A pound is a pound...
ladybg81
Posts: 1,553 Member
http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html
Muscle does not weigh more than fat.
Fat is bulky and lumpy so if you carry an extra five pounds of fat, you'll be lumpier than with five pounds more muscle. A five pound pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a five pound pile of muscle; but five pounds is still five pounds, so for those of you that don't "get" English, you cannot say one thing weighing a certain weight weighs more than another thing at that same weight. It's a common joke to play on an 8-year old. The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."
A woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.
Stop being so obsessed with body weight and start paying attention to body composition. How much body fat do you have compared to muscle? Simply seeing how much you weigh isn't very helpful.
I copied this straight from the internet so I guess I need to be prepared to be innundated by ugly comments. Bring it!! :devil:
Muscle does not weigh more than fat.
Fat is bulky and lumpy so if you carry an extra five pounds of fat, you'll be lumpier than with five pounds more muscle. A five pound pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a five pound pile of muscle; but five pounds is still five pounds, so for those of you that don't "get" English, you cannot say one thing weighing a certain weight weighs more than another thing at that same weight. It's a common joke to play on an 8-year old. The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."
A woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.
Stop being so obsessed with body weight and start paying attention to body composition. How much body fat do you have compared to muscle? Simply seeing how much you weigh isn't very helpful.
I copied this straight from the internet so I guess I need to be prepared to be innundated by ugly comments. Bring it!! :devil:
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Replies
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No ugly comments from me...that is absolutely correct!0
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You are completely right. How do we measure body fat vs body muscle compositions tho?0
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Im totally sick of hearing "muscle weighs more than fat"!!! well said!0
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thank you finally someone else who gets it lol I tell my brother this all the time and he wants to freaking argue!! BAH lol0
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Nothing coming from me either! Its like when you are in highschool and your teachers says "What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks" It still weighs the same, only there is more volume in one of them.0
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http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html
Muscle does not weigh more than fat.
Fat is bulky and lumpy so if you carry an extra five pounds of fat, you'll be lumpier than with five pounds more muscle. A five pound pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a five pound pile of muscle; but five pounds is still five pounds, so for those of you that don't "get" English, you cannot say one thing weighing a certain weight weighs more than another thing at that same weight. It's a common joke to play on an 8-year old. The correct way to state the muscle weighs more than fat scenario is, "Muscle is heavier by volume than fat."
A woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.
Stop being so obsessed with body weight and start paying attention to body composition. How much body fat do you have compared to muscle? Simply seeing how much you weigh isn't very helpful.
I copied this straight from the internet so I guess I need to be prepared to be innundated by ugly comments. Bring it!! :devil:
I have a photo that demonstrates this very thing, but can't figure out how to get it to post on here
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Can we sticky this one Mike? I am soooooooooooo tired of people saying muscle weighs more than fat. I really don't think ALL of these people failed grade 1 math but it really seems that way sometimes.0
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You couldn't be more correct. I have a cousin which is constantly calling to tell me she has lost this or that, but she still looks terrible. I do not tell her this, I just say "great job why don't you start exercising with me to tone it all up"0
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this is actually something that still manages to drive me nuts. when i'm having a conversation on the subject, i prefer the phrase "muscle is denser than fat".
that said, i should go ahead an point out that in the last few months, i've seen no less than a dozen threads making your exact same point. it's like "lose vs loose" and "should i eat my exercise calories". my opinion hasn't changed, but i will say. . this has been done already.0 -
Thank you thank you. I've been saying this for weeks on here. weeks.0
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Im totally sick of hearing "muscle weighs more than fat"!!! well said!
Me too!!!! That statement makes no sense whatsoever. I've used the analogy that 1 pound of fat weighs the same as 1 pound of feathers. You will have a huge pile of feathers compared to the fat but put them on the scale and they will weigh the same. The amount of space they take up is vastly different.0 -
Great post. I still like to weigh (not obsessively) myself since I've got a lot of fat to lose still and I need something to gauge my progress other than the mirror
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how do I get my body compositon?? When ever I do anything online it says im obese but I know Im not!
****My profile pic is a bet I lost enough with the laughing :laugh:0 -
Amen!!0
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There is a huge misconception about this very topic! It is common for people to think that muscle weighs more than fat because it is more dense. You nailed it! I actually was educated on this recentlyr. 5 pounds is always going to be 5 pounds no matter what it is!!! Good post.0
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Totally agree!0
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You are completely correct. A pound is a pound whether it's a pound of iron or a pound of feathers. My usual way to state this is that a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than a cubic inch of fat. I can't bear to say "a cubic foot" although some of us are carrying around a few cubic feet of fat, I know! :laugh:0
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Totally agree with you!
People should stop encouraging others when they have put on a few pounds by saying 'oh don't worry, youve been to the gym so youve probably gained muscle, it weighs more than fat!' They are just giving the poor cow false hope.
Anyone in this situtation should really ask themselves if they are being totally honest with themselves ... How many times do you look at a piece of cake, biscuit or chocolate and say 'oh a little wont hurt...' but the truth is it does!!
Great post 0 -
Hold on though. In context, nobody ever says a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat. This like says a car weighs more than a kitten is not a true statement. Sure a pound of a car weighs the same as a pound of a kitten, but even then we're talking a bit of a size difference, right? So in terms of any kind of motivation for someone trying to make himself/herself feel better about the way he/she looks, I take no issue with the statement.0
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Here it is (I have it on my profile, tooI have a photo that demonstrates this very thing, but can't figure out how to get it to post on here
):
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Here it is (I have it on my profile, tooI have a photo that demonstrates this very thing, but can't figure out how to get it to post on here):
Thank you ... now HOW did you DO THAT? I have been searching on here and feel like a total MORON that not one of the suggestions is anything I remotely understand
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I could not figure out how to post the pic either!0
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.0
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Thank you ... now HOW did you DO THAT? I have been searching on here and feel like a total MORON that not one of the suggestions is anything I remotely understand
Get the link to the photo file (which you can find by right-clicking on it and seeing the "address") then put it (the link) in between tags like this:
Just make sure the tags are *lowercase* and there is the slash in the second one.0 -
Great pix - and if they were both dropped from the top of the Empire State Building they would both go SPLAT at the same time.0
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First, you are totally right.
However, assumptions like that are normally made in everyday language and as a science teacher it annoys me too. "The syrup is heavier than the water, that's why it sinks" I get that all the time. Density is a surprisingly difficult concept. and people tend to compare weight (or the more correct term mass) with an assumption about the same volume when they reason like this. It simplifies things. Comparing mass is something we have a lot more hands on experience with than density. So when we start changing the volume also, people get very confused. Is a whole watermelon or a whole orange more dense? You can't use equal volume anymore, the idea that the watermelon is heavier is true but doesn't help (students know this too, which makes that previous reason about the syrup even more maddening), then we get stuck in our thinking.
Long story short (sry), we often make these assumptions to keep life simpler, but yes it's annoying to assume about the assumptions.0 -
Obviously no one who is moderately intelligent will argue that a pound of "X" weighs more than a pound of "Y". That does not make sense to anyone and I truly do not believe that anyone argues that. I'm sorry, but I think the whole argument is just semantics.
That said, however, here's an example. Two people with a 34-inch waist each, but one has mostly fat around the waist and one has mostly muscle. The muscular one weighs more (theoretically; all else held constant). An inch (or cm, or liter even) of muscle weighs more than the same measure of fat.
Edited to add: it's also a convenient justification for anyone who thinks they are getting healthier but aren't losing weight. "Oh, I've replaced my fat with muscle, so I've gone down a half size in pants but the scale hasn't budged."0 -
Thank you ... now HOW did you DO THAT? I have been searching on here and feel like a total MORON that not one of the suggestions is anything I remotely understand
Get the link to the photo file (which you can find by right-clicking on it and seeing the "address") then put it (the link) in between tags like this:
Just make sure the tags are *lowercase* and there is the slash in the second one.
It seems that photo bucket hates me. I can do this if I upload the photo to my profile and get the image code, but when I do the exact same thing from photobucket, it doesn't work saying my photo or video has been moved or deleted ... when it hasn't 0 -
Totally agree with you!
People should stop encouraging others when they have put on a few pounds by saying 'oh don't worry, youve been to the gym so youve probably gained muscle, it weighs more than fat!' They are just giving the poor cow false hope.
Anyone in this situtation should really ask themselves if they are being totally honest with themselves ... How many times do you look at a piece of cake, biscuit or chocolate and say 'oh a little wont hurt...' but the truth is it does!!
Great post
Aargh! This drives me crazy too! I KNOW that going to the gym for one week or two did not cause me or anyone else to gain pounds of muscle. People jump to that explanation so quickly, in what I assume is an attempt to make the person feel better about any gain.0 -
You can use a photo link from anywhere.....if you have a photo on Facebook, you can use that link. If you just Google a photo, you can use that link. Etc. You don't have to take a photo and move it to photobucket in order to post it here.It seems that photo bucket hates me. I can do this if I upload the photo to my profile and get the image code, but when I do the exact same thing from photobucket, it doesn't work saying my photo or video has been moved or deleted ... when it hasn't0
This discussion has been closed.
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