Is Muscle heavier than fat?

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utdbabe
utdbabe Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi

Please could somebody finally clear this up for me, I have debates with everybody over this topic! Is muscle heavier than fat?

I have been eating a max of 1200 calories per day and working out in the gym with a mixture of cardio and strength training. My body is looking quite sleek and toned but my weight on the scales is still quite high and only going down by about 0.5 - 1lb per week. Sometimes it doesnt move at all!

I thought this was down to gaining muscle weight but I have been told that theory is a load of rubbish!!

Help!
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Replies

  • Mairgheal
    Mairgheal Posts: 385 Member
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    No. 1lb of muscle weighs the exact same as 1lb of fat
  • glamroxjax
    glamroxjax Posts: 87 Member
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    Ok, so a pound is a pound, but muscle is denser than fat...sooooo, 10 pounds of muscle looks a hell of a lot better than 10lbs of fat! You are on the right track!
  • HarlCarl
    HarlCarl Posts: 266 Member
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    Muscle is more dense. One pound of feathers weighs the same as one pound of steel.
  • kirkemorgan
    kirkemorgan Posts: 88
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    Depends on genetics, you could be putting on muscle very quickly, making the scale appear slow in its decrease. Or your metabolism could be slowing, If your seeing steady progress, keep doing what your doing, you may have to increase your kcals soon.
  • ambie35
    ambie35 Posts: 853 Member
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    no muscle is not heavier then fat,but fat takes up more space on your body. Hence people who lose inches but no weight are gaining muscle.
  • natekorpusik
    natekorpusik Posts: 176 Member
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    If you are losing .5 to 1 lbs per week then that's great. That's a healthy amount of weight to be losing. Also, to answer your question. Muscle is more dense so smaller amounts of muscle weigh more than the same volume of fat. For example. If you filled a container with feathers.... then filled the same container with lead weights, the lead weights would weigh more but take up the same amount of space. So you need less of it to equal the same weight, thus the slim and toning physique you are experiencing. Great work and best of luck.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    No. 1lb of muscle weighs the exact same as 1lb of fat

    That is misconstruing the question. Because muscle is more dense it does weigh more, by volume. When comparing weights you should keep volume constant, when comparing volume your should keep weight constant. Your statement is comparing weight while keeping weight constant which flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

    making that statement to weight would be like saying carrots and butter have the same amount of calories, since 100 cals of carrots = 100 calories of butter. So one would say butter and cals have the same calorie content.

    To OP: If you are in a caloric deficit you most likely didn't gain any significant amount of muscle maybe a lb or 2 over a couple of months if you are lucky. What you are probably seeing is your muscles storing water due to strength training while you are losing fat. keep drinking water and eventually you will shed some of that excess water.
  • anthony438
    anthony438 Posts: 578 Member
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    Does anyone have a link to the pic of 1 lb of muscle as compared to 1 lb of fat? I think that explains it better then I ever could.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    no muscle is not heavier then fat,but fat takes up more space on your body. Hence people who lose inches but no weight are gaining muscle.


    Yes is is heavier, because it is more dense Earths gravitational force causes it to be heavier (keep volume constant when comparing weight of 2 things)
  • glamroxjax
    glamroxjax Posts: 87 Member
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    No. 1lb of muscle weighs the exact same as 1lb of fat

    That is misconstruing the question. Because muscle is more dense it does weigh more, by volume. When comparing weights you should keep volume constant, when comparing volume your should keep weight constant. Your statement is comparing weight while keeping weight constant which flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

    making that statement to weight would be like saying carrots and butter have the same amount of calories, since 100 cals of carrots = 100 calories of butter. So one would say butter and cals have the same calorie content.

    To OP: If you are in a caloric deficit you most likely didn't gain any significant amount of muscle maybe a lb or 2 over a couple of months if you are lucky. What you are probably seeing is your muscles storing water due to strength training while you are losing fat. keep drinking water and eventually you will shed some of that excess water.

    THANK YOU! I hate hearing about 1lb of fat is 1lb of muscle!!! That is totally disparaging to some. Build that muscle people!!! It looks good on you! <3
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Does anyone have a link to the pic of 1 lb of muscle as compared to 1 lb of fat? I think that explains it better then I ever could.

    I hate that thing, and the way it explains it as it tries to say they weigh the same. But if that case everything weighs the same as everything else because 1 lb of anything weighs the same a 1lb of everything else. This is a horrible argument, needs to keep volume the same on the 2, if you are comparing them for weight.
  • Kirsty_UK
    Kirsty_UK Posts: 964 Member
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    The arguments are over semantics as far as I can tell. Take a cubic inch of fat and a cubic inch of muscle? the muscle weighs more. Take a pound of fat and a pound of muscle, they both weigh the same. It's just arguments over nothing. I say muscle weighs more than fat, and I've not met anyone yet that thinks I mean 1lb of muscle weighs more than 1lb of fat!!!
  • anthony438
    anthony438 Posts: 578 Member
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    Found it!

    Take a look at this:

    http://www.lifefitness-academy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fat-v-muscle.jpg

    It's a model of 5 lbs of fat, next to a model of 5 lbs of muscle.
  • utdbabe
    utdbabe Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks for the replies everyone :) It all makes so much more sense now!
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
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    http://atothejay.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/does-muscle-weigh-more-than-fat/
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Found it!

    Take a look at this:

    http://www.lifefitness-academy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fat-v-muscle.jpg

    It's a model of 5 lbs of fat, next to a model of 5 lbs of muscle.

    Sorry earlier I thought you meant the explanation that is usually attached to that picture.
  • anthony438
    anthony438 Posts: 578 Member
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    Found it!

    Take a look at this:

    http://www.lifefitness-academy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fat-v-muscle.jpg

    It's a model of 5 lbs of fat, next to a model of 5 lbs of muscle.

    Sorry earlier I thought you meant the explanation that is usually attached to that picture.

    Nah, just the pic. I'm a visual kind of guy, (who's really bad at math, lol) :wink:
  • es0torok
    es0torok Posts: 66 Member
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    I've had a difficult time understanding the meaning of that old saying too. Here is an easy way for people to understand.

    Analogy:
    1 pound of coffee vs. 1 pound of Cheerios. The coffee will fit in a much smaller container/area than the Cheerios will.
    ---

    Real life weight example:

    You have 2 women. Both are identical height and weight.

    Woman "A", wears a size 10, woman "B" wears a size 14.

    Woman A has the greater muscle tone.
  • tross0924
    tross0924 Posts: 909 Member
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    You don't compare equal volumes when comparing weight.

    Do you weigh more than I do? "Well if we were to cut off my arm so that our 2 bodies occupied the same volume then no we weigh the same." Or how about does a chicken weigh more than an egg? Or the mac book air weigh less than a regular laptop?

    Weight has absolutely nothing to do with volume. So the problem is with the question. Your don't have an object that you want to weigh, so you have to define the object. People argue over whether the object should be defined by it's weight or it's volume. It's a pointless argument, because it's a pointless question. It's like if you asked does water weigh more than air. The right answer is it depends on how much of each. Same with muscle versus fat.

    1 lb of muscle takes up less space than 1 lb of fat, and 1 cup of muscle weighs more than 1 cup of fat.

    Clear as mud?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    You don't compare equal volumes when comparing weight.

    Do you weigh more than I do? "Well if we were to cut off my arm so that our 2 bodies occupied the same volume then no we weigh the same." Or how about does a chicken weigh more than an egg? Or the mac book air weigh less than a regular laptop?

    Weight has absolutely nothing to do with volume. So the problem is with the question. Your don't have an object that you want to weigh, so you have to define the object. People argue over whether the object should be defined by it's weight or it's volume. It's a pointless argument, because it's a pointless question. It's like if you asked does water weigh more than air. The right answer is it depends on how much of each. Same with muscle versus fat.

    1 lb of muscle takes up less space than 1 lb of fat, and 1 cup of muscle weighs more than 1 cup of fat.

    Clear as mud?

    I'm talking about comparing muscle vs fat, not 2 people. And yes you need a variable and a constant in order to compare in this manner. When someone says muscle weight more than fat they mean that by volume, muscle weighs more than fat.

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