Do you agree or disagree .....

2

Replies

  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    People disagreeing with that statement is a bug bear of mine...

    I understand why people disagree with the statement 'muscle weighs more than fat' but really, those people are either being deliberately objective or are incapable of making appropriate assumptions given conversational context.

    Yeah, but that's being too nice about it. Really they're just being morons.
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
    "And please, for the love of God, can we all stop saying this nonsensical phrase? Seriously. Muscle weighs more than fat… WTF does that even mean?"

    agreed.

    People disagreeing with that statement is a bug bear of mine...

    I understand why people disagree with the statement 'muscle weighs more than fat' but really, those people are either being deliberately objective or are incapable of making appropriate assumptions given conversational context.

    Clearly, in the above statement, the person saying it is assuming that we are intelligent enough to know that they are referring to weight by volume. It speaks to a person's intelligence if, when they are confronted with that statement, they assume that they are talking about equal weights being different.

    Also, the person didn't say "A pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat", so why did you make that assumption? You have intentionally made the wrong context assumption to be deliberately awkward.

    In the same way; if I were to say "humans weigh more than pigeons". You wouldn't argue I was wrong because 200lbs of humans is the same as 200lbs of pigeons (or maybe you would).

    The sentence isn't wrong, it is just incomplete because humans have the intelligence to fill in the gaps.

    Amen!
  • EatClenTrenHard
    EatClenTrenHard Posts: 339 Member

    I'm more annoyed that people think they're "gaining muscle" from doing two days of the 30DS on 1200 calories.

    haha yes^^. this.
    Whales eating celery for 3 days. and then then binge after 3 days and thinking its muscle
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    If you ask someone, "What's more valuable, gold or cow manure?" no one is going to say that $1000 of gold is worth the same as $1000 of cow poop.

    Nice, I like that analogy!
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    that we are intelligent enough to know that they are referring to weight by volume

    and what does that even mean.

    Volume is the space something occupies, weight is the force exerted by it under the influence of gravity.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    that we are intelligent enough to know that they are referring to weight by volume

    and what does that even mean.

    Volume is the space something occupies, weight is the force exerted by it under the influence of gravity.
    It's been explained on this thread a number of times. Given the same volume, muscle weighs more than fat. A cup of muscle weighs more than a cup of fat. A cubic centimetre of muscle weighs more than a cubic centimetre of fat.

    Take your pick.
  • ascotton80
    ascotton80 Posts: 56 Member
    "And please, for the love of God, can we all stop saying this nonsensical phrase? Seriously. Muscle weighs more than fat… WTF does that even mean?"

    agreed.

    People disagreeing with that statement is a bug bear of mine...

    I understand why people disagree with the statement 'muscle weighs more than fat' but really, those people are either being deliberately objective or are incapable of making appropriate assumptions given conversational context.

    Clearly, in the above statement, the person saying it is assuming that we are intelligent enough to know that they are referring to weight by volume. It speaks to a person's intelligence if, when they are confronted with that statement, they assume that they are talking about equal weights being different.

    Also, the person didn't say "A pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat", so why did you make that assumption? You have intentionally made the wrong context assumption to be deliberately awkward.

    In the same way; if I were to say "humans weigh more than pigeons". You wouldn't argue I was wrong because 200lbs of humans is the same as 200lbs of pigeons (or maybe you would).

    The sentence isn't wrong, it is just incomplete because humans have the intelligence to fill in the gaps.

    YES YESYESYESYESYES. YES!!

    Thank you! This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine!!!
  • dcain2
    dcain2 Posts: 102 Member
    I always looked at it like this. A pound of feathers compared to a pound of sand...they both weigh the same but look extremely opposite in terms of size and volume. Pretty simple to me.

    ^^^What he said!! While a pound is a pound the way that pound looks on your body is very different.
    For the longest time I was on a plateau...not losing weight but I was losing inches and clothes sizes. Why??because I was exercising and losing fat while gaining muscle. (I am now off the plateau--YAY!!)
  • chrishgt4
    chrishgt4 Posts: 1,222 Member
    that we are intelligent enough to know that they are referring to weight by volume

    and what does that even mean.

    Volume is the space something occupies, weight is the force exerted by it under the influence of gravity.

    Yes it is - and things can be measured in a variety of ways. Muscle and fat can be measured to give us a volume. They can also be weighed to give us a weight.

    When the volumes are the same for both of these things their weights will be different.
  • iluvco3
    iluvco3 Posts: 98 Member
    Generally it takes something major to annoy me -usually just ignore things. However, when people quickly lash back with "Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat", it really annoys me. Really....do they think everyone doesn't know that? When someone says that muscle weighs more than fat, the fact that they are talking about equal volumes is a given.

    I need to let this one go since it comes up SO often. GEESH! :)
  • AmberJo1984
    AmberJo1984 Posts: 1,067 Member
    I really don't see how muscle "weighs more" than fat. It's leaner than fat. It takes up less room than fat... but, I don't think it "weighs more" than fat.
  • kenazfehu
    kenazfehu Posts: 1,188 Member
    I thought everybody understood that what is meant by "muscle weighs more than fat" is that 5 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less room than 5 pounds of fat, so if you wanted enough muscle to take up the amount of space that 5 pounds of fat takes up, the muscle would weigh a lot more than 5 pounds.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    I really don't see how muscle "weighs more" than fat. It's leaner than fat. It takes up less room than fat... but, I don't think it "weighs more" than fat.
    I could just as easily say - What do you mean it takes up less room than fat? - a cubic foot of fat takes up the same amount of room as a cubic foot of muscle.

    We are talking about two different variables here - volume and weight. If you hold volume constant, muscle weighs more than fat. If you hold weight constant, fat has a greater volume (takes up more room) than muscle.
  • cherbapp
    cherbapp Posts: 322
    I hate when I see people thinking a few pound gain a week after a workout is from muscle gain. Lol

    Yeah...you would have to convert literally 2 GALLONS of your fat into muscle to see just over two pounds difference in body weight. That means LOSING 15 pounds of fat and BUILDING 17.6 pounds of muscle.

    A gallon of fat weighs 7.5 pounds and a gallon of muscle weighs 8.8 pounds. So if a 200 pound person is 35% body fat....they have a little less than 10 gallons of fat. Convert HALF of the fat into muscle, and they would be at 17% body fat....however they would now take up about 4% less space. And look like a football player. Lol

    The numbers just aren't as drastic as people think they are. Or wish they were.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    I think my favorite was when I told someone on the site that everyone knows that "per unit volume" is implied, and what everyone really means is that muscle is denser than fat. And then he called me a moron because everyone knows that muscle takes up less volume than fat (no mention of weight included).
  • cherbapp
    cherbapp Posts: 322
    I thought everybody understood that what is meant by "muscle weighs more than fat" is that 5 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less room than 5 pounds of fat, so if you wanted enough muscle to take up the amount of space that 5 pounds of fat takes up, the muscle would weigh a lot more than 5 pounds.
    It would weigh about 6 pounds.
  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,728 Member
    I really don't see how muscle "weighs more" than fat. It's leaner than fat. It takes up less room than fat... but, I don't think it "weighs more" than fat.

    A cubic inch of muscle does NOT take up less room than a cubic inch of fat.

    --See how stupid this argument is??
  • jesse1379
    jesse1379 Posts: 239 Member
    fatmusclecomparison.jpg
  • chubbygirl253
    chubbygirl253 Posts: 1,309 Member
    a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same. A pound. but a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat.
  • secretlobster
    secretlobster Posts: 3,566 Member
    Finally, thanks to this post, this controversial topic will be put to rest, once and for all.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    I thought everybody understood that what is meant by "muscle weighs more than fat" is that 5 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less room than 5 pounds of fat,
    Always simpler to be correct rather than be wrong and hope others see it from the same viewpoint :-) *kitten*-u-me nothing.

    The link in the OP is about people who are not losing weight so where exactly does volume come into it ?
  • muscle is more dense than fat, so for example a cup of muscle would weigh more than a cup of fat...so if you look at 5lbs of muscle vs 5lbs of fat, the fat will take up more space...source* http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/busting-the-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat-myth.aspx
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    I thought everybody understood that what is meant by "muscle weighs more than fat" is that 5 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less room than 5 pounds of fat,
    Always simpler to be correct rather than be wrong and hope others see it from the same viewpoint :-) *kitten*-u-me nothing.

    The link in the OP is about people who are not losing weight so where exactly does volume come into it ?
    The assumption is that most people here have a level of intelligence that doesn't require us to spell everything out for them like they are 5-year-olds. The idea that we can be smaller but weigh more due to the development of muscle is a very basic fitness concept. My bet is that even those parroting the tiresome mantra of "a pound weighs a pound" understand it.
  • hughtwalker
    hughtwalker Posts: 2,213 Member
    It would seem that brain is denser than fat too
  • jesse1379
    jesse1379 Posts: 239 Member
    It would seem that brain is denser than fat too

    Actually if Im not mistaken brain matter is mostly fat lol.
  • PamelaKuz
    PamelaKuz Posts: 191 Member
    The best post ever!
    It would seem that brain is denser than fat too
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
    Finally, thanks to this post, this controversial topic will be put to rest, once and for all.

    If only...
  • chrishgt4
    chrishgt4 Posts: 1,222 Member
    Finally, thanks to this post, this controversial topic will be put to rest, once and for all.

    I can't help but reply to the pedants though...this is one thing the trolls will always win with for me.....
  • Pixi_Rex
    Pixi_Rex Posts: 1,676 Member
    In the almost 2 years I've been here, I've only encountered ONE deluded person who actually believed that one pound of something weighted more than one pound of something else, and mercifully, she doesn't post any more.

    Everyone else who uses that phrase understands that the words "by volume" are implied.

    If you ask someone, "What's more valuable, gold or cow manure?" no one is going to say that $1000 of gold is worth the same as $1000 of cow poop.

    I'm more annoyed that people think they're "gaining muscle" from doing two days of the 30DS on 1200 calories.

    I agree with this 100%.
  • solyhhit
    solyhhit Posts: 97 Member
    Finally, thanks to this post, this controversial topic will be put to rest, once and for all.

    This might be the greatest comment I've seen on here yet.