Question

niks289
niks289 Posts: 4 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Does muscle really weigh more than fat? Can you be seeing higher numbers on the scale and losing inches off yor waist at the same time?

Replies

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited May 2015
    When someone says muscle weighs more than fat, it just means muscle is denser than fat and takes up less space. Many women who weight lift gain weight but get smaller.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    niks289 wrote: »
    Does muscle really weigh more than fat? Can you be seeing higher numbers on the scale and losing inches off yor waist at the same time?

    Yes, muscle weighs more than fat. But it takes hours a day of weight lifting to build muscle. If you are just starting to try to lose weight, and have actually gained, it is NOT because of you muscle weighing more. It's because of that whole cake you ate two weeks before.
  • JoAnnRyan123
    JoAnnRyan123 Posts: 110 Member
    When you first begin lifting you may retain water for muscle repair. This too can result in less inches but higher numbers on the scale
  • courtney123180
    courtney123180 Posts: 86 Member
    a pound is a pound is a pound. a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of gold. there would just be a lot more feathers in a pound than how little bit of gold would be in a pound. same goes for muscle versus fat.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited May 2015
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    niks289 wrote: »
    Does muscle really weigh more than fat? Can you be seeing higher numbers on the scale and losing inches off yor waist at the same time?

    Yes, muscle weighs more than fat. But it takes hours a day of weight lifting to build muscle. If you are just starting to try to lose weight, and have actually gained, it is NOT because of you muscle weighing more. It's because of that whole cake you ate two weeks before.

    She asked about increasing weight while losing inches. How does the whole cake apply to that? :)

    In the literal sense, a pound of muscle really does weigh the same as a pound of fat, it just takes up less space.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    JoAnnRyan123 wrote: »
    When you first begin lifting you may retain water for muscle repair. This too can result in less inches but higher numbers on the scale

    Yep.
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    courtney123180 wrote: »
    a pound is a pound is a pound. a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of gold. there would just be a lot more feathers in a pound than how little bit of gold would be in a pound. same goes for muscle versus fat.

    yes but muscle take less space.
    btw you dont build ( much) muscle eating in a deficit.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Often, exercise results in the ability to hold it in better. People can get smaller (as measured by a tape measure) without losing fat.
  • niks289
    niks289 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you! I have been lifiting for 4 years now and have been losing inches off my waist but the scale was showing higher numbers. I just wanted to make sure this statement was true.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    niks289 wrote: »
    Thank you! I have been lifiting for 4 years now and have been losing inches off my waist but the scale was showing higher numbers. I just wanted to make sure this statement was true.

    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

    Personally, if I knew I was getting smaller (in good ways, I wouldn't mind getting bigger in others), I wouldn't care what the scale said. My occasional trainer is the same height as me and weighs more, and I'd love to have her body. I've been stalled on the scale (I've been eating too much for a loss most weeks), but recently fit into some pants that didn't fit a month ago, so I'm coming to terms with this.

    And as an aside, since it's a hobbyhorse of mine, I HATE it when people feel compelled to say a lb of something is the same weight as a lb of something else (um, let me guess, are they both a lb?). Absolutely no one thinks a lb of something isn't the same as a lb of something else. That's obviously not what that question means, so why pretend like you think you are talking to an idiot.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »
    courtney123180 wrote: »
    a pound is a pound is a pound. a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of gold. there would just be a lot more feathers in a pound than how little bit of gold would be in a pound. same goes for muscle versus fat.

    yes but muscle take less space.
    btw you dont build ( much) muscle eating in a deficit.

    True, but when someone isn't losing or is gaining she's not in a deficit, so she likely is building muscle. (And some of it could be water weight.)
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
    Experts say Muscle doesn't weigh more than Fat, but i'm confused.
    For example, why is this Girl 14 pounds heavier in the 3rd photo?
    Isn't it because she's put on more Muscle?

    nt0wlkz60zjh.jpg
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    Density.

    Do you understand it?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    When someone says X weighs more than Y in casual English usage (feathers are lighter than iron), they mean more dense.

    The whole thing is goofy because the typical problem with saying muscle weighs more than fat is people (not OP here) say it when the person could not have gained muscle and certainly wouldn't have gained it sufficiently to make up for the assumed rate of fat loss (I should be losing 2 lbs/week, what's wrong? Maybe you gained muscle, after all you've been walking!). But is the ideal weight for most of us going to be a different (and higher) number if we have more muscle than if we have less? Of course.
  • niks289
    niks289 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you guys! I think my question has been answered! No thanks to people trying to make me feel like I was stupid or going about things the wrong way.
  • kpodaru
    kpodaru Posts: 133 Member
    no, a pound is a pound so 1lbs of fat = 1lbs of muscle but the VOLUME is different. 1lb of muscle is leaner than 1lb of fat so that's why a 130lbs person who has more muscle than fat looks slimmer than a 130lbs person who has more fat than muscle.
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