Does muscle really weigh more than fat????

carrieberrie

Interesting article!

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100212101

SherryRH

I couldn't get your link to work.

proctor0828

I couldn't get it to work either

carrieberrie

you may have to cut and paste

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100212101

Phoenix_Rising

you may have to cut and paste

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100212101

Says the page no longer exists :ohwell:

PureAndHealthy

It says "the page you requested is no longer available"

carrieberrie

I just checked the link right before I am sending it again and it worked

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100212101

Phoenix_Rising

Can you copy and paste the article for us?

carrieberrie

Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?
A pound of muscle, a pound of fat: What's the difference?
By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Q. Does muscle really weigh more than fat? I am a trainer and am frequently asked this question by members of my gym. I have heard conflicting reports and can’t seem to find the right answer.

A. No, muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat—they both weigh one pound!

This commonly cited gym cliché is somewhat misunderstood and misused. The rationale that muscle weighs more than fat is often cited as an explanation for why a person might find that they aren’t losing weight, or are gaining weight, when they kick off an exercise regimen. The idea seems to be that if you are exercising—and theoretically losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time—the effects cancel each other out. So, in theory, you won’t see desired weight loss as measured by pounds on the scale, even though you may be improving how you look.

You certainly can improve your appearance with exercise without always seeing a change in your body weight—by becoming firmer, more sculpted and sometimes leaner. But that doesn’t mean that you are gaining massive amounts of muscle, or losing lots of fat.

Muscle Does Not Turn To Fat

Some people believe that if they start working out they turn their fat into muscle or that, if they stop working out, their muscle will turn into fat. Neither is true; each tissue is distinctly different. You can gain muscle or lose weight, and you can gain or lose more body fat, but they don’t convert into each other. Both gaining and losing muscle and/or fat can both affect your body weight on the scale, depending upon the magnitude of the body fat or body muscle increase or decrease.

To gain significant amounts of muscle, you not only have to do the type of exercise that stimulates muscle growth—progressive and intense resistance training—you also have to eat more calories than normal to fuel the process. Most people who exercise, especially women, do not perform resistance training at this level, nor do they eat more to try to build muscle. Even if they did, it could take many months to increase muscle mass by just a few pounds.

Body Fat Tests

Some people get their body fat tested at the gym, either by using skin calipers or a portable, step-on, body-fat scale. These measurements may show shifts in muscle-to-fat ratios, making it appear that a person has gained pounds of muscle and lost pounds worth of fat, whether or not the normal body-weight scale registers any big changes. Whether these potentially large changes in fat and muscle mass are accurate is up for debate.

On the body-fat scale, for example, you can get a dramatically different estimate of these figures from the same “weigh-in” based on whether you are input as a “normal” person or an “athlete.” So at the exact same moment a scale may show that you are at 18 percent body fat or at 27 percent body fat, for example. This large discrepancy is because the formulas used in these types of machines to calculate your measurements are based on estimates.

And there’s always a “standard deviation” in these estimated readings from calipers and body-fat scales. In other words, your result may not be as specific as you think it is, it falls within a range.

Why Doesn’t Exercise Always Affect Body Weight?

If someone is working out and not losing weight, or not losing as much as they want—or if they’re actually gaining weight—the first place to look is the type and amount of exercise.

Weight loss boils down to burning more calories than you normally use in a day. Cardio exercise burns more calories than muscle-toning or the average resistance-training workout. So dialing down the stretching and core work to just once or twice a week, and replacing it with more cardio should produce more weight loss. And the more minutes the better when it comes to weight loss: An hour to 90 minutes of aerobic activity per day on most days of the week will affect body weight.

Some people get overly obsessed about numbers on the scale. If you are happy with the way you look and feel, and you feel like you are improving your fitness and strength, then continue doing what you are doing. Exercise works, and every minute of movement helps your health in some way. Weight loss through working out may be slower than you want, but it’s likely to be longer term solution and a healthier way to trim down and shape up, or at the very least to stave off weight gain over the years.

More from Martica on MSN Health & Fitness.

Do you have a fitness or weight-loss question for Martica? Send e-mail to experts@microsoft.com. Please include Ask Martica in the subject line. Each of our experts responds to one question each week and the responses are posted on Mondays on MSN Health. We regret that we cannot provide a personalized response to every submission.


Martica is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist and an award-winning fitness instructor. She has written for a variety of publications including Self , Health , Prevention , The New York Times and others. Martica is the author of seven books, including her latest, - Cross-Training for Dummies . (Read her full bio.)

PureAndHealthy

I don't get why the "muscle weighs more than fat" thing is so heavily disputed. Of course a pound of muscle doesn't weigh more than a pound of fat, just like a pound of bricks weighs the same as a pound of feathers, but I guarantee the feathers will take up a LOT more room. We're talking about density, volume, amount of space it takes up. A measuring cup full of your muscle would weigh more than that same measuring cup full of your fat. So a 5'9" 150-pound muscular girl may wear a size 6 while a 5'9" 150-pound flabby girl may be in a size 10. Got it? Good.

hiddensecant

JoyousMaximus

I think the correct statement is a pound of muscle has more volume that a pound of fat but it's longer and our scale obsessed society wants weight changes. In my opinion.

hasiangirl

I think the correct statement is a pound of muscle has more volume that a pound of fat but it's longer and our scale obsessed society wants weight changes. In my opinion.

yup agreed :bigsmile:

carrieberrie

Yes thank you!

I really wanted to search on this subject because my fiance' works out...a lot.
I dont work out at all. When I did start a while back lifting weights and really did hardcore cardio workouts I gained a lot of weight. Of course the first thing everyone said was I was gaining muscle. My fiance' cracks up at this. He said there is no way on earth you can gain muscle in as little as 2 weeks. It took him almost 3 years to get cut and grow a lof muscle adn that was eating lots of protein and working out every single day for 2 hours a day. Yes I know people gain muscle faster or slower.

Then what I found what is interesting and I never thought of is A POUND IS A POUND! DUHH! Thinking to myself why didnt I think of that!

Yes I know muscle takes up less room.

hasiangirl

Yes thank you!

I really wanted to search on this subject because my fiance' works out...a lot.
I dont work out at all. When I did start a while back lifting weights and really did hardcore cardio workouts I gained a lot of weight. Of course the first thing everyone said was I was gaining muscle. My fiance' cracks up at this. He said there is no way on earth you can gain muscle in as little as 2 weeks. It took him almost 3 years to get cut and grow a lof muscle adn that was eating losts of protein and working out every single day for 2 hours a day. Yes I know people gain muscle faster or slower.

Then what I found what is interesting and I never thought of is A POUND IS A POUND! DUHH! Thinking to myself why didnt I think of that!

Yes I know muscle takes up less room.

i have heard theres a way to trick your muscles into growing faster and have seen people get results in 3 weeks.....buttttttt it could just be really good genetics too lol

carrieberrie

Yeah I wish I had those genes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Azdak

There are a number of other adaptations to exercise that occur that are not as interesting as "building muscle", but are much more common and affect scale weight as well. Things like increased plasma volume and stored muscle glycogen. It is also important to remember that the internal "environment" of our bodies is dynamic, not static.

Having done literally thousands of skinfold measurements for body fat, I know that, in the hands of an experienced practitioner (unfortunately, a BIG "if"), they can be very effective in tracking body composition changes. The exact numbers might be an estimate, but the changes over time are very real and quantifiable. There are a couple of body types that don't fit well with the technique, and the more obese you are, the less effective it is, but I found it to be more reliable that body fat scales in most of the people I have worked with.