Muscle weighs more than fat (?!!!)

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  • meredith1123
    meredith1123 Posts: 843 Member
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    5 pounds of Muscle weighs the same as five pounds of fat!

    the only difference is fat takes up more room....


    this is not rocket science!
  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 942 Member
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    5 pounds of Muscle weighs the same as five pounds of fat!

    the only difference is fat takes up more room....


    this is not rocket science!
    That's "rocket surgery"!
  • 20107006
    20107006 Posts: 5 Member
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    Oh... so this is why I am good at swimming. More fat than muscle. :wink:
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    2103043-oh_look__its_this_thread_again_zps793e73e1.jpg

    But with a racist twist!! :tongue:


    So it's all new now!!
  • mmmyotwnz
    mmmyotwnz Posts: 119 Member
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    Good grief I was just told this by a potential personal trainer on Saturday!!! I was going to him(or was) about why I am working out harder than I ever had in my life and I hadn't lost an ounce since November. He said "I was getting denser and gaining more muscle and everyone knows that muscle weighs more than fat". I kind of was stuck on the denser comment. Maybe I am dense for standing there listening to him drone on and on.

    Now I doubt anything he said as how to kick my body into gear.

    Same analogy of to what falls faster a lead ball or a feather... gah.

    I have no idea why I'm not loosing other than my calories in were not enough and any deficit I created wasn't helping. Or that is what I sincerely hope or I have failed at this again.

    Even though the inches aren't moving like I want and the scale might go flying, I feel better and stronger than I have in years and I have a bounce in my step that has been gone for years.

    I would like to be like everyone else and see that darn ticker go down...sigh.
  • Ebelina07
    Ebelina07 Posts: 32
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    This topic comes up often.

    Of all the myths and misunderstandings about exercise and weight loss , this is the daftest and most stupid of all!

    One pound of muscle = one pound of fat.
    One kilogram of muscle = one kilogram of fat.

    The amateur (professionally unqualified and self-proclaimed) 'experts' then say.....
    "Yes, but muscle is denser than..... fat by volume". True.

    But since when do bathroom scales measure humans by 'density' and 'volume'?

    They don't.

    So the statement that "muscle weighs more than fat" is irrelevant and ridiculously stupid.
    Unfortunately, it's established in the brain of society.

    The truth originally comes from a laboratory-based method of assessing body composition called 'hydrostatic weighing'.
    A person to be assessed would be immersed in a water tank, suspended in a cradle' and then weighed. The displacement of water would also be assessed. Scientific calculations would then determine the person's body composition.

    So. if two people of equal weight (on bathroom scales) were assessed by this method, the person with greater muscle mass would appear to weigh more.....under water..... than the person with a higher proportion of body fat. (Body fat means greater buoyancy).

    This is why, at Olympic Games level, no afro-carribeans win medals at swimming. Their greater body density means that they sink further into the water an create greater 'drag', so can't reach the speeds of the other swimmers.

    NOTE: This isn't 'racist'.... it's a simple matter of human physiology.

    Muscle does not 'weigh more' than fat.
    1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat..... on the scales that we use.

    If you're exercising in the gym and not losing 'weight'..... then something else isn't working.
    It's NOT because 'muscle weighs more than fat'.....it doesn't.

    Source of this post?.... I''m a professionally qualified exercise physiologist and weight management consultant, and doing this as a full-time profession.

    However, if you'd rather believe 'experts' at your local gym...... carry on doing what you've always done.... and you continue getting what you've always got (or not!).

    PS..... Sadly, many 'qualified' gym instructors still tell people that 'muscle weighs more than fat'....... an indication of societal brainwashing..... zzzzzzzzzzzz
    Then what I'm I doing wrong? I am not losing weight!!! B'cos I eat less than my daily calories of 1200 and exercise everyday! Same myth was told to me
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
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    Definition of PEDANT

    1 obsolete : a male schoolteacher
    2 a : one who makes a show of knowledge
    b : one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge

    The way we parse and understand language means there's nothing wrong with saying muscle weighs more than fat. It's understood that there's an implied "an equal volume of .. " in front of "muscle weighs more than fat.". It's the same as people being comfortable and understanding that "lead weighs more than feathers". Yes Yes, we all know a pound of lead and a pound of feathers weighs the same. But NOBODY would interpret that statement to mean a pound of feathers and lead weigh differently.

    "Muscle weighs more than fat" is interpreted by all native english speakers to mean "Muscle weighs more than an equal volume of fat" It is interpreted by nobody to mean "a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat"

    Short answer is the OP is simply making a point that has no need to be made.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    Then what I'm I doing wrong? I am not losing weight!!! B'cos I eat less than my daily calories of 1200 and exercise everyday! Same myth was told to me

    All myths have some relative truth to them. Likely, you are depriving your body of a required nutrient, and in turn, it is releasing hormones that are counterproductive to weight loss.
  • dbratton87
    dbratton87 Posts: 55 Member
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    If you're exercising in the gym and not losing 'weight'..... then something else isn't working.
    It's NOT because 'muscle weighs more than fat'.....it doesn't.

    Or you actually ARE gaining muscle so you are getting smaller but not losing WEIGHT.

    I don't understand what you are complaining about? You are ranting on and on based on a technicality? TECHNICALLY, yes, muscle weighs more than fat BY VOLUME. So, they are leaving out that part but everyone knows what they mean. When people say that muscle weighs more than fat (by volume) they are offering that as an explanation to why someone can be doing everything 'right', and be losing inches, but not see the number on the scale go down. You CAN be building muscle while losing fat so that the numbers cancel out or increase.

    Now, I know people abuse this excuse and it is WAY over used. It is not a common occurrence b/c you should be burning fat at a much faster rate than it takes to build muscle but it COULD happen. It doesn't make the statement that muscle weighs more, by volume, than fat any less true.
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
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    Am I crazy or is there a funny meme to be had here regarding Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

    "A Witch!"

    Someone knock that up for me, please.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    Sometimes after reading through the forums here, I feel like I leave with a lower IQ than when I started.
  • Compudad
    Compudad Posts: 54 Member
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    Read the post again...... humans are not assessed through 'weight by volume'..... only on the scales.

    Read posts more carefully before making stupid replies.

    Of course humans are assessed by weight by volume.

    I do not wear bathroom scales on my feet when I go out in public. People judge me by what they see.

    "look at that fat guy over there"

    Only myself and my doctor assess me by weight.
  • SmileyFaceGuy
    SmileyFaceGuy Posts: 201
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    You are a great expounder of wisdom, OP. That was a truly original argument that totally does not come up every single time someone mentions the old phrase "muscle weighs more than fat", and, therefore, it was totally worth creating a thread about.
  • tho0505
    tho0505 Posts: 16 Member
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    I get what you're saying in theory. Of course 1 lb of clothes, feathers, muscles, fat all = 1 lb. Of course. But what you're ignoring is the burning off of fat and turning that into muscle. That's why initially a lot of people don't lose weight, because muscle is being built and fat is being burned, therefore it equals out. If you gain a lb of muscle and lose a lb of fat, you'll still weigh the same!

    So if you're exercising and dieting and NOT losing weight, its not because you're doing something wrong. It takes time to start losing weight when you're building muscle.

    The saying should be "don't give up on a diet when your building muscle and losing fat, because you won't lose weight" instead of "muscle weighs more fat."
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    Am I crazy or is there a funny meme to be had here regarding Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

    "A Witch!"

    Someone knock that up for me, please.

    n17xb4.jpg

    Your welcome!
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,661 Member
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    If you're exercising in the gym and not losing 'weight'..... then something else isn't working.
    It's NOT because 'muscle weighs more than fat'.....it doesn't.
    Or you actually ARE gaining muscle so you are getting smaller but not losing WEIGHT.

    well, if she's honestly eatting at a defecit then its probably got mroe to do with this
    All myths have some relative truth to them. Likely, you are depriving your body of a required nutrient, and in turn, it is releasing hormones that are counterproductive to weight loss.

    eating at a defecit works because your not eating enough to sustain your current body mass. I dont really see how you can add mass in the form of muscle while your not eating enough to sustain your body mass in the first place.

    I used to think that way tho
  • ILoveTheBrowns
    ILoveTheBrowns Posts: 661 Member
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    hahahahahahahaahahaha.........hahahahahahaha.......hahahahaha....jus tlike to add i weighed 195 at one point and still wore a size 38 pants....now weigh 190 and wear a 34................
  • Thomasm198
    Thomasm198 Posts: 3,189 Member
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    Am I crazy or is there a funny meme to be had here regarding Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

    "A Witch!"

    Someone knock that up for me, please.
    stop-that_zps07ec9b7d.jpg

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