JJ Virgin explains that toned arms come from muscle, not just low body fat. One pound of muscle burns roughly ten extra calories daily. Muscle acts like a sponge for carbs and water, which is why it changes how your body looks and functions.
Muscle's gonna hold everything in tighter. I hear all the time, I don't wanna get big, I just wanna have toned arms. I'm like, what the hell is toned? Do you know what toned is? Toned is muscle partially contracted cuz you built it. So if you want toned arms, you gotta put on muscle. So muscle is metabolic spanks. It's gonna hold everything in tighter. And when you put on muscle, I remember years ago we thought every pound of muscle burned 100 calories more a day. Obviously that's not true. It's about 10 calories more, maybe. Sounds insignificant. It's not insignificant because it all adds up. And you also have to work to put that muscle on. So you've got the work work of muscle protein turnover and the work of putting muscle on. So that's the Spanx part of it. The sugar sponge— muscle is where we pack in carbohydrate to be stored as energy called glycogen. The reason we use a bioimpedance machine and look at total body water is because when you have more muscle, you have more water, because water and carbohydrates go into your muscles as glycogen to be stored for energy later.
