does muscle really weigh more than fat?

lucentabella

No matter what it's made of, a pound is a pound. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat.

grinch031

You should ignore anyone who suggests that while on a fat loss diet that you might be gaining muscle.

Wrong!!


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/447514-athletes-can-gain-muscle-while-losing-fat-on-deficit-diet

Is it possible? YES. Is it going to happen by accident and be a common reason people on MFP might nott lose weight? NO!

Oh I know this, but I was pointing out your wrong statement. It takes a different dedication to gain muscle and cut body fat but it is possible.

What was wrong about my statement? I made a suggestion that is more often than not going to be valid.

Because you said to ignore people that say it MIGHT happen. Now you changed your original comment to include MORE OFTEN THAN NOT. Basically your agreeing that it can happen, but your amendment makes you right......see what you did there?

No I don't. My original point still stands. If someone is not losing weight, the more likely scenarios are 1) underestimating calories consumed, 2) overestimating calories burned, or 3) water weight is hanging around.

You just want to be right......, now your going off into a different nutritional direction altogether, now it's people that aren't losing weight......basically another strawman. It is possible to gain muscle in a deficit, and also there is something called regional mass gains, which is shifting muscle mass to area's that are worked moreso in a deficit.

Stop being so obtuse. Why should people believe they are gaining muscle when they're not? Because there is a 0.1% chance I need to make them believe that they are?

There you go again, moving the goal posts. Pretty much any novice that incorporates weight training into their weight loss jouney will experience muscle mass gains at the beginning. Does everyone do that, no, will they gain LBM if they don't weight train, probably a 0.1% chance. Again my point is that people do experience LBM in a deficit and why your ORIGINAL statement is still wrong....if you with your knowledge, which is quite obvious you do have in nutrition, made that distiction, that it is possible under certain circumstances (weight training, sufficient protein intake) to gain muscle mass, I wouldn't along a few others need to remind you that it does happen quite frequently to those that do make the right adaption.

So much how much muscle mass can a novice who is 50-100lbs overweight expect to gain while on a fat loss diet eating 1500 calories a day?

love2cycle

You have read my mind! I thought about posting this very question this morning! A pound is a pound! Like the old joke, which weighs more a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers? HA! Obviously the pound of muscle looks better, though!

neanderthin

So much how much muscle mass can a novice who is 50-100lbs overweight expect to gain while on a fat loss diet eating 1500 calories a day?

lol, how much is not the point and somehow makes your original point valid, but it would depend on the individual's dedication....

grinch031

So much how much muscle mass can a novice who is 50-100lbs overweight expect to gain while on a fat loss diet eating 1500 calories a day?

lol, how much is not the point and somehow makes your original point valid, but it would depend on the individual's dedication....

I think you are trying to prove me wrong a heck of a lot more than I'm trying to be right.

neanderthin

So much how much muscle mass can a novice who is 50-100lbs overweight expect to gain while on a fat loss diet eating 1500 calories a day?

lol, how much is not the point and somehow makes your original point valid, but it would depend on the individual's dedication....

I think you are trying to prove me wrong a heck of a lot more than I'm trying to be right.

Next time try incorportating your original point and your followup strawman together, then we won't have a problem with misinformation.

katiejneely

Yes, by volume fat weights less, but not by a lot at all - a litre of muscle would weigh 1.06kg and a litre of fat is 0.9 so muscle is 18% denser. It isn't an excuse for people who say they weigh more because they have muscle underneath.

BarbWhite09

They have different volumes - take up different amounts of space. I hate the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" thing...If you have 5 lbs of each of them it's still the same weight, makes no sense to say muscle weighs more.

grinch031

So much how much muscle mass can a novice who is 50-100lbs overweight expect to gain while on a fat loss diet eating 1500 calories a day?

lol, how much is not the point and somehow makes your original point valid, but it would depend on the individual's dedication....

I think you are trying to prove me wrong a heck of a lot more than I'm trying to be right.

Next time try incorportating your original point and your followup strawman together, then we won't have a problem with misinformation.

I still don't know what the strawman was.

margieward82

It's simple, muscle is more dense.
A pund of muscle takes up less room than a pound of fat. done.

jadesta55

i really dont pay attention to that part but i know muscle takes up less space and i love it!

Sister_Someone

A pound is a pound is a pound.

Would you say that a pound of feathers weighs less than a pound of lead? No? Didn't think so. Same applies to fat vs. muscle. It might take you hell of a lot more fat than muscle to make for a pound, but it's still the very same pound. Therefore, a pound of muscle will only look better on you than a pound of fat.

bstoetzer

muscle and fat "weigh" exactly the same. 1lb of fat = 1 lb of muscle

Muscle however is denser than fat so there is a smaller volume of muscle needed to make up the 1 lb.

In addition, muscle uses more calories than fat, so they help your metabolism keep going even when at rest. Fat on the other hand is basically stored energy that does very little. And, too much can harm your body in a number of ways.

better to have muscle than fat!

^^ Agree!!

MCplmr

I've been exercising since Jan. 1. I also started dieting the same time.....both religiously. I treamill 2 miles 4 or 5 times a week. I dropped like 7lbs. in Jan., but feb has been going up 1 or 2 lbs. even though i've been hardcore.
People tell me left and right that I look like I lost more than the scale sez. It's hard for me to add the extra cals when inputting my exercise numbers. Is that affecting the scale?? I don't really want to eat more just cuz I worked out. I feel good, but not happy with the scale.......suggestions??

Elizabeth_C34

. it takes months of training to gain a pound of muscle so you wouldn't see that kind of gain overnight.

That isnt true. You can gain a pound of muscle weight every week. There are exercise regimes out there that show you how to. You can even gain 3 pounds of muscle a week, but that is by using very extreme methods.

Not unless you are on the 'roid juice.

CoryIda

. it takes months of training to gain a pound of muscle so you wouldn't see that kind of gain overnight.

That isnt true. You can gain a pound of muscle weight every week. There are exercise regimes out there that show you how to. You can even gain 3 pounds of muscle a week, but that is by using very extreme methods.

Not unless you are on the 'roid juice.

This

d2footballJRC

I've been exercising since Jan. 1. I also started dieting the same time.....both religiously. I treamill 2 miles 4 or 5 times a week. I dropped like 7lbs. in Jan., but feb has been going up 1 or 2 lbs. even though i've been hardcore.
People tell me left and right that I look like I lost more than the scale sez. It's hard for me to add the extra cals when inputting my exercise numbers. Is that affecting the scale?? I don't really want to eat more just cuz I worked out. I feel good, but not happy with the scale.......suggestions??

Throw the scale away if you are going to judge yourself by it. Measurements is where it's at.

d2footballJRC

. it takes months of training to gain a pound of muscle so you wouldn't see that kind of gain overnight.

That isnt true. You can gain a pound of muscle weight every week. There are exercise regimes out there that show you how to. You can even gain 3 pounds of muscle a week, but that is by using very extreme methods.

Not unless you are on the 'roid juice.

Even on roid juice you won't be gaining 1lb of muscle if you are eating a deficit. Katanadrol is considered the best cutting PH out and you are looking only like 4-5 pounds of muscle gained on a cycle of it (8 weeks on average)

fteale

If I see this debate again I am going to gouge out my eyes.

savage22hp

Weight=mass x force of gravity
Density =mass / volume
Therefore Weight = ( Density x Volume ) x force of gravity
The density of muscle is greater than the density of fat SO ... Gravity is the same for both , density is different , volume CANNOT be equal to weigh the same .
1 lb = 1 lb , no matter the material but the saying muscle weighs more than fat is ASSUMING equal volume .


Now for a really hard question :
If it took a chicken and a half a day and a half to lay an egg and a half ,
How long would it take a monkey with a wooden leg to stomp the seeds out of a pickle ? ( assuming the density of monkey = the density of chicken )

grinch031

How many people does it take to reiterate the point that a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weigh the same?

Is there ever a time when someone says that muscle weighs more than fat and actually means they are not equivalent in weight when both measured in pounds? I would think most of us would be intelligent enough to realize that what they MEAN is that muscle is more dense than fat.

savage22hp

How many people does it take to reiterate the point that a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weigh the same?

Is there ever a time when someone says that muscle weighs more than fat and actually means they are not equivalent in weight when both measured in pounds? I would think most of us would be intelligent enough to realize that what they MEAN is that muscle is more dense than fat.

Intelligence has very little to do with it . If I am going out and my wife says we are out of laundry detergent then she means for me to get it . To best communicate that though she should say (ask?) get some detergent while you are out . This post goes around and around because a lack of being able to communicate . It is true that muscle weighs more than fat if you communicate what you assume to be known , equal volume . It is also true that muscle and fat ,weighed on a scale with like units , will balance 1 lb = 1 lb
, or as many keep posting a pound of anything = a pound of something else . Both sides are right but arguing about 2 different things .


.....and by the way in the backwoods where I am from roid refers to hemorrhoid . I know those posting about roids here are talking steroids but just think what might be going through someone's mind when they read roid juice if they don't know what you are talking about ? I shudder at the thought ......

grinch031

How many people does it take to reiterate the point that a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weigh the same?

Is there ever a time when someone says that muscle weighs more than fat and actually means they are not equivalent in weight when both measured in pounds? I would think most of us would be intelligent enough to realize that what they MEAN is that muscle is more dense than fat.

Intelligence has very little to do with it . If I am going out and my wife says we are out of laundry detergent then she means for me to get it . To best communicate that though she should say (ask?) get some detergent while you are out . This post goes around and around because a lack of being able to communicate . It is true that muscle weighs more than fat if you communicate what you assume to be known , equal volume . It is also true that muscle and fat ,weighed on a scale with like units , will balance 1 lb = 1 lb
, or as many keep posting a pound of anything = a pound of something else . Both sides are right but arguing about 2 different things .


.....and by the way in the backwoods where I am from roid refers to hemorrhoid . I know those posting about roids here are talking steroids but just think what might be going through someone's mind when they read roid juice if they don't know what you are talking about ? I shudder at the thought ......

Yeah but its as if there is some myth out there that a pound of fat and a pound of muscle don't weigh the same. That myth doesn't exist. Its just people using incorrect semantics, but everybody means the same thing no matter how they word it.

chrishgt4

This post goes around and around because a lack of being able to communicate .

Not true, this goes round and around because of an over-abundance of pedants.

savage22hp

This post goes around and around because a lack of being able to communicate .

Not true, this goes round and around because of an over-abundance of pedants.

Ha Ha Ha , I had to look that one up !

grinch031

This post goes around and around because a lack of being able to communicate .

Not true, this goes round and around because of an over-abundance of pedants.

Ha Ha Ha , I had to look that one up !

So did I. That is a great new addition to my vocabulary.

savage22hp

Yeah but its as if there is some myth out there that a pound of fat and a pound of muscle don't weigh the same. That myth doesn't exist. Its just people using incorrect semantics, but everybody means the same thing no matter how they word it.


You would be surprised at the myths on these forums :
Animal husbandry is the root cause of starvation
The term water includes everything that contains water
Soylent green is people
Etc......

bcattoes

Weight=mass x force of gravity
Density =mass / volume
Therefore Weight = ( Density x Volume ) x force of gravity
The density of muscle is greater than the density of fat SO ... Gravity is the same for both , density is different , volume CANNOT be equal to weigh the same .
1 lb = 1 lb , no matter the material but the saying muscle weighs more than fat is ASSUMING equal volume .


Now for a really hard question :
If it took a chicken and a half a day and a half to lay an egg and a half ,
How long would it take a monkey with a wooden leg to stomp the seeds out of a pickle ? ( assuming the density of monkey = the density of chicken )

IDK I'm too freaked out over the chicken laying half an egg to think about it!!