So tired of hearing "well..muscle weights more than fat"

jzbaby626

Muscle vs. Fat: Clearing Up the Misconception

LINK:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/busting-the-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat-myth.aspx?xid=nl_MyCalorieCounterNewsletter_20100609

**Good article from everydayhealth.com**

antiadipose

as the article itself states "a pound of feather"
do u know how many feathers that is?!

when ppl talk about this 'muscle weighs more than fat...etc' theyre talking about losing inches, firming up, but the scale is not moving.
so a woman can have a 40 inch waist.. and another can have a waist of 32 but they weigh more. who has more fat and who has more muscle? and who would u rather be?

amg5157

I personally am a big fan of saying muscle weighs more than fat...hahahaha....I'm working my booty off at the gym have lost at least 1 inch but damn that number on the scale just wont go down!

The scale is not my friend! BUT I LOVE the measuring tape!!!!

AnneElise

ha. I hate when people throw that around as an excuse for not loosing weight BUT its true measuring is important!

example: I have only lost 4 lbs but I went from a 31 waist in jeans to a 29

Elokyn

Like they are saying, I think it's very important to point out the first part of that article saying that the mass is very different. The saying still holds true, unless you're saying "a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat" I can see how it could appear a little discouraging at first so it's good that they said that right off the bat.

Clew

I know, right? I always say "muscle is DENSER than fat". Because a pound is a pound is a pound. I think people *mean* that when they say it incorrectly, but it's still misinformation.

I always share this anecdote. When I started doing Jazzercise (this is back in the 90's but anyway ...) I lost 2 or 3 sizes, yet I GAINED 5 pounds. That's a gain I can live with!

fitandhealthy

as the article itself states "a pound of feather"
do u know how many feathers that is?!

when ppl talk about this 'muscle weighs more than fat...etc' theyre talking about losing inches, firming up, but the scale is not moving.
so a woman can have a 40 inch waist.. and another can have a waist of 32 but they weigh more. who has more fat and who has more muscle? and who would u rather be?

nicely put! many people take this saying so literally...yes a pound of anything = a pound of anything, but I really could care less what the scales says because at 130 I could be flabby and bigger, or at 130 I could be toned/muscular and smaller! :laugh:

rcatr

i used to use that term too I finally had a friend of mine who is a nutrionist and a trainer correct me. Now it goes...muscle TAKES UP LESS ROOM than fat.

whyflysouth

A fixed volume is implied. Given a fixed volume, say 1 cubic inch, muscle weighs more than fat and that's true. You have to consider the context in which people are using the statement, it's in reply to, "OMG, I've been exercising like crazy and my weight hasn't dropped!", and someone says "You could still be slimming down, that might be muscle weight that's keeping your weight up, muscle weighs more than fat."

The context is, people are usually more concerned about their volume than their weight, when your fat, you look fat, your body takes up more space, but we don't have machines that measure the entire volume of our body in our homes so we use scales to measure weight and we consider excess weight is most likely fat...but at the end of the day, people care about volume, and "One arbitrary unit of volume of muscle does weigh more than the same unit of volume of fat" - would you like people saying that all the time instead? How about when people say "Stop doing that", would you like them to say, "Stop writing posts about how a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead"? Some things are just implied by the context in which they are used, it's a shorthand so we don't have to write paragraphs explaining single sentences.

antiadipose

exactly... as much as the scale DOES matter..... were not walking around with a number attached on our forehead showing our weight. but how toned/look/fit our clothes matters more.

slcbrus

Hey, I've only lost 7 lbs but my tape tells me my belly is 1.5 in smaller. I'll take that over what the scales tells me :happy:

thumper44

If your tired of hearing it, you better get used to it.

Muscle in the same volume weighs more than fat.
There was a thread previously about this same thing, and people were debating back and forth. I hope this is not a repeat.

2 boxes - Both are 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot. One contains muscle, other contains fat. Which one is heavier.

A fixed volume is implied. Given a fixed volume, say 1 cubic inch, muscle weighs more than fat and that's true. You have to consider the context in which people are using the statement, it's in reply to, "OMG, I've been exercising like crazy and my weight hasn't dropped!", and someone says "You could still be slimming down, that might be muscle weight that's keeping your weight up, muscle weighs more than fat."

Correct.

spiralgirl71

If your tired of hearing it, you better get used to it.

Muscle in the same volume weighs more than fat.
There was a thread previously about this same thing, and people were debating back and forth. I hope this is not a repeat.

2 boxes - Both are 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot. One contains muscle, other contains fat. Which one is heavier.

A fixed volume is implied. Given a fixed volume, say 1 cubic inch, muscle weighs more than fat and that's true. You have to consider the context in which people are using the statement, it's in reply to, "OMG, I've been exercising like crazy and my weight hasn't dropped!", and someone says "You could still be slimming down, that might be muscle weight that's keeping your weight up, muscle weighs more than fat."

Correct.

Thank you for posting this. I was trying to explain this to my son the other day but was missing a proper explaination for the volume part.

SammyLynn010

Awesome article!!! Thank you!!

I have always heard that Muscle weighs more than fat and I seriously believed every word because it made me feel better! I need to build more muscle! =D

I'll work on that soon!