Muscle vs Fat

I understand your point. Somebody who weights 200lbs but has a total boby volume of 0.1 cubic meters has less fat than somone who weighs the same 200lbs but has a toal body volume of 0.12 cubic meters. They weigh the same but the sencond person is much larger.

Its a good point but your argument is kind of silly.

If I said gold weighs more than silver, you would say not true, 1lb of anyting equals 1 pound of anything else. But the atomic weight of gold is higher than that of silver. So 1 atom of gold does weight more than 1 atom of silver.

To use the term weight properly, we would have to say this weighs more than that per unit volume or particle. Volume would ahve to be measured at similar pressures and tempuratures.When someone says bricks weight more than feathers, its understood what they mean, same for fat vs muscle.

I understand your point. Somebody who weights 200lbs but has a total boby volume of 0.1 cubic meters has less fat than somone who weighs the same 200lbs but has a toal body volume of 0.12 cubic meters. They weigh the same but the sencond person is much larger.

Its a good point but your argument is kind of silly.

If I said gold weighs more than silver, you would say not true, 1lb of anyting equals 1 pound of anything else. But the atomic weight of gold is higher than that of silver. So 1 atom of gold does weight more than 1 atom of silver.

To use the term weight properly, we would have to say this weighs more than that per unit volume or particle. Volume would ahve to be measured at similar pressures and tempuratures.When someone says bricks weight more than feathers, its understood what they mean, same for fat vs muscle.

Gold is a bad example. A pound of gold is only 12 oz vs 16 for everything else.

You are wrong on the gold vs feathers . . .


While on the face of it a pound of feathers would seem to weigh the same as a pound of gold, this overlooks the fact that gold is universally weighed using a different definition of 'pound' than that used for most other materials.

Precious metals such as gold are measured in troy weight. A troy pound is 12 troy ounces, and each troy ounce is 480 grains, making a total of 5760 grains to the pound of gold.

Most materials use pounds and ounces from the avoirdupois system, and such a standard pound is made up of 16 ounces, where each ounce is 437.5 grains, making a total of 7000 grains to the pound of feathers.

All this means that a "pound" of feathers (or bricks, or lead) is heavier than a "pound" of gold.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_weighs_more_a_pound_of_gold_or_a_pound_of_feathers

I wasn't trying to be mean or condesending. I just remembered hearing that somewhere and figured it would get a chuckle.

I think you all have good points the biggest thing here is a lb=lb what ever you are weighing, pound and volume are not the same in any way. Fat doesn't turn into muscle, but building muscle burns fat.

Using a scale as well as meassurements are going to show you the change your life changes are making in your body.

So use what ever method works for you to measure your self, a scale, a tape measure or if you want to know you volume submurge your self in a tub of water and measure the displacement.

Good Luck to us all in our weightloss journey!!

I don`t think there has been a lack of respect going on here, just an exchange of ideas. People take offense when their point of view or opinion is refuted. Nobody is criticizing the OP, perhaps the OPs opinion, but that isn`t a disrespectful thing to do, right?

I don`t think anybody would ever claim that a pound of fat weighs more than a pound of muscle. That is obviously not true.

Imagine if you replaced all the fat on your body with an equal amount of muscle, so you stayed the same shape and size but with no fat. You would obviously weigh more. That is because muscle weighs more than fat.

It's interesting how "to heart" people take things that are posted on a public and free forum. Why do people always go for the throat in their responses? Is it cause you can let it all loose knowing no one really knows who you are? Just because we all hide behind a "User Id" doesn't mean we cannot treat people with respect. The OP was just trying to bring up a pet peeve (from how I read it) when people compare a pound of fat to a pound of muscle. The do not usually bring up volume. I totally know where she is going with that. When I was at weight watchers and would hit a plateau, people would always say "Don't worry, your gaining muscle and muscle weighs more than fat". I truly doubt they were all speaking about volume.

I don't think the OP needs to be criticized for her topic or her opinion.

I didn't I was nice :bigsmile: :bigsmile: xtra points for me right?

::ducking:: "rebuffed" not "refuted" [Hey, just demonstrating being really a bit overly peev-y -- for all I'm concerned you can write "refuted" whenever you like...]

whoa, did not know.

So it's rebuff becasue I dismissed the claim.

If I had present an alternative argument it would have been refuted.

if you take a 2 people that weigh the same and measure them out cup by cup ..... you will still end up with the same weight you will just have a lot less cups to fill...... but you will still have the smae weight!! I am basing this rant on scale weight not volume!!

Well, you know it could be that people don't bother to explain that they mean muscle weighs more than fat, CUP BY CUP, because the unit of volume is completely 100% irrelevant to the argument. A given volume of muscle always, always, ALWAYS weighs more than an equal volume of fat, whether you're talking about cups, liters, or reservoirs. That's assuming similar gravitational forces, of course, but then maybe that's too big an assumption too.

So, Which weighs more in space a cup of muscle or a cup of fat?

Ah, fat in space, lol! Now we're talking mass, and it's gonna do a lot more damage if your spaceship gets hit with a one-cup size muscle meteor vs. a one-cup size fat meteor!