In our recent post on how exercising may not make you thin, the (self-proclaimed) “Important Doctor” mentioned that muscles burn calories even while you’re not working out, including while you sleep.  And that’s true.  But there’s a lesser known fact that goes along with this — fat also burns calories while resting.  I’m not making this up!  Check it out:

The muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns.

So while muscles will burn more calories than fat, at least fat does burn some calories, even while resting.  So if you apply some basic arithmetic principles, you can deduce that the more fat you have, the more calories you are burning while resting.   You heard it here first!