Build Muscle to Burn Fat?

I've read from various fitness gurus that when a person builds muscle, they will then burn additional bodyfat.  In other words, gaining muscle is a tool for fat-loss, at least in the long run.  The idea is that adding muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, and therefore more calories are burned during each day.

This argument falls flat for me for a number of reasons.  First, it's often quoted that a newly added pound of muscle will burn anywhere from 30 to 50 extra calories per day.  Yet this is not true.  Christian Finn does a good job in this article showing that adding a pound of muscle will really only increase your metabolic rate by about 5 calories.

Second, you can go to any gym in America and see a heavily-muscled person with too much bodyfat.  If adding muscle is the key to getting lean, then this shouldn't be happening.  If you take this argument to its logical conclusion, then bodybuilders, the individuals with the most muscle out of anyone, should be ripped to the bone.  Of course, bodybuilders do get lean for contests but this condition is achieved with dieting and aerobic exercise.  Many bodybuilders gain 30 pounds or more in the offseason, in spite of their large amount of muscle.

Third, even if gaining muscle does increase the metabolic rate, this does not mean a person will run a calorie deficit each day.  Hunger guides energy intake to make sure the body gets enough fuel for various functions, including maintaning lean mass (given the cue of intense exercise).  So even if the metabolic rate is increased, a person may naturally end up eating slightly more calories each day to offset this boost in metabolic rate.

A variation of this whole argument I would buy is that maintaining muscle as a person ages helps to stop the gain of fat associated with aging.  Maintaining muscle can keep resting metabolism stable throughout aging, so that if energy intake remains the same then a person won't gain weight.  But the idea that if a person adds new muscle they will "burn fat all day long" is a myth.