Myth? Muscle weighs more?

Whatsthemotive

Isn’t a pound a pound whether it’s fat or muscle? I’m working out 5-6 days a week and I feel stronger. I’ve lost 11.8 pounds since the new year. Tomorrow is weigh in day and I think I’m going to end up with no significant loss or gain for this week. I was comforting myself with the old saw that muscle weighs more than fat. But then I thought, That’s dumb. A pound is a pound. Five pounds of sugar doesn’t weigh more than five pounds of flour.

AnnPT77

Yes. A pound is a pound. But a pound of muscle is more dense (compact) than a pound of fat. So, if someone stays at the same weight, but has more muscle and less fat, we'd expect them to be a bit smaller.

People phrase it poorly, but the concept is that X volume (like square inches/cm) of muscle weighs more than X volume of fat, not that a pound of muscle weights more than a pound of fat.

ninerbuff

A pound is a pound. True, but if you were to measure the actual density, you would have much less muscle mass vs fat mass for the same pound.
Scientifically when weighing materials, you compare the same amount of MASS against each other to check for density. So muscle does weigh more than fat when you compare MASS (volume) equally.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

FitAgainBy55

It isn't the which weighs more part of that saying that is misleading, it's the thought that the reason people aren't losing weight when working out is that they are gaining muscle.

It is a very difficult and slow process to add 1 lb of muscle, especially when eating at a deficit. Even in ideal circumstances, most experts say the maximum rate is 1 - 2 lbs per month for men and 1 lb per month for women. When eating at a deficit and just performing casual strength training the process will be much slower.

So, when someone's weight isn't dropping it is very unlikely to have anything to do with muscle growth.

tyediri

Think of it like this. Would you say a stone weighs more than a feather? But a pound of stone should weight the same as a pound of feathers too right?
It has to do with density. If you take an empty box and fill it with stones, that will weigh more than if you took that same box and filled it with feathers. Because stone is more dense than feathers.

Now replace stone with muscle, feather with fat and the box with your body. Does that make more sense?

Or have I waffled on and made things even more complicated?

Whatsthemotive

I ended up with a .6 pound weight loss. And I feel stronger. Double win. I have a long way to go and I just have to remember that I didn’t get fat and weak in a month or two and it will take time to get lean and strong. It can be discouraging to overthink it. At the rate of .6 per week, it will take 62 weeks to lose my goal loss of 50 pounds. And that isn’t even an aggressive goal for my height. But if I reframe it and think I’m trying to lose 1/4 of my highest weight, I realize it’s really a lot. And I haven’t weighed at my goal weight for probably 20 or 30 years. Slow and steady gain. Slow and steady loss.

FitAgainBy55

I'm not sure why are you focussing on one weigh in to measure progress. Your overall weight loss is about 2 lbs per week this year. It also sounds like you only weigh once per week. I weighed everyday this week and my weight fluctuated as much at 1.8 lbs day to day. If my weigh in day had been one of those high days I would have thought I'd made no progress. Weight loss isn't linear ... it sounds like you are making good progress, just don't get hung up on any one weigh in -- focus more on the rate of loss over several weeks. I'm not suggesting you need to weigh daily (that's a personal preference), I'm really just saying measure you progress based on 2 or 3 weeks of data, not one weigh in.

If you have 40 - 50 lbs to lose, you might be able to sustain 1 lb per week or more and get to your goal in less than 62 weeks.

Whatsthemotive

Thanks everyone.

age_is_just_a_number

Muscle is more dense then fat. A pound of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&url=https://theplussizecoach.wordpress.com/2015/10/17/fat-vs-muscle-who-weighs-more/&psig=AOvVaw3yuqY673Xj8xqp05O1y5KI&ust=1613534002073000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIC91ujA7e4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK