Muscle weighs more then fat?

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  • Commander_Keen
    Commander_Keen Posts: 1,179 Member
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    1lb muscle =1lb fat sorry....

    1lb Muscle may take up less space tho...

    Muscle doesn't take up less space because 1 cubic inch of muscle = 1 cubic inch of fat.

    All other variable being equal is implied in the statement. The same volume of muscle will weigh more than the same volume of fat, thus muscle weighs more than fat.

    Unless one of them is on the moon.

    Fat Vs Muscle

    http://www.amazon.com/form®-1-lb-5-lb-Replicas-Muscle/dp/B00F9UY73C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1390947117&sr=8-4&keywords=5lb.++of+muscle+Replica
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    This drives me crazy. Everyone knows what everyone else is saying here. Everyone is correct. "Per unit volume" is implied when people say muscle weighs more than fat and the unit of volume everyone is talking about is the human body.

    I feel like people just argue about this to pontificate.

    Yeah it's a huge pet peeve of mine, lol. People apparently just like to play dumb. It's like saying that lead doesn't weigh more than feathers... so dumb.

    OP, if you compare two persons of the same weight and one has 10% less bodyfat than the other, he will be leaner. In the end though, if you want to lose weight, you need to eat a deficit... So either you're not losing weight because you're eating too much, or you're not losing weight because your muscles are still recovering from a new exercise program.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    And then fat does what???



    Don't leave us in suspense...

    ...please do go on.
  • skullshank
    skullshank Posts: 4,323 Member
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    anyone get bingo?
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
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    This drives me crazy. Everyone knows what everyone else is saying here. Everyone is correct. "Per unit volume" is implied when people say muscle weighs more than fat and the unit of volume everyone is talking about is the human body.

    I feel like people just argue about this to pontificate.

    ^This!
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    Haha.....can of worms.

    Yes, muscle does weigh more than fat, by volume.

    However, this won't stop you losing weight. It's physically impossible to gain any weight (muscle or fat) at deficit. So, if you're not losing, you're not eating at deficit.

    This is either because you have miscalculated either your BMR or activity level, or both or you are not logging accurately.
  • MyaAlisha6
    MyaAlisha6 Posts: 19 Member
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    I think it may be water retention. I've been kinda reading up on it. I have changed my routine 4 times, and I think my muscles are definitely still recovering.

    Also right now I don't have a food scale. I scan the barcodes of everything I eat and log the amount....I actually a lot of the times double the amount just to be "safe" so I honestly don't think I am eating to many calories.

    It says I should eat around 2,100 calories to keep my weight right where it's at. I've been trying to eat around 1350 calories a day which is a 750 calorie deficit. So I dont think I could be miss calculating that many calories, causing me to over eat.
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
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    This drives me crazy. Everyone knows what everyone else is saying here. Everyone is correct. "Per unit volume" is implied when people say muscle weighs more than fat and the unit of volume everyone is talking about is the human body.

    I feel like people just argue about this to pontificate.

    You couldn't be more wrong
  • royvmax
    royvmax Posts: 13 Member
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    Hi,

    You seem to be doing the right things i.e. exercising and watching your diet. Maybe being a bit more exact on portion size and weighing food will help to get a more accurate report of your calorie intake. The fact that you are doing strength training as well as cardio may mean that you are building some muscle. It is key to measure your chest/ waist /hip/thigh size as you may be losing inches but not weight due to some muscle gain.

    Good luck with your progress.

    Feel free to friend me if you want some encouragement or advice.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    This drives me crazy. Everyone knows what everyone else is saying here. Everyone is correct. "Per unit volume" is implied when people say muscle weighs more than fat and the unit of volume everyone is talking about is the human body.

    I feel like people just argue about this to pontificate.

    You couldn't be more wrong

    Personally, I could care less.
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
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    Haha.....can of worms.

    Yes, muscle does weigh more than fat, by volume.

    However, this won't stop you losing weight. It's physically impossible to gain any weight (muscle or fat) at deficit. So, if you're not losing, you're not eating at deficit.

    This is either because you have miscalculated either your BMR or activity level, or both or you are not logging accurately.

    Maybe you can explain this United States Sports Academy study looking at the effects of strength training and aerobic exercise on body composition in a group of overweight (27% body fat) men then: http://muscleevo.net/calorie-deficit/#.Uugz8z3nZR0

    I am linking to that article, as I am going to guess you do not have a membership at the publisher site, nor a desire to purchase the study.

    Please note the points: "Firstly, the men taking part in the study were beginners, who tend to make rapid gains in muscle mass when they start training with weights.

    They were also overweight (bordering on obese) with a lot of fat to lose. Take someone who is untrained AND extremely overweight (which these men were) and they’ll often drop relatively large amounts of fat while gaining muscle at the same time."
  • MapleFlavouredMaiden
    MapleFlavouredMaiden Posts: 595 Member
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    So I have always been really solid...muscular with some fat. And I weigh a lot more then I look. Could this be a reason why I haven't seen the scale going down? I've been eating a calorie deficit. The first 2 1/2 weeks I started insanity and was too intense so I switch to t25 and the last 2 weeks I've been going to the gym 6 days a week doing about 30-45 on the treadmill and then doing another 45 mins weights. Yesterday I started doing t25 again in the morning and then going to the gym in the evening. Still haven't really noticed any results or weight loss...help!

    Too bad the title of your thread has everyone on a stupid tangent - (I weigh the same as the earth because 1lb me = 1 lb earth. Derp.)

    Anyway, I'll try to focus on your questions:

    Most likely, after a few weeks this has little to do with muscle or fat. Intense new exercise results in edema to repair the tissue and to store glycogen. This edema is mostly water and salts and creates a weight masking effect. You can wait, and the weight will drop. Want to test it?

    Take one day with little bread or other carbs and the next day, you'll drop a pound or two.

    Or, since it is two weeks, it could be TOM, undigested food, etc... Give it time.

    And on the exercise front, relax that a little, give yourself time to become used to it and avoid injury - 3-4 days of exercise a week is sufficient when starting. Take a long term view of what is practicable.


    Was going to give some advice but this guy pretty much summed up everything I was going to say. Still too early, glycogen, water, menstrual cycle, etc. Also agree with the relaxing a bit. Sounds like you may be over training a bit. If you do that and don't eat enough, you'll have a harder time losing. Eat at a small deficit and take your time.
  • Quieau
    Quieau Posts: 428 Member
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    in terms of density of mass, yes, muscle weighs more than fat. it takes up less space as a result.

    and you CAN flatline your weight, or even gain EVEN IF you are eating in a deficit because WEIGHT does NOT equal FAT!

    there is also water, muscle and bone. bone would change most slowly but could add density through fitness and diet, thus MINOR weight impact. muscle is probably the next slowest ... water? that can change hugely day to day or even hour to hour in some cases. and dramatically! or not. you could steadily carry a few pounds of water for long periods of time, or you can gain and lose it quickly, depending on the reason for it. i have plateaued for weeks because of water and i have gained/lost 9 lbs in a week because of water (i had just started intense workouts again). water will MESS you up! :)

    i know i didn't have to relose that fat because while tracking my actual weight, i also tracked a 2-lb per week theoretical loss to see how well they aligned. in the end, after 6 months, they match perfectly now. the fat was steady losing 2 lbs. a week but the wild water fluctuations made me think i was stalling, gaining and having to relose the same weight over and over.

    hope that helps! :)
  • SrJoben
    SrJoben Posts: 484 Member
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    So I have always been really solid...muscular with some fat. And I weigh a lot more then I look. Could this be a reason why I haven't seen the scale going down? I've been eating a calorie deficit. The first 2 1/2 weeks I started insanity and was too intense so I switch to t25 and the last 2 weeks I've been going to the gym 6 days a week doing about 30-45 on the treadmill and then doing another 45 mins weights. Yesterday I started doing t25 again in the morning and then going to the gym in the evening. Still haven't really noticed any results or weight loss...help!

    Well as others have said a pound is a pound. But a pound of fat takes up more room than a pound of muscle, because it's less dense.

    Lets get another thing to get out of the way first. You haven't put on pounds of muscle in a couple weeks. I wish that were possible but it's not. There's a good expression: You lose fat by pounds and gain muscle in ounces.

    Two weeks huh? I'm not sure we can tell how big a deal this is unless we know how big your deficit is and how often you weigh in.

    Think of it this way, lets say you're set up to lose 1 pound a week. And you weigh in every Monday.

    At the start you're...lets just say 145. Fast forward a week and you weigh yourself again and it still says 145.

    Does this mean you have not lost weight? No. It means you might not have lose weight.

    If you weighted in every morning your might see something like this:

    145,
    145.5,
    144.2,
    146,
    144,5,
    142.8,
    144,
    145

    It looks like you lost nothing if you just look at the first and last days. But if you average the first four days it's ~145,1, and if you average the last four days it's ~144. There's the pound you lost. Hidden in the statistical noise of normal weight fluctuation.

    (And if you made the mistake of comparing any two consecutive days you might think you gained or lost 1-3 pounds in 24 hours.)

    If you like data, weigh in all the time, graph it and figure out what your week-to-week trend is.

    If you want it easy, weigh in at a long enough interval that the weight you probably lost is greater than any likely fluctuation. Like maybe on the first of every month.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    This drives me crazy. Everyone knows what everyone else is saying here. Everyone is correct. "Per unit volume" is implied when people say muscle weighs more than fat and the unit of volume everyone is talking about is the human body.

    I feel like people just argue about this to pontificate.

    You couldn't be more wrong

    Personally, I could care less.

    tumblr_inline_mjv66cWZ1e1qz4rgp.gif
  • skyfall87
    skyfall87 Posts: 4 Member
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    Yes, muscle does weigh more than fat. I keep track of "weight" BUT the most crucial thing you can do is measure yourself. I've lost 32 lbs and 10 inches off my waist. (among other places but all girlies are usually worried about their waist!) The best thing to do is to keep a BALANCED diet based on YOUR body. Don't do all those crazy diets, they DON'T work! I've been doing this for years, I've yo-yo'd for years! Protien, veggies, and whole grains. Don't deprive yourself of anything, your body NEEDS carbs & fats just as much as it needs protein & veggies. Just keep your blood sugar levels normal and the inches will come off. Try reading through a book called "Sugar Busters" it gives you a good jumping off point and gives you the science behind it as well. Good Luck!!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    1lb muscle =1lb fat sorry....

    1lb Muscle may take up less space tho...

    Muscle doesn't take up less space because 1 cubic inch of muscle = 1 cubic inch of fat.

    All other variable being equal is implied in the statement. The same volume of muscle will weigh more than the same volume of fat, thus muscle weighs more than fat.

    Unless one of them is on the moon.

    1lb of muscle takes up a hell of a lot less space than 1lb of fat, hence my statement 1lb of muscle takes up less space

    that is where that misleading statement comes from...muscle weighs more than fat...

    ETA: I don't speak code I read the words and assume that is what people meant....I don't infer anything other than what the words actually mean...hence my clarification when I said what I did...nothing implied.
  • zapinkleopard
    zapinkleopard Posts: 49
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    Well a pound of muscle and a pound of fat both weigh the same. 1 pound. But the pound of fat is 5X's larger than the pound of muscle.
  • pawoodhull
    pawoodhull Posts: 1,759 Member
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    1lb muscle =1lb fat sorry....

    1lb Muscle may take up less space tho...

    Muscle doesn't take up less space because 1 cubic inch of muscle = 1 cubic inch of fat.

    All other variable being equal is implied in the statement. The same volume of muscle will weigh more than the same volume of fat, thus muscle weighs more than fat.

    Unless one of them is on the moon.

    Although you are right about a pound is a pound is a pound, one pound of muscle is smaller and takes up less space than one pound of fat. Therefore as you lose fat and gain muscle you will go down in size or inches but the scale doesn't move.

    Think of it as one pound of feathers is massive, while one pound of sand is much smaller. Get it?
  • OllyReeves
    OllyReeves Posts: 579 Member
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    1lb muscle =1lb fat sorry....

    1lb Muscle may take up less space tho...

    Muscle doesn't take up less space because 1 cubic inch of muscle = 1 cubic inch of fat.

    All other variable being equal is implied in the statement. The same volume of muscle will weigh more than the same volume of fat, thus muscle weighs more than fat.


    Thank goodness for you!

    The bottom line is, MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT in equal sized amounts. Please stop being such idiots and splitting hairs. Obviously a pound of one thing weighs the same as a pound of something else.

    I really fail to grasp why people are such utter pr*cks about this.

    MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT. The end.

    Unless one of them is on the moon.

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