How muscles help us lose weight, protect us from diabetes, and more  

There's more to muscles than simply looking good. 

According to Vonne Aquino's report on "State of the Nation" Thursday, muscles help our metabolism — or the body's way of turning food into energy for important bodily functions like blood circulation and breathing, to name a few.

"Muscle contraction entails — kailangan may masunog na energy, na calorie," Dr. Luis Cordero, Physical medicine and rehabilitation said. 

That's why when we start working out, we lose weight. Interestingly, the benefits of exercise don't end when your hour at the gym hour does.

When we exercise, we use and build muscles and having more muscles helps us burn more calories, even at rest, Mayo Clinic reports. "Everyone loses weight by burning more calories than are eaten," it adds.

That's a great reason to start lifting weights and do strength or resistance training.

But there's another important reason to start taking care of our muscles. Muscles also protect us from diabetes by helping "metabolize yung mga sugars natin sa body," Cordero said.

"That's why exercise helps stave off insulin resistance or protects us from diabetes," he added.

A 2013 study says, "Skeletal muscle is a crucial tissue for maintaining blood glucose control and energy balance. Muscle uses both glucose and fatty acids as fuel and serves as a source of amino acids for fuel utilization by other tissues during starvation."

But here's the thing: We start losing muscles mass at age 30. According to Cordero, muscle loss starts at the rate of 1-2% per year and accelerates to up to 3% per year at around age 60.

"It's faster if sedentary tayo, if hindi tayo masyado nag-e-exercise or gumagalaw," Cordero warns.

That's why it's harder for older people to sit up and stand up, bend to tie their shoe laces, or even just to go up and down the stairs. 

Thankfully, there are ways to slow down muscle loss. 

"We need resistance training at least 3-4 times a week," fitness coach Jason Gonzales said. Resistant training includes body composition exercises like lifting weights, cardio activities like brisk walking, and stretching like yoga.

Eating a high-protein diet and getting enough sleep are also important.

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