want to burn more calories while doing nothing? lift weights.

One of the best reasons to strength train has nothing to do with how many calories you burn during the workout. It’s what happens afterward.

Muscle is metabolically active tissue, which means your body uses energy just to maintain it. One pound of muscle burns roughly 6–10 calories per day at rest. That number may sound small, but a few pounds of muscle and it becomes a meaningful, ongoing increase in energy expenditure…while you’re working, sleeping, watching TV, or doing absolutely nothing.

Strength training creates a recovery demand that continues after you leave the gym. Your body has to repair muscle tissue, replenish energy stores, and adapt to the training stimulus. All of that requires energy, so calorie expenditure can remain somewhat elevated for hours, long after the workout is finished.

Cardio primarily burns calories while you’re doing it but strength training burns calories during the workout, during recovery, AND helps you build metabolically active tissue that increases how much energy your body uses every day.

So if you’re avoiding weights because you think cardio is the better way to burn calories, consider this: building muscle helps turn your body into a higher calorie-burning machine, even when you’re sitting on the couch.