Please stop telling people that muscle weighs more than fat

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24

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  • trainernw
    trainernw Posts: 3
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    More importantly, I think we need to post Body fat % in conjunction with lbs. I would hate to see people lose muscle and celebrate it.
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
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    Do you also get annoyed when people claim that bricks are heavier than feathers? :tongue:
  • RoadDog
    RoadDog Posts: 2,946 Member
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    A pound is a pound, unless you're in England, then a pound equals $1.48 USD.
  • oats4breakfast
    oats4breakfast Posts: 225
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    yes more dense so 1 cubic measure of fat will weigh less than 1 cubic measure of muscle, however 1 pound of fat is the same as 1 pound of muscle.
    Another thing people don't always consider when they workout etc and wonder why they don't weigh less, and may/may not be seeing inches drop or muscle increase, is your bones can get more denser too, especially when working with weight.... so the "same bone" may eventually weigh more. Which is heavier ? Our bones when we're couch potatoes or our bones a year later being a gym rat ?
  • Tuckersn
    Tuckersn Posts: 149
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    hahaha! My thought exactly. Or they used to tell me this when I was growing up, much chubbier, that muscle weighed more than fat. It wasn't muscle that made me weigh so much, I can tell you now.
  • JStarnes
    JStarnes Posts: 5,576 Member
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    A pound is a pound, unless you're in England, then a pound equals $1.48 USD.
    Touché
  • iluvsparkles
    iluvsparkles Posts: 1,730 Member
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    A pound is a pound, unless you're in England, then a pound equals $1.48 USD.

    LOL. That's what I'm talkin' about!
  • BarbieCat1
    BarbieCat1 Posts: 82
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    This illustrates the problem with relying too heavily on the BMI scale. It only measures weight, not the % of fat vs. muscle [not to mention one's age or skeleton type]

    A healthy, trim looking but muscular person might be considered obese using that scale alone, while a slender but flabby person would rate as fit.
  • BullDozier
    BullDozier Posts: 237 Member
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    Stop being so obsessed with body weight and start paying attention to body composition. How much body fat do you have compared to muscle? Simply seeing how much you weigh isn't very helpful.
    Isn't that the whole idea behind the saying "muscle weighs more than fat?" My wife, who exercises like crazy (she teaches about 10 various fitness classes each week) is upset she is not losing weight, but everyone keeps telling her she looks different. Her clothes fit different, and she keeps looking better. Everytime she brings it up this is what I tell her; stop looking at the scale and start looking in the mirror, you're losing fat but the weight isn't changing because your body composition is changing.
  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
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    actually, here in the USA I tend to believe that fat weighs more than muscle.
  • KarenECunningham
    KarenECunningham Posts: 419 Member
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    I can see both sides to the argument. However, I agree that muscle looks better than fat. I feel it is a good idea to take measurements because when I am not losing pounds I am usually losing inches which in a way does support the idea of muscle weighing more than fat. It really doesn't matter in the long run because I still need to eat healthy, exercise, drink water, get enough sleep, and do anything else that supports being in good condition. Hopefully the weight will eventually come off. :ohwell:
  • Yurippe
    Yurippe Posts: 850 Member
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    In one way you are right but I disagree, a pound is a pound but the same volume muscle weighs quite a bit more than fat, hence muscle weighs more than fat. This is what people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat.

    For some reason people like to go to your argument just to say someone is wrong, which completely misses the point the other one was saying. In other words if you loose inches and not weight, most likely you gained some muscle as, for the same volume, muscle weighs more than fat.

    If you read the OP it states:

    The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."

    You just said I was wrong, then repeated me. :laugh:
    Do you also get annoyed when people claim that bricks are heavier than feathers? :tongue:

    Only if they were trying to convince me that 1 lb of bricks weighed more than 2 lbs of feathers.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    In one way you are right but I disagree, a pound is a pound but the same volume muscle weighs quite a bit more than fat, hence muscle weighs more than fat. This is what people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat.

    For some reason people like to go to your argument just to say someone is wrong, which completely misses the point the other one was saying. In other words if you loose inches and not weight, most likely you gained some muscle as, for the same volume, muscle weighs more than fat.

    If you read the OP it states:

    The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."

    You just said I was wrong, then repeated me. :laugh:

    It's ellipsis. It happens all the time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis_(linguistics) ). I don't know why people get so annoyed by this particular example.
  • Yurippe
    Yurippe Posts: 850 Member
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    Get ready for a quote heavy post! I'm going to try to answer several of the points brought up in one responce.
    Semantics. There's no use to argue over them. The saying, "muscle weighs more than fat," is not literal, it's referring to density obviously. I don't think anyone is actually under the impression that a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat.

    agreed. I think lots of times it's a nice way of making someone feel a lil better about gaining 2#. As stated before, the weight is equal but it takes longer than a week to gain muscle! The best way to monitor progress is with the use of the scale AND the measuring tape. :wink:

    Very often it is someone's "nice" way of trying to make another person feel better about not losing weight. Let me give you a specific example that was on the message boards today:

    OP:
    Once again I've gained another pound in weight, so that's three wekks running now. I am very very annoyed. I calculated my BMR and it said I needed 1405 caloried per day. As I'm trying to lose weight I reduced my calories to 1200. I have done at least 4 hrs of exercise so far this week and I've only exceeded my calories once this week and that wasn't by much? How come I'm still gaining weight???? It's really getting me down. I now weigh 152lb!!!!!!! and I want to get down to 140lbs or less. I really need help and advice on this one as I'm truly fed up and on the verge of giving up.

    Response:
    If you're exercising, you could be replacing fat with muscle...and since muscle weighs more than fat you'd gain some weight. Maybe instead of going by the weight on the scale, take some measurements (of your waist, chest, arms, legs, etc.) and then use the measurements to see how you're doing.

    The person that responded was trying to be nice. She encouraged someone that was eating under their BMR with "muscle weighs more than fat". Dangerous to encourage someone that is undereating with this statement and not really nice at all.

    The reason this particular ellipsis annoys the hell out of me is because it is constantly repeated on these threads. It annoys me because even though it is very difficult to both burn fat and build muscle at the same time people read it once, beleive that it is the answer to everyone's problem, and use it as the answer to everything.

    Article on burning fat while building muscle:
    http://www.sparkpeople.com/community/ask_the_experts.asp?q=70

    Also, the semantics. LOL
  • jzbaby626
    jzbaby626 Posts: 466
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    LoL I made a post just like this the other day.!!
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
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    LoL I made a post just like this the other day.!!

    Yeah, this forum post is repeated roughly once every two weeks. It's funny, in the beginning you feel the need to address it politely, then it comes back and you are more terse, then it comes back and you're annoyed, and I've finally resigned to the fact that this kind of post will be repeated continuously until the end of the internet.

    I think I'll put one reply together which just has a link to every "1 lb of muscle doesn't weigh more than 1 lb of fat" post that's been sent to this site to let the original poster realize he's not the first genius to come to such a revelation on MFP.

    I guess I should just let people have their fun...
  • AmandaB4588
    AmandaB4588 Posts: 655
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    Are people really arguing about this? :laugh:

    We all know what the saying is implying, and it's not that 5lbs of muscle weighs more than 5lbs of fat.
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
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    Are people really arguing about this? :laugh:

    We all know what the saying is implying, and it's not that 5lbs of muscle weighs more than 5lbs of fat.

    Exactly! Volume is ALWAYS implied. If I were to say "Joe weighs more than Larry" nobody would come and correct me and say, "actually 1 lb of Joe weighs the same as 1 lb of Larry, you fool." C'mon, plz I'm sure that the reason so many people have weight problems in this country is because they don't realize that a lb of muscle weighs the same as a lb of fat.
  • sweetoblivion314
    sweetoblivion314 Posts: 55
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    Nowhere in the statement "muscle weighs more then fat" are you comparing a given weight of fat to a given weight of muscle. There is nothing grammatically or logically wrong with this statement. One quart of muscle does indeed weigh more then one quart of fat. The statement does not qualify the means of comparison, so to add weight as a qualification is your error. You transformed a perfectly sound statement into an illogical statement.
  • iguanaliz
    iguanaliz Posts: 95 Member
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    Are people really arguing about this? :laugh:

    We all know what the saying is implying, and it's not that 5lbs of muscle weighs more than 5lbs of fat.

    Exactly! Volume is ALWAYS implied. If I were to say "Joe weighs more than Larry" nobody would come and correct me and say, "actually 1 lb of Joe weighs the same as 1 lb of Larry, you fool." C'mon, plz I'm sure that the reason so many people have weight problems in this country is because they don't realize that a lb of muscle weighs the same as a lb of fat.
    Volume is perhaps always implied, but I don't think it's always understood. It's just my opinion, but I do think that when people say "muscle weighs more than fat" they are implying the volume aspect, but not intentionally. I was actually annoyed by this thread at first because it seemed sort of condescending, for no apparent reason but it rubbed me wrong. But having read all the posts and re-read the original, I think it's a great thread because it really is clearing up a myth in a way that pretty much everyone can understand.

    We need to stop thinking about fat vs. muscle weight and starting thinking about why that pound of muscle is better than that pound of fat. As has already been pointed out, muscle takes up less room, it also burns energy more efficiently. Most importantly, it doesn't jiggle!

    I've only lost 10 pounds, but I've been working out since November. I'm wearing clothes that I last wore when I was 20 pounds lighter. And my *kitten* looks great :wink:

    And being able to work that into a conversation about weight vs. volume? Priceless.

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