Muscle DOES NOT weigh more than FAT

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  • mzenzer
    mzenzer Posts: 503 Member
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    It's like the old Christmas Cracker joke - what weighs more a tonne of bricks or a tonne of feathers?

    When people say muscle weighs more than fat it's simply a shorthand way of saying muscle weighs more than fat by volume. We use so much colloquialism and idiom in speech, I really don't know why people get so hung up on this.

    Thank you too! You would think common sense would kick in and they'd realize no one is saying 1lb of anything actually weighs more than an 1lb of another. To me it's clear what someone is trying to convey when that statement is made, but I guess others just have to think a little harder on it.
  • Radcliffe83
    Radcliffe83 Posts: 82
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    everyone on this thread is agreeing with each other!!!!!!!!!
  • McCheez
    McCheez Posts: 1
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    this thread......WOW
  • keola64
    keola64 Posts: 207 Member
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    I keep seeing responses to posts that muscle weighs more than fat when in fact this is an old myth. When you take 5lbs of muscle and weigh it against 5lbs of fat, according to my math, 5lbs is 5lbs. Fat is much thicker than muscle, so by going by the scale if you are working out and you are not losing weight, you are simply replacing the fat with muscle. You could go months without losing weight, but your clothes are getting bigger and bigger on you. This is because you are losing the fat and converting it into muscle.

    Please read here if you could: http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html

    Let's stop this myth for everyone's sake and don't always go by what the scale says but what you see in the mirror or how your clothes fit!!

    Hope this helps!!
    Cheers
    Ed

    Surely going by your own story, muscle weights more than fat.

    If your weight is staying the same, but your clothes are getting bigger on you (ie you're getting smaller), then your frame is smaller but you still weigh the same.

    I don't think it's about 5lbs = 5lbs at all. Of course it does. I think it's in relation to say 1 inch on your body. 1 inch of muscle could weigh more than 1 inch of fat.
    ok for the record ,5 pounds is 5 pounds,but you have to add mass vs density!5 pounds of muscle is denser and therefore has less mass than fat,but that's a mass issue! As far as muscle weighing more than fat that would be a true statment if you are weighing equal sizes of mass,which logically most people would go by ,5 pounds of fat in a 5 gallon bucket in comparison to 5 pounds of lean muscle in a 5 gallon bucket definitely proves in that sense that muscle does weigh more than fat,further more if you boil ground beef the fat settles at the top proving that it is lighter than muscle,oil is lighter than water that's why it always settles on top of water. So the topic was posted without your basic scientific thought behind it due to mass and weight are both parts of this equation,its like comparing 5 pounds of water to 5 pounds of cotton,sure they can both be weighed at 5 pounds but in comparison the cotton would take up a lot more space than water,so in conclusion 5 pound of muscle does indeed weigh more than 5 pounds of fat its not an opinion its a fact due to density and mass combined with weight in this equation.. form your own opinions but put fact together before you do.
  • IMYarnCraz33
    IMYarnCraz33 Posts: 1,016 Member
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    I beg to differ.
    Muscle DOES weigh more than fat.
    Muscle is more dense and it takes a larger amount of fat to = the same amount as muscle.

    Look at this photo below... there is MORE fat to = the amount of muscle that is there.
    5 lbs is 5 lbs but there is more fat here than muscle.

    fat-v-muscle.jpg
  • Fit_Canuck
    Fit_Canuck Posts: 788 Member
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    I beg to differ.
    Muscle DOES weigh more than fat.
    Muscle is more dense and it takes a larger amount of fat to = the same amount as muscle.

    Look at this photo below... there is MORE fat to = the amount of muscle that is there.
    5 lbs is 5 lbs but there is more fat here than muscle.

    fat-v-muscle.jpg

    I definitely know what your trying to say, I think everyone is getting hung up on the word "weight" which is in scientific terms " mass " versus the density of an object. In the picture below both the fat and the muscle are 5lbs so they in fact they do have the same weight ( mass ) but the volume is different which leads to stating that the density is different. ( Density = Mass / Volume ) . What happens so often is someone who starts working out hard starts to built muscle tissue but doesn't necessarily burn off fat at the same volume. Therefore they don't see a difference in size or inches lost on the tape but see a weight gain and that leads to the adage ( Muscle weights more than fat ) .
  • marthafox1
    marthafox1 Posts: 191 Member
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    I'm just off to the shop that sells everything - anybody want me to pick them something up whilst I am there?

    For those that haven;t read the whole thread....shame on you.....2 pages back....all will become clear and the answer to this connundrum....
  • crzyone
    crzyone Posts: 872 Member
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    And a cup of feathers weighs the same as a cup of lead.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    When someone says "muscle weighs more than fat", what do you think they're trying to tell you? Surely the meaning is fairly clear.
  • maryjay51
    maryjay51 Posts: 742
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    a lb of fat seems to look bulkier than a lb of muscle.. i get told all the time that i absolutely do not look my weight.. of course i think differently but people are amazed when i tell them what i weigh. i do have way more muscle on my body than i ever did and im thinking im just more compact than i used to be. i was flopping all over the place before and now that isnt the case .. a gf of mine weighs the same as me and she is in a size 20 and im in a size 14. she does not eat right and definitely does not exercise.
  • mahidac
    mahidac Posts: 126 Member
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    im sure its been said a bunch but - the saying implies that the some volume of muscle weighs more then fat

    I weigh the same as my scuba partner yet he is weight more dense then me and requires virtually no additional weight to sink - where as I require 6-8 pounds of extra lead, but we both are the exact same on the scale

    except he has 5% body fat and i probably have 20-25, so it doesn't weigh more, but it is more dense
  • pauleshankles
    pauleshankles Posts: 7
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    EXACTLY!!!
  • pauleshankles
    pauleshankles Posts: 7
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    Thank you for the diagram.
  • hexrei
    hexrei Posts: 163
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    I keep seeing responses to posts that muscle weighs more than fat when in fact this is an old myth. When you take 5lbs of muscle and weigh it against 5lbs of fat, according to my math, 5lbs is 5lbs. Fat is much thicker than muscle, so by going by the scale if you are working out and you are not losing weight, you are simply replacing the fat with muscle. You could go months without losing weight, but your clothes are getting bigger and bigger on you. This is because you are losing the fat and converting it into muscle.

    Please read here if you could: http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html

    Let's stop this myth for everyone's sake and don't always go by what the scale says but what you see in the mirror or how your clothes fit!!

    Hope this helps!!
    Cheers
    Ed

    WTf are you talking about? muscle DOES weigh more than fat by VOLUME. It's an obvious truism that 5 pounds of ANYTHING weighs the same as 5 pounds of another thing, lol.
  • pauleshankles
    pauleshankles Posts: 7
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    Your statements are true except "This is because you are losing the fat and converting it into muscle". Oranges don't turn into apples. The fat is being reduced and muscle is increasing. So many people think that fat turns to muscle, this is simply not true!!!
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
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    I get annoued by the 'muscle weighs more than fat' comments. It doesn't, end of story.

    Much like the instant 'Starvation Mode' hysteria because someone didn't eat back their 400 exercise calories on some random Tuesday night.

    We all have heard myths and truths and we all choose to believe what we want to believe but the muscle weighing more than fat definitely irks me the most. :tongue:
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,692 Member
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    If equal pounds of fat and muscle are being compared, they will both weigh the same.

    If equal volume of fat and muscle are being compared, then muscle will weigh more.

    If people are saying they are losing weight because they are gaining muscle on a calorie deficit, they are retaining water.

    Got it now?


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
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    I always assume when someone says muscle weighs more than fat, they mean that of the same volume (area) of fat vs muscle, the muscle is heavier as its more dense than fat.

    Obviously 5 pounds of muscle weighs the same as 5 pounds of fat weighs the same as 5 pounds of feathers and so on...

    ^^^this^^^ it is just a matter of people not expressing themselves in the right way.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,017 Member
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    AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Ok, I feel better now.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
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    So... would you say that lead DOES NOT weigh more than feathers?

    Because 5lbs of lead = 5lbs of feathers... just sayin :flowerforyou:

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