Myth? Muscle weighs more?

Whatsthemotive
Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Isn’t a pound a pound whether it’s fat or muscle? I’m working out 5-6 days a week and I feel stronger. I’ve lost 11.8 pounds since the new year. Tomorrow is weigh in day and I think I’m going to end up with no significant loss or gain for this week. I was comforting myself with the old saw that muscle weighs more than fat. But then I thought, That’s dumb. A pound is a pound. Five pounds of sugar doesn’t weigh more than five pounds of flour.

Replies

  • FitAgainBy55
    FitAgainBy55 Posts: 179 Member
    edited February 2021
    It isn't the which weighs more part of that saying that is misleading, it's the thought that the reason people aren't losing weight when working out is that they are gaining muscle.

    It is a very difficult and slow process to add 1 lb of muscle, especially when eating at a deficit. Even in ideal circumstances, most experts say the maximum rate is 1 - 2 lbs per month for men and 1 lb per month for women. When eating at a deficit and just performing casual strength training the process will be much slower.

    So, when someone's weight isn't dropping it is very unlikely to have anything to do with muscle growth.
  • tyediri
    tyediri Posts: 183 Member
    edited February 2021
    Think of it like this. Would you say a stone weighs more than a feather? But a pound of stone should weight the same as a pound of feathers too right?
    It has to do with density. If you take an empty box and fill it with stones, that will weigh more than if you took that same box and filled it with feathers. Because stone is more dense than feathers.

    Now replace stone with muscle, feather with fat and the box with your body. Does that make more sense?

    Or have I waffled on and made things even more complicated?
  • FitAgainBy55
    FitAgainBy55 Posts: 179 Member
    I'm not sure why are you focussing on one weigh in to measure progress. Your overall weight loss is about 2 lbs per week this year. It also sounds like you only weigh once per week. I weighed everyday this week and my weight fluctuated as much at 1.8 lbs day to day. If my weigh in day had been one of those high days I would have thought I'd made no progress. Weight loss isn't linear ... it sounds like you are making good progress, just don't get hung up on any one weigh in -- focus more on the rate of loss over several weeks. I'm not suggesting you need to weigh daily (that's a personal preference), I'm really just saying measure you progress based on 2 or 3 weeks of data, not one weigh in.

    If you have 40 - 50 lbs to lose, you might be able to sustain 1 lb per week or more and get to your goal in less than 62 weeks.
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    Thanks everyone.
  • age_is_just_a_number
    age_is_just_a_number Posts: 631 Member
    Muscle is more dense then fat. A pound of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle.

    https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&url=https://theplussizecoach.wordpress.com/2015/10/17/fat-vs-muscle-who-weighs-more/&psig=AOvVaw3yuqY673Xj8xqp05O1y5KI&ust=1613534002073000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIC91ujA7e4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAKhi9zztvoi0dt.jpeg

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