Please stop telling me muscle weighs more than fat...

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MissTattoo
MissTattoo Posts: 1,203 Member
in Motivation and Support
I know muscle is more dense, but a pound is a pound.

So I'm whining about how my scale isn't moving, but I'm losing inches consistently. This is great! I'm taking up less space! lol but it's still nice to see the scale go down with it. Instead it's been hovering around the same 5lbs in the last 10 weeks.

Logically I know for a month I was battling a kidney stone and the medicine I was taking made me retain water, but it's still upsetting.

Anyway, several people, and even the new trainer at the gym I work out at, has said the scale isn't changing because muscle weighs more than fat and any gain I see is because I'm growing new muscles.

O_O

I let it slide from normal people, but a trainer?

Replies

  • aflane
    aflane Posts: 625 Member
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    The scale isn't moving because your still recovering from the kidney stone. Even though you may be done with the medication, your body is still recovering from the stressful situation. I had a similar medication induced situation in November, and when I spoke with my doctor about it, was reassured to just stay on course watching my caloric consumption. She was right.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    It takes a really really long time to build muscle. You aren't going to notice a scale change from muscle growth in a week or two. Water weight.. yea.. that can fluctuate your weight from 5-10lbs in a single day.
  • WayTooHonest
    WayTooHonest Posts: 144 Member
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    100%. A pound of muscle is about 1/3 the size of a pound of fat. A pound always weighs a frigging pound, I don't care if it's feathers and rocks. Ugh. Total pet peeve. Also why it's super important to measure with the tape measure, not just the scale. Keep it up!!!
  • Larissa_NY
    Larissa_NY Posts: 495 Member
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    I'm moving soon, OP. You can come help me. I'll carry all the boxes of pillows and you can carry all the boxes of books. And you're not allowed to complain about your load being heavier because a pound of pillows weighs the same as a pound of boxes, so that would be stupid, right?
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
    edited January 2017
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    The real issue with the statement is that adding muscle is not easy, or fast, and doesn't happen when your in a deficit (aside from newbie gains).

    Even people doing an intensive progressive lifting program don't add pounds of muscle in a month, so it's actually most often just wrong to say that the scale isn't moving because you're adding muscle and losing fat at the same time. What you might be doing is retaining water for muscle repair from workouts. Or, in the OPs case, still recovering from kidney issues.

    For example, it drives me nuts when someone posts about how they're eating at a deficit and walking X miles a day and not losing and someone else suggests it's because they're adding muscle.
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Larissa_NY wrote: »
    I'm moving soon, OP. You can come help me. I'll carry all the boxes of pillows and you can carry all the boxes of books. And you're not allowed to complain about your load being heavier because a pound of pillows weighs the same as a pound of boxes, so that would be stupid, right?

    The thing is in the context of weight loss it is highly unlikely that the reason someone isn't losing weight is because they are "building muscle". For example, if OP is eating at a deficit to lose 2 lbs a week it is highly unlikely that at that same exact rate OP is building muscle therefore there is no change on the scale. I don't think people fully understand how hard it is to build muscle. It, like losing weight, isn't an overnight process.

    OP it's most likely water weight. I'd give it more time.

    As for the trainer, I'd brush off the comment. It's woo people tell you to make you feel better and it's probably why he said it.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited January 2017
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    It takes a lot of time to gain that much muscle. It is probably water weight from muscle repair from exercise, sodium intake (possibly) and/or your health issues. Have you spoken to your dr about it? After your kidneys are healed you might be able to safely use water pills to shed the excess weight, if your kidney problems were contributing to water retention (which it can). Muscle does weigh less because if we were to fill a bowl with fat and muscle, it would take more muscle to reach 1lb than it would fat...Isn't taking up less space the point of weight loss? Do you take your measurements? I would do that if you don't yet because then you can truly see if you're making any progress at all or if you need to change up your routine.

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