle is the number one way that you can increase your metabolism.

Towards the end of the podcast, I'm going to segue into how to build muscle and how the weight aspect of your journey doesn't matter when you are solely focusing on building more muscle. Okay. And also, ladies, I need to speak this out loud, even if there are any men listening to this podcast: muscle is tone. When you say you want to get toned, that means you want to build more muscle, because you can't be toned and not have any muscle on your body.

Being toned is you decreasing the body fat that is around the muscle you have on the frame of your body, or you building more muscle and decreasing body fat around it. And you're showing more tone. That's just the thing I need to speak on. Everybody wants to be more toned. I love that. That's a great goal. But in order to be more toned, you have to do the things that are going to get you more toned, and that is to build more muscle.

Muscle is way more dense, so it will weigh more when stepping on the scale. And that may cause weight to not move at all as you are in the process of changing your body composition, for certain body types. I'm going to talk about that at the end of this podcast today, but I wanted to put that little plug there so you guys hold on to that thought, pin that thought in your brain, and we'll circle back to it. Okay.

When I focus on working with women who want to be more toned, and a lot of women I speak to just want a more toned body or want to build more muscle, when you focus on being able to do this, you can eat way more calories and stay lean at the same time.

Take it from me, quick story. I am sedentary the majority of my day outside of my workouts and my cardio, right? I usually sit at a computer for a long freaking time throughout the day. I try my best to stand up, move around, walk around, take my walks. But the majority of the time I am sitting down, right? But because I have so much muscle, I can still eat a very high caloric intake in comparison to the average person. You see me, you know me, I have a lot of muscle mass. And because of that, I'm able to stay very lean and eat a high caloric intake, even though I'm sedentary the majority of the time. This is the reason why I want you to build more muscle. Building more muscle is huge.

As I've mentioned throughout previous episodes, I've talked about sleep. I've talked about endless cardio and how the body works with calories. So really quick, I'm going to dive deeper into how we work with calories, so you better understand, if you haven't listened to those podcasts before, the importance of it when it comes to the metabolism.

Our metabolism has this range of how many calories it can burn. It can make itself more efficient or less efficient with calories. When your body becomes less efficient with calories, it wastes more energy. It wastes more calories. You want to be less efficient. When it becomes more efficient, it conserves more energy. It conserves more calories. It holds on to more calories.

I'm going to share examples between cardio, strength training and sleep in a second, and use those examples to elaborate on that concept a little bit more. But I want you guys to think about those two scenarios in your brain. Your body becomes less efficient with calories: it wastes more energy, it wastes more calories. You want to do that. You want to be less efficient. When it becomes more efficient, it conserves more calories. It holds on to more energy. It holds on to those calories.

So now breaking into examples. I've probably talked about this many times in previous episodes, but I'm condensing it into this podcast right now so you can understand why building muscle is the number one way to increase your metabolism.

Let's talk about cardio really quick. In the moment when you are doing cardio, your body recognizes, okay, we are burning a lot of calories during this activity. We need endurance. We don't need a lot of muscle. We don't need a lot of strength throughout this type of workout. So your body is like, let's learn how to conserve calories by paring down muscle, aka by slowing down the metabolism, so we can become a more efficient endurance cardio machine, right?

So in this moment, with those two things I just mentioned, your body is more efficient. It conserves more calories during this type of activity, because it's kind of like, I don't know when I'm going to get more calories, so I need to conserve more calories, because this human is doing this strenuous activity of running three miles. That's the human who probably doesn't eat much throughout the day and thinks running is going to help them. Even with the people running eight miles or 10 miles or 15 miles, you'll see that those people usually have food along the way and they're fueling their body along the way. They're doing it the right way.

But the majority of the population just runs and runs and runs because they think it's going to help them. In this instance, you are actually conserving more calories. Your body is holding on to more calories because it's like, dude, we need endurance. We need to be more efficient. We need to be a more efficient endurance cardio machine at this moment. And I need to say this again: we're going to conserve calories by paring down muscle, because we don't need muscle in this moment. We don't need strength in this moment. We need endurance. So we're paring down muscle. And when you pare down muscle, you are slowing down the metabolism.

Hey guys, I love so much that you are listening to this podcast. If you ever want the video version, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff for those of you who are visual learners, check out the WarriorBabe YouTube channel. Either way, keep enjoying the show.

Now let's switch gears to strength training workouts, where your workouts don't really burn that many calories. Am I right? Some of you have the watches, Apple Watches, Garmin watches, however you're tracking your workouts, and you look down at the end of the workout and you're like, damn, I didn't burn that many calories. But during that activity, your body requires way more strength, way more muscle. Now your body is like, let's build this muscle. Let's repair this muscle. And in this moment, we can be less efficient with calories.

So you can build that muscle, which is what will speed up your metabolism and help aid in fat loss. I'll elaborate on that a little more towards the end. I had to drill home the cardio one, right? With strength training, the majority of you are like, I don't burn that many calories, but your body is like, let's build muscle, let's repair this muscle, and let's be less efficient with calories so that throughout the day we're able to repair that muscle.

So it's spreading the calories you're burning all throughout the day, rather than conserving in the moment like cardio does, where your body's like, I don't know when we're going to get more food, because we're embarking on this type of activity right now. And when you are consuming more calories throughout the day, when you're focusing on building more muscle, doing strength training workouts and feeding your body appropriately, this is helping not only the building muscle aspect, but the eating more throughout the day is helping to speed up your metabolism and helping aid in fat loss. I will elaborate on this a little bit more.

With sleep, let's use this, because I don't think many people in the industry speak on this. I think it is getting a little bit better. But if you get little and shitty sleep, my friends, which is probably the majority of the population, it changes your cravings. You want more sweets, you want more satiating foods. But beyond that, when you have little sleep, your body is under a lot of stress.

And when your body is under a lot of stress, hormone profiles change, and your body wants to conserve energy. It wants to hold on to energy when it feels stressed. So when you get little sleep all of the time, which again is the majority of the population, your body ends up storing more calories while also trying to get you to burn fewer calories, which will actually cause muscle loss, because muscle is a more expensive tissue.

Think of it like that. Muscle is active. Muscle is always going. It doesn't stop. And it's a more expensive tissue. So your body is like, in this moment, you guys, let's paint it, stay with me, okay, we need to be more efficient here. Here are a few things we can do. Let's get rid of muscle. We don't want to burn as many calories because we are under a lot of stress. So over time, you store more calories.

You become more efficient. It kind of sounds twisted and backwards, right? You think you want to be more efficient, but you actually want to be less efficient with calories. More efficient is holding on to more calories. Again, less efficient is you using the energy, using the calories. Whereas being more efficient with calories, you are holding on to the calories. It does sound a little bit backwards. I kind of had to check myself there, right?

But anyway, when you're getting little to no sleep, or not efficient sleep, your body's like, okay, we need to be more efficient. How can we do that? Like I said earlier, pare down muscle. Let's get rid of muscle. Let's tap into muscle. We don't want to burn as many calories because we're under a lot of stress. So over time, you store more calories.

So now you have this reminder of those examples I just went through with cardio, strength training and sleep, and how too much cardio and horrible sleep are completely counterproductive. Those two things make you more efficient. They make you hold on to more calories. Adding in a little disclaimer here: especially if you are not feeding your body the right way while you are going about the cardio, or even throughout your day, and when you go to sleep at night. There are so many things I could elaborate on even more, but if you are not feeding your body right...

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better, with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Then I need to remind you that too much cardio and poor sleep are counterproductive to where you want your metabolism to be with calories. You want to be less efficient with calories so you can build and help aid this process of adding more lean muscle tissue to your body, which is what gets you toned. You want to be less efficient. You want to waste more calories. You want to be able to burn more calories, and that comes with strength training. That comes with speeding up your metabolism, and those two things paired together are what is going to help you lose body fat and get more toned. Hope you guys are staying with me here.

Now I want to talk about how building muscle even happens, and why it's so freaking good. Yes, you can build muscle while you are in a fat loss phase or a cut, but you won't build as much as you would in a build phase or even a maintenance phase, right? I like to say maintenance is magic. You can accomplish a lot of things in maintenance. You can decrease body fat. You can change your body composition. You can build muscle.

A lot of you in a cut phase have these newbie gains, right? Newbie gains are where you're building muscle and decreasing body fat at the same time, which is why the scale is not moving as much as you think it should. But as I've mentioned in previous podcasts, photos are showing drastic differences here.

You've probably heard me say in previous podcasts that muscle weighs more than fat. And if you're so hooked on monitoring your weight, then you aren't seeing the big picture. Understand, you guys, a pound is a pound. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh exactly the same. You've probably seen this thing on Google, right? Where five pounds of muscle is on the scale and five pounds of fat is on the scale and they weigh exactly the same.

However, when you look at those pictures, one takes up significantly less space. Muscle takes up significantly less space than fat does. Fat takes up more space and volume than dense lean muscle does. That is why it is possible that I, weighing 150 pounds, could stand next to somebody who weighs exactly the same as me.

However, I have way more muscle on my body than that human does, and I look slimmer, tighter, leaner than that person does. We weigh exactly the same, but I look drastically different than that human because of the muscle mass I have on my body. The difference here, the reason why the scale may not be moving but photos are changing, is because you have and are building more dense lean muscle.

You are becoming more toned, and you have more of that in relation to the body fat you have on your body, or that you once had. You're decreasing that, but you're building more muscle. Your muscle is becoming more dense, harder, more shaped. And that transition is why you may not be seeing any difference on the scale. It's why you've got to just throw the thing in the fucking trash, my friends. Burn it.

So many of you are giving up so early on your journey because that number on the scale isn't changing. Yet you're going and doing strength training and doing all of the things I'm saying here. And more importantly, I'm painting this picture for you as to what is happening. If you just understand that, grasp it and fully embody it, you will be able to continue on.

You will know that the number on the scale doesn't even fucking matter. Just keep going. Okay? Keep going. Six months, eight months, a year later, some of you, depending on your body type, could weigh exactly the same, yet you could look extremely different in your body composition.

So, in conclusion, you guys, you want your body and your metabolism to be less efficient with calories so that you can build that muscle, which is what will speed up your metabolism and help aid in fat loss.

You don't want to do extra cardio outside of what may already be programmed for you. I can speak to the VIP community, where a coach has programmed something in someone's workout schedule, but that human is so attached to cardio that they want to go do more cardio, because they think it's the answer to all of the results they want to see. It ain't. I know this is the thing, and it's not sexy to say, but building muscle takes time.

And so many of you want results like yesterday. So many of you want results within the next three weeks, and you think cardio is going to get you there. While it may, it won't be the long-term sustainable focus for you. Strength training is something you can keep doing for the rest of your life, because it is so damn good for you, and that is what's going to actually create the physical changes within your body by building more muscle.

And when you build more muscle, because of the active tissue that it is, you're going to burn more calories. And then you're speeding up your metabolism. There are so many benefits when it comes to building more muscle. So stop focusing on all of this cardio and boot camps and Orangetheory. You can go out and run. I don't want to bash cardio entirely, but make sure you're pairing it with solid strength training days and that you're fueling your body appropriately, that you're eating right, that you're giving your body what it needs in order to get the optimal results you want to see.

And then, most importantly, you want to optimize your sleep and recovery properly, because sleep is huge. If you're getting shit sleep, guess what? Your body's like, I'm holding on to calories because I'm stressed the fuck out right now. So these are things you've just got to take from what I'm sharing with you on this podcast. Take it and run with it, right? Then, with what I just talked about with muscle and the scale, create a better mindset with the scale or completely ditch it. Burn it.

Because it's going to cause you to become this constant Debbie Downer along your freaking amazing, awesome journey to building muscle and changing your body composition. We don't want Debbie Downers around here. Throw it out. If you have this emotional tie to it, it's not serving you, because with everything I just said about building muscle and what actually happens, if you rely on that scale, you're missing the bigger picture. So ditch it, throw it, burn it.

All right, you guys. In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thank you so freaking much. Building muscle is amazing. Build more of it so that you can speed up your metabolism. You can see more fat loss. Ditch the freaking scale. Take the pictures so you can see the physical difference within a 12-month span. And in those 12 months, you may even weigh the same, depending on certain body types. Okay, I rest my case. I hope you all have an amazing day. I'll catch you in the next episode. Peace out.

Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, losing body fat, building more muscle and feeling more confident, do it alongside one of our 30-plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork you may have. All you need to do is the work she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. To learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.